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A Dance to the Music of Time: Third Movement

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A Dance to the Music of Time: Third Movement

By: Anthony Powell
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

Anthony Powell's universally acclaimed epic encompasses a four-volume panorama of twentieth century London. Hailed by Time as "brilliant literary comedy as well as a brilliant sketch of the times," A Dance to the Music of Time opens just after World War I. Amid the fever of the 1920s and the first chill of the 1930s, Nick Jenkins and his friends confront sex, society, business, and art.

In the second volume they move to London in a whirl of marriage and adulteries, fashions and frivolities, personal triumphs and failures. These books "provide an unsurpassed picture, at once gay and melancholy, of social and artistic life in Britain between the wars" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.).

The third volume follows Nick into army life and evokes London during the blitz. In the climactic final volume, England has won the war and must now count the losses. In this third volume of A Dance to the Music of Time, we again meet Widmerpool, doggedly rising in rank; Jenkins, shifted from one dismal army post to another; Stringham, heroically emerging from alcoholism; Templer, still on his eternal sexual quest. Here, too, we are introduced to Pamela Flitton, one of the most beautiful and dangerous women in modern fiction. Wickedly barbed in its wit, uncanny in its seismographic recording of human emotions and social currents, this saga stands as an unsurpassed rendering of England's finest yet most costly hour. Includes the novels: The Valley of Bones, The Soldier's Art, and The Military Philosophers.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Anthony Powell's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews Charles McGrath about the life and work of Anthony Powell – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

©1964 Anthony Powell (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Literary Fiction

Critic Reviews

"Nick's bewilderment, frustrations, and brief moments of joy as he negotiates life in the service are expertly conveyed by narrator Simon Vance. From the pomposity of the newly promoted to the silent acceptance of those assigned to menial labor, Vance captures the surreal world of the noncombatant soldier." ( AudioFile)
"One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience." ( The New Yorker)
"Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician." ( Chicago Tribune)

What listeners say about A Dance to the Music of Time: Third Movement

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My favourite series of all time

The authors almost gentle observations of human nature - funny, sad, compassionate and varied inhabitants of the near past, remind me of what it was to classically educated and the application of that wisdom to life. The whole series must be enjoyed with Hilary Spurlings character guide & and references: 'An invitation to the Dance' and you will never be lost or the same again.

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A very good reading of a modest classic

Vance does Nick Jenkins somewhat diffident and aloof personality very well but some of his renditions of other voices have an odd, strained quality. The restraint of Nick's personality and narration is a large part of why I listen to this to help me sleep. That's actually a recommendation! The story also has the right amount of interest to not be boring or irritating but is not so interesting that it keeps you awake. Nick's long digressive ruminations about the personality traits of people he encounters, and life generally, have a congenial quality without being riveting. There's an addictively soothing quality to the Dance series that repays repeated listening. Especially in bed!

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