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sammystarbuck's review
3.0
Still not quite as taken with this as I'd hoped I would be. I slogged through books 4 and 5. I'm not sure why it's not working well for me, maybe it was just because I was fed up of 600+ page books that are nothing but society house parties filled with gossip about who is flirting or sleeping with who, who is getting married, who knows which exalted personage etc. etc. ad infinitum. It's a mainstay of Victorian literature, which I tend to read a lot of, and while I usually find it all rather amusing, it just irritated the you-know-what out of me here.
Things did pick up a little in book 6. The 7 deadly sins interlude was amusing, and the parts discussing the start of WWII were also a lot more interesting. hopefully I'll get on better with the third movement.
Things did pick up a little in book 6. The 7 deadly sins interlude was amusing, and the parts discussing the start of WWII were also a lot more interesting. hopefully I'll get on better with the third movement.
bucket's review
3.0
After thoroughly enjoying the first movement, I really got bogged down in this one. Maybe it's the jumping around in time, maybe Nick's ongoing silence about his own life and decisions, but I faded in and out of interest all through it.
Other characters are fascinating (Molly Jeavons, Widmerpool, McClintick), even those who are terrible people. But Nick Jenkins remains little more than a foil/a conduit. He doesn't make many decisions or share/say much, he's our eyes and ears in all the right places. In the first volume, this worked better -- when the surrounding characters were more limited and carried more dramatic weight.
All that said, I'll continue! Here's hoping volume three is more fun.
Other characters are fascinating (Molly Jeavons, Widmerpool, McClintick), even those who are terrible people. But Nick Jenkins remains little more than a foil/a conduit. He doesn't make many decisions or share/say much, he's our eyes and ears in all the right places. In the first volume, this worked better -- when the surrounding characters were more limited and carried more dramatic weight.
All that said, I'll continue! Here's hoping volume three is more fun.
smcleish's review
2.0
Originally published on my blog here in September 1999.
The sixth volume of Powell's Dance to the Music of Time concludes the second trilogy within the series, Summer. Judging solely from internal evidence, this would be hard to see. The first two books deal with the second half of the thirties, the events in the back ground forming the lead-in to the Second World War. In The Kindly Ones, war breaks out, though remaining comparatively distant from everyday British life for the period sometimes known as 'the Phoney War'. The rest of the background is shared with the other books from the first half of the series. The Kindly Ones doesn't seem to be an ending, more a transition between the peacetime and wartime novels.
The title refers, of course, to the euphemistic term used by the Greeks to refer to the Furies, supernatural beings who avenged crimes against the family. (It was believed unlucky to refer to them more directly.) They most famously appear in the third play of Aeschylus' Oresteia, when their legal case against matricide Orestes is the foundation of the Athenian court, the Areopagus. The name was often used to refer to violent women, and I believe was applied to the suffragettes by their opponents. However, there are no appropriate women in the novel to suggest that this is the reason for the title. I found it difficult to see why Powell chose it at all, unless it has a reference to the outbreak of war. (As well as the Second World War, the novel contains a flashback to Jenkin's childhood, to the day on which Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, precipitating the First World War.)
The sixth volume of Powell's Dance to the Music of Time concludes the second trilogy within the series, Summer. Judging solely from internal evidence, this would be hard to see. The first two books deal with the second half of the thirties, the events in the back ground forming the lead-in to the Second World War. In The Kindly Ones, war breaks out, though remaining comparatively distant from everyday British life for the period sometimes known as 'the Phoney War'. The rest of the background is shared with the other books from the first half of the series. The Kindly Ones doesn't seem to be an ending, more a transition between the peacetime and wartime novels.
The title refers, of course, to the euphemistic term used by the Greeks to refer to the Furies, supernatural beings who avenged crimes against the family. (It was believed unlucky to refer to them more directly.) They most famously appear in the third play of Aeschylus' Oresteia, when their legal case against matricide Orestes is the foundation of the Athenian court, the Areopagus. The name was often used to refer to violent women, and I believe was applied to the suffragettes by their opponents. However, there are no appropriate women in the novel to suggest that this is the reason for the title. I found it difficult to see why Powell chose it at all, unless it has a reference to the outbreak of war. (As well as the Second World War, the novel contains a flashback to Jenkin's childhood, to the day on which Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, precipitating the First World War.)
darwin8u's review
5.0
"Marriage, as I have said, is a form of action, of violence almost; an assertion of the will. Its orbit is not to be chartered with precision, if misrepresentation and contrivance are to be avoided. Its facts can perhaps only be known by implication. It is a state from which all objectivity has been removed."
