I asked two weeks ago, “What costume drama do you recommend?” I decided to watch A Dance to the Music of Time, which is based on Anthony Powell’s 12-book masterpiece. I keep resolving to reread the books first, so I’ve never made it through the entire TV series. (I’ve already read Dance thrice.) This time I’m jumping ahead to the next disc. Whyever not?
I first came across Anthony Powell’s novels at a used bookstore in Silver Spring or Bethesda. I had a prestigious low-paying job, intended for rich men’s wives, and I could barely pay the bills. My single colleagues and I huddled in shared houses and dined on Happy Hour snacks at Houlihan’s. Powell’s characters went to Casanova’s Chinese Restaruant or The Merry Thought, and had never heard of Houlihan’s.
A Dance to the Music of Time is often compared to Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, but I just don’t see it: it’s too humorous. It reminds me more of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and Sword of Honour. As I get older, I see the Proustian poignancy of Powell’s work, but I really enjoy it for the wit and satire.
The TV adaptation is close to the books: both chronicle the life of the narrator-writer, Nick Jenkins, from his interwar boyhood through the 1960s. Powell introduces Nick in his interwar schooldays, follows him to the university (Oxford or Cambridge, I can’t remember), then through a whirlwind of society parties, and into the army during World War II. I don’t remember what happens after that: hence the need for a rereading, or at least the TV series.
In the TV series, I am most impressed by the actor James Purefoy, who is perfect as Nick. We see him outgrowing the snarkiness and cruelty of school friends; his crushes and complicated love affairs; his eventual professional success; and his ambivalence toward Widmerpool, once shunned at school for wearing an unfashionable raincoat (called “a Widmerpool”), but now rising in the world. Ironically, Widmerpool climbs the social ladder while Nick’s witty rich friend Stringham descends into alcoholism and poverty.
The main difference I’ve noted in the TV series is that some of the wittiest dialogue is given to Nick rather than to the characters who speak it in the books.
By the way, the title A Dance to the Music of Time is a reference to Poussin’s painting of the same name. The painting reminds Nick of the seasons of life and of his connection to people through time: he meets the same old friends over and over as the years pass.
You get the feeling that London is a small town.