Reading the 20th Century discussion

Welcome to our November 2024 buddy read of....



Temporary Kings

by

Anthony Powell



Each month throughout 2024 we will be reading and discussing the next of the 12 novels which form the A Dance to the Music of Time sequence..

Spring
A Question of Upbringing – (1951)
A Buyer's Market – (1952)
The Acceptance World – (1955)

Summer
At Lady Molly's – (1957)
Casanova's Chinese Restaurant – (1960)
The Kindly Ones – (1962)

Autumn
The Valley of Bones – (1964)
The Soldier's Art – (1966)
The Military Philosophers – (1968)

Winter
Books Do Furnish a Room – (1971)
Temporary Kings – (1973)
Hearing Secret Harmonies – (1975)


Feel free to comment anytime




'He is, as Proust was before him, the great literary chronicler of his culture in his time.' GUARDIAN

A Dance to the Music of Time is universally acknowledged as one of the great works of English literature. Reissued now in this definitive edition, it stands ready to delight and entrance a new generation of readers.

The ninth novel in Anthony Powell's brilliant twelve-novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time.

FWIW, I am back and looking to catch up on reviews.
also FWIW I am about 50 pages from the end of book 12 and have been for about 3 weeks.

Honestly I need to hear from others.

I'm here my friend . Just started this today and am already buried deep in Nick's world . Can't say much more but will be sorry to finish this amazing cluster of novels at the end of the year

I'll be diving in soon but having read it before I retain a few memories....


Temporary Kings (1973) is the penultimate volume of A Dance to the Music of Time and opens in the Summer of 1958, eleven years on from Books Do Furnish a Room. The star of this volume is Pamela Widmerpool who manages to trump her previous feats of outrageous behaviour

It took me a while to realize there was such a gap between the two novels ..I can't help feeling a bit short changed, given the deep dive we had into the war years , I would have liked more about the nineteen fifties . Maybe Powell was running out of puff ? But it's all relative , still a great read .

I'd not considered that point Hester


The final novel jumps ahead again to the late 60s

Perhaps it's a reflection of how life speeds up as we age? You can live a lot in your youth and each year seems to pack a lot in but as we age it all seems less vivid and memorable somehow. To me 1995 was yesterday but I cannot really account for what I've been doing since then, aside from raising a couple of kids.

Having finished Intermezzo, I've just started Temporary Kings. Always a joy to be back in this world.

Good point Nigel . Time rushes by the older we get. one way the structure works ,with its enormous cast of characters , is that new and intriguing people surface from the past ( Tokenhouse and Gwinnett) without jarring , as he seamlessly recounts earlier episodes . With other authors this would feel clumsy but there are so many " dancers" in those early days it seems entirely plausible we don't meet them all . Of course this is the very nature of the relatively small circle he lives in : everyone can be put in their place and everyone knows someone who knows something about someone . Can't wait to see how it pans out in the nineteen sixties ...one Old Etonian Harold ( MacMillan) being replaced by Huddersfield Harold ( Wilson )

I'm hoping that we are being over exposed to Art and Greek Mythology as a form of foreshadowing ....otherwise it is rather tedious

Widmerpool possibly assisted Burgess and Maclean - so many myths now swirl around our Kenneth

Here's Pamela 🫶🏻

"Maybe Powell was running out of puff ? But it's all relative , still a great read ."

I really hope we revisit this thought much closer to the end of this volume.

Nigeyb wrote: "Widmerpool possibly assisted Burgess and Maclean - so many myths now swirl around our Kenneth"

Hardly a reason to be knighted

That wasn't the reason he was enobled - he was useful to the party, had lost his seat in Parliament, and was broadly acceptable to all. His possible "fellow traveller" tendencies were only ever rumoured and would have been acceptable anyway. Plenty others were in that era.

I’m enjoying Trapnell’s afterlife


And how about his last hurrah?

The scene after the concert at Rosie and Odo Stevens’s house is jaw dropping. So many characters from previous volumes on stage at once, and Pamela Widmerpool centre stage and at her most outrageous.

