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A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME chronicles the lives of over three hundred characters, and is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England. It is unrivalled for its scope, its humour and the enormous pleasure it has given to generations. CASANOVA'S CHINESE RESTAURANT follows Nicholas Jenkins, Kenneth Widmerpool and others, as they negotiate the intellectual, cultural and social hurdles which stand between them and the 'Acceptance World'.… (más)
Set amidst the heady 1930s of the abdication of Edward VIII, the Spanish Civil War, and the unsettling feeling of a war brewing across Europe, the fifth volume in Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time shifts away from the old in favour of the new. Jean and Peter are nowhere to be seen; Widmerpool makes but a cameo; Stringham has a single memorable appearance as his life continues its downward spiral. Instead, the recently-married Nick (he and his wife remaining ciphers, as is Powell's wont) is thrust into the world of musicians and artists, and of his wife's aristocratic family, for another series of social engagements, dinners, parties, and reflections on marriage and relationships in general.
Powell has by now settled into an easy rhythm with these novels. Whether it is his skills maturing with age or simply his connection to the characters becoming more natural as he moves from youth to adulthood, the author here captures an easy, convivial, ever-shifting world. Having both read the book and listened to an audiobook version, I perhaps recommend the latter, since it allows 21st century people into the speech patterns and hidden meanings of a generation of people now lost to us. The cultural shifts make some of the dialogue read quite plainly on the page, where it would have had layers of intent and inflection for people reading at the time.
The novel feels somewhat softer than the previous volumes, lighter, despite that shadow of war creeping ever so slowly along the horizon. What lies ahead remains unknown, but the old generation is dying out - literally, in this volume - and Nick's peers are coming to the fore. Truth Unveiled by Time is the name of a piece of art recurrent throughout the book. Is there a more apt allegory? ( )
I enjoy Anthony Powell's long (12 volumes) novel, "a Dance to the Music of time". This is a worthy Volume Five , still dealing with the pre-WWII period. Powell does keep us up to date on the foibles of upper-middle class Brits, and lands a few insightful nuggets of the human condition. Not sensational, but a warm read among friends. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
for Harry and Rosie
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Crossing the road by the bombed-out public house on the corner and pondering the mystery which dominates vista framed by a ruined door, I felt for some reason glad the place had not yet been rebuilt.
Citas
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The Times Literary Supplement found ... the scenes from fashionable life in [St John Clarke's] other novels tempered with artificiality, the delineations of poverty less realistic than Gissing's.
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Once, at least, we had been on a Ghost Railway together at some fun fair or on a seaside pier; slowly climbing sheer gradients, sweeping with frenzied speed into inky depths, turning blind corners from which black, gibbering bogeys leapt to attack, rushing headlong towards iron-studded doors, threatened by imminent collision, fingered by spectral hands, moving at last with dreadful, ever increasing momentum towards a shape that lay across the line.
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME chronicles the lives of over three hundred characters, and is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England. It is unrivalled for its scope, its humour and the enormous pleasure it has given to generations. CASANOVA'S CHINESE RESTAURANT follows Nicholas Jenkins, Kenneth Widmerpool and others, as they negotiate the intellectual, cultural and social hurdles which stand between them and the 'Acceptance World'.
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Powell has by now settled into an easy rhythm with these novels. Whether it is his skills maturing with age or simply his connection to the characters becoming more natural as he moves from youth to adulthood, the author here captures an easy, convivial, ever-shifting world. Having both read the book and listened to an audiobook version, I perhaps recommend the latter, since it allows 21st century people into the speech patterns and hidden meanings of a generation of people now lost to us. The cultural shifts make some of the dialogue read quite plainly on the page, where it would have had layers of intent and inflection for people reading at the time.
The novel feels somewhat softer than the previous volumes, lighter, despite that shadow of war creeping ever so slowly along the horizon. What lies ahead remains unknown, but the old generation is dying out - literally, in this volume - and Nick's peers are coming to the fore. Truth Unveiled by Time is the name of a piece of art recurrent throughout the book. Is there a more apt allegory? (