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His first witty novels, such as Afternoon Men (1931), were published before the Second World War, but Powell achieved fame with his great 12-novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time, of which a book appeared roughly every two years from 1955 to 1975. Its innumerable characters, who weave in and out of each other’s lives from the First World War to the 1960s, are predominantly from that world where the upper classes meet Bohemia and its artists. The best known is Kenneth Widmerpool, who blusters and bullies his way to success through sheer willpower. His polar opposite is the narrator, Nick Jenkins, who manages to meet them at all the most dramatic, comic or touching moments of their life. Other unforgettable characters are the subtle, diffident musician Moreland, and Nick’s first love, Jean.

Read: The series A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-75)

More about Anthony Powell

Obituary from The Times

A Dance to the Music of Time at the Anthony Powell Society

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