I love this volume of the dance.

Just finished


A really satisfying volume full of incident and humour, and tinged with melancholy

I previously rated this four stars, this time round I felt it warranted the full five

I am finished with all 12.
Mostly I enjoyed the ride. I will begin to post my reviews of 10 -12. My take on 11, will wait. I hope others can point to aspects that will be interesting.

Phrodrick wrote: "Nigeyb wrote: "Widmerpool possibly assisted Burgess and Maclean - so many myths now swirl around our Kenneth"

Hardly a reason to be knighted"

I Think what most bothers me about this speculation is the direct intrusion of reality. AP has mostly avoided direct references to real events.. Did we get much more than passing reference to The Abdication? Yes our boy W was on the "wrong side" but what else?
The depression was almost never refereed to by name
Churchill appears once or twice, at least by mention and the references to the British Commander of the Armies was shrouded in myth, his name being to majestic to say .

So you would prefer more real notable people? Or fewer?


It’s a social history with many characters based on real people, or composites, probably to avoid embarrassment. The odd historical figure, tangential to the narrative, can be mentioned in passing, or alluded to. I like the way it’s handled across the novels

Did he actually mention the (then) Cambridge 2?

If so I missed, hardly unusual for me. If so this would be a very rare view into what Lord W was actually doing. though less unusual to mention his never quite fatal screwups.

Somehow those two seem a tad too particular.
Otherwise I get your point.

Yes, they are mentioned by name, but only as a rumour. In light of later revelations it seems unlikely this ever actually happened but is indicative of the rumours swirling about in his times of trouble. The actual scandal, at least according to Pamela, is even more shocking 😮

I'm so interested to hear you rated it five stars Nigel .

About two thirds of the way through and , for the first time , in the series I'm feeling a tad weary . So far none of the shenanigans of the main characters are raising much interest, possibly because we have left England where the landscape brings a sort of base note of reliability , and the increasing emphasis on " he said / she said " mainly for self interest in the personal spheres without much to soften the edges of any of the characters is becoming frustrating . I know it's designed to mirror the cloak and dagger intrigue of the Cold War , most of which remains unsaid but implied, but Pamela Fitton is such a grotesque I'm finding it more and more repulsive spending time with her . I increasingly hoped she overdoses . And no more Greek mythology and eighteenth century art please .....

Hoping that the return to London promises better days with more domesticity and less contrived posturing ....

Greek mythology and other classical allusions are AP’s stock in trade 🤠


I love Pamela 😍 - she really spices up proceedings with her antics and hostile demeanour

I know ....but I could have done without that Professor waxing on ...I love Pamela too but ....so far she is not being offset by anyone with a more nuanced / complicated stance . I can sense a gothic ending for Widmerpool ....

Agree, then again the professor was a vehicle for all the classical/historical stuff which AP is addicted to, but that aside, she’s a good character, and the stories have some relevance to the arc of some of the other characters.

I’m fascinated to hear back when you’ve finished this volume Hester

Hester wrote: "I'm so interested to hear you rated it five stars Nigel .

About two thirds of the way through and , for the first time , in the series I'm feeling a tad weary . So far none of the shenanigans of t..."


I feel sure that Mr. Powell is also finding himself to be constricted.

This is a huge amount of novel(s) over a large part of his life all built on little more than party time, and lunch time small talk.

I suspect he cares little that not one on 20 of his art or mythology references are at the finger tips of 1 in 30 of his readers. Initially I was ready to believe that a typical English Public School Graduate would be up to all the Greek, Latin and English and related poets, but no more. They were certainly move emerced in more of that than any mere American of a later generation, but this is a tad extreme. The notion of AP over indulging himself is a reasonable one.

Finished . Happy to say I enjoyed the second half more . I like Oddo Stevens and Mrs MacLintock so their reappearance perked me up There was something eligaic at the end that was very touching ; a slow death after so much talk of quick ones. I felt the mix of sex and death was intriguing .

