Folio Archives 452: A Dance to the Music of Time : Spring by Anthony Powell 2006

A Dance to the Music of Time : Spring - A Question of Upbringing; A Buyer’s Market; The Acceptance World by Anthony Powell 2006

A Dance to the Music of Time is a set of twelve interconnected short novels set in England between the 1920s and 1970s. They have been collected together by the Folio Society into four volumes named after the seasons, with three novels in each book.

Written between 1951 and 1975 the novels have been considered amongst the best written in England in the 20th. Century. The title was inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin in which the seasons move hand-in-hand in a constant circle of time. The stories are mildly humorous in a Victorian era sense (although set decades later) and describe in sometimes too much detail, the manners, lifestyle, power, politics and mores of English life.

The stories are narrated by Jenkins who starts in the first story as a student at a private high school then progresses through his life and experiences over the next 50 years. The tales explore themes of social change, ambition, love, and loss against the backdrop of 20th-century English society.

The book reviewed below is the first volume (Spring). The other three volumes (Summer, Autumn, Winter) were all published by the FS in 2007.

There are 36 pages of bound-in monochrome and colour plates (twelve for each story) that reproduce works mentioned in the text or represent ideas portrayed in the book. The xvi + 496 page book has a six page introduction by William Trevor. The endpapers are plain black and it is three-quarter bound in dark red buckram with silver spine titling and a cream paper cover printed with a colour picture. The plain black slipcase measures 24.8x18.6cm

The four volume set





A Dance to the Music of Time : Volume One : Spring















































































An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

I'm reading this at the moment - the 11th book - Temporary Kings. I've found it hard going at times. The books lack vim and have a certain chill to them. Powell certainly doesn't have the lyrical gifts of Waugh, his contemporary. Nevertheless, they cover a long period of time and in Widmerpool, Powell creates a very memorable character.
Folio Society have produced four outstanding books and the photographs are wonderful

>2 RavenSeeker: Ah, you have answered my question. I was thinking about those covers, and how unexpected they are when you first see the spines of the volumes in the box, I wondered if the stories might be the same? Alas, your review suggests otherwise, and I'm glad to have seen it.

I completely agree about the production, thank you for sharing.

>3 TonjaE: The stories are all related and many characters pop up throughout the series.
Credit for uploading the colour plates and book review is due to WCarter

LOL, if I had a dollar for every time I had thanked @wcarter for his wonderful archive posts I could buy this set of books. In this case I meant to thank yourself for sharing your opinion of them.