Splendid news Hester


I'm itching to get on with the final volume but resisting so far

Nigeyb wrote: "I've never seen the TV version but do own a copy of it


Perhaps I will watch it this time round

I don't have a good track record of enjoying adaptations of books I love, and I love ADTTMOT"

I was forceably stuck at the repeated comment that
"Nostalgia is killing me."

It was placed at about the same time I was getting weary of all the coincidental look who is here moments.
I read the remark not exactly as written, but as the voice of Mr Powel expressing his growing frustration with the limits he had imposed on himself. 11- 260 odd page books written, mostly all based on small talk, and mostly about relatively small people.

I strongly expected book 12 to be dramatically apart from the first 11, and especially these last two.

ETA, I have already read it but am imposing a self limit on that kind of spoiler. This week end I plan to finish the Brit Box videos of the book. The disk that covered roughly books 7-9, WWII were a lot more bloody and explicit than the texts. Given how careful AP was to minimize drama and violence, I was not prepared for or entirely in agreement with this decision to go for such strong depictions.

I've never seen the TV version but do own a copy of it


Perhaps I will watch it this time round

I don't have a good track record of enjoying adaptations of books I love, and I love ADTTMOT

Nigeyb wrote: "I've never seen the TV version but do own a copy of it


Perhaps I will watch it this time round

I don't have a good track record of enjoying adaptations of books I love, and I love ADTTMOT"


In broad strokes, TV/movie adaptations have a long record of being children of a lessor god.
IMHO that qualitative difference varies widely and maybe less so in some of the more modern efforts. The trade off is almost always one of how much time a writer can assume form a reader. In the case of these books, so much is the happening within thr mind of Nick and so little plot, the challenges are obvious.

As a costume drama and period piece, I think the wife was getting some pleasure from it, despite comming in very late.

For myself, a few things were cleared up in terms of Powell not always being as blatant. However, I mostly like the acting and appreciate that there is a flow the books cannot have. Otherwise, I an recommend the disks. My concern as that recommendation as applies to you , is that first point.

The director does not have time to reproduce the text in toto, and you are so much a fan of the text, the missing/skipped parts may weigh more heavily on you.

I’ll let you know

Phrodrick wrote: "Phrodrick wrote: "Nigeyb wrote: "Widmerpool possibly assisted Burgess and Maclean - so many myths now swirl around our Kenneth"

Hardly a reason to be knighted"

I Think what most bothers me about ..."


I am going to return to this very off hand quote.
The Video makes it both plausible and probable that Our fair haired boy W was a spy and not for 'our side'.
I never fully bought him as a leftie, but..

unsaid is that he may have been in the processes of burning down from within.

Pushed over by his wife, his inner demons or whatever. Powel makes a point of not knowing more than so much. ESP so in the case of the in and out appearances of Lord W

He’s a complicated and incoherent character in many ways


One reading of his personality and life trajectory can be found in the first book in which, as a child, he is a figure of ridicule and scorn, and resolutely an outsider, and doubtless a very reluctant one

The banana incident, and later the sugar bowl, can only have exacerbated probable feelings of anger and resentment

Not sure we should pull this thread too far.
It is possible that the Bananna was the beginning of W knowing himself. He may as much loved those events as he hated having people know he loved them.

Phrodrick wrote:


"It is possible that the banana was the beginning of W knowing himself. He may have loved those events as he hated having people know he loved them."

His association with Pamela suggests that being humiliated is something that he may quite enjoy

And then there's the whole voyeurism thing

He's an interesting case and nothing about his behaviour is obvious but we can create narratives based on our knowledge.

His final incarnation in Hearing Secret Harmonies is just wonderful and so unexpected

KW goes through many changes throughout his lifetime, each stage is accompanied by some kind of physical attack. His reactions to each attack give insights into his personality at that moment in time....

When Budd hits him with a banana, he is a pathetic person; when Barbara pours sugar he is starting to develop self respect and harbour ambitions; when Glober hits him he is well established and trying to retain his hard earned position in society; and, in the final volume, there's the Quiggin twins assault, but that's for another discussion

What a maverick. One of my favourite fictional characters