― Anthony Powell, At Lady Molly's
“Wisdom is the power to admit that you cannot understand and judge the people in their entirety.”
― Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time: 1st Movement
The Second Movement (**SUMMER**) contains the following three novels:
1. At Lady Molly's (A Dance to the Music of Time, #4) -- read March 26, 2016
2. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (A Dance to the Music of Time, #5) -- read April 11, 2016
3. The Kindly Ones (A Dance to the Music of Time, #6) -- read May 3 , 2016
I read these three novels starting in late March 2016 and ending May 3, 2016. I've hyperlinked to my original reviews of each book.
― Anthony Powell, At Lady Molly's
“Wisdom is the power to admit that you cannot understand and judge the people in their entirety.”
― Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time: 1st Movement
The Second Movement (**SUMMER**) contains the following three novels:
1. At Lady Molly's (A Dance to the Music of Time, #4) -- read March 26, 2016
2. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (A Dance to the Music of Time, #5) -- read April 11, 2016
3. The Kindly Ones (A Dance to the Music of Time, #6) -- read May 3 , 2016
I read these three novels starting in late March 2016 and ending May 3, 2016. I've hyperlinked to my original reviews of each book.
invertible_hulk's review
4.0
Novels 4-6 of Powell's overall twelve
At Lady Molly's -- 3/5
The growing pains of adulthood are over, and the characters have settled into life a bit more comfortably. Templer and Stringham have been reduced to occasional cameos and background figures; Members and Quiggin have taken their respective places as sidekicks. And Widmerpool has evolved in Jenkins' thematic counterpoint -- fate vs. will.
This one started out sloooooooowly. Drawing room discussions about the grumblings of the growing dissent in pre-WWII eastern Europe, psychoanalysis, Communism, anti-Fascism -- all within the first 100 pages. There's even a brief discussion of Woolf's recently published Orlando.
But the second half fared much better -- engagements made, engagements broken off; affairs ended, affairs began; old characters popping up in unlikely places.
Uneven, to be sure, but the second half was enjoyable enough to make up for having to slog through the first half.
Casanova's Chinese Restaurant -- 4/5
This one started out almost as slow as the previous novel, but also started out quite differently from any of the others (so far). Up to this point, all of the novels have followed a straightforward, chronological order; this fifth installment, however, starts at a time somewhere between the second and third novels.
Memory is oft-times faulty and doesn't always follow a linear, chronological path -- so why should these novels be expected to.
And much like the last novel, this novel (once it jumps ahead to the current point in the story) finds the characters even older and dealing with a world that is growing older with them. There are marriages, affairs, miscarriages, death, suicide, a quick descent into alchoholism -- all in the ever-growing shadow of the looming Nazi uprising.
I enjoyed this one more than the previous installment. It started out slow and tedious, but (much like with the last novel) the last two chapters more than made up for the first two.
The Kindly Ones -- 5/5
Yet another fantastic third-book from Powell's arch.
Starting out with another strange shift, the novel begins with a scene from Jenkins' childhood. Jenkins' parents and early home life are fleshed out a bit, and we're introduced to the messiah-in-waiting of Dr. Trelawney.
Once the narrative shifts back to the current point, the story really soars. The plot continues to move forward -- a major-ish character dies, marriages are ended, babies are made, war finally begins to break out; however the novel also acts as a recap for everything that has happened up to this halfway point -- every character is at least heard from/about if they aren't actually seen, and previous events begin to tie in together and connect. Powell continually looks backwards as he moves the reader forwards.
So far, this has been my favorite novel of the bunch. But once again, I'm left wondering if it has to do with the actual strength of the novel itself, or if it simply has to do with how well Powell brings everything together and justifies the previous five novels.
At Lady Molly's -- 3/5
The growing pains of adulthood are over, and the characters have settled into life a bit more comfortably. Templer and Stringham have been reduced to occasional cameos and background figures; Members and Quiggin have taken their respective places as sidekicks. And Widmerpool has evolved in Jenkins' thematic counterpoint -- fate vs. will.
This one started out sloooooooowly. Drawing room discussions about the grumblings of the growing dissent in pre-WWII eastern Europe, psychoanalysis, Communism, anti-Fascism -- all within the first 100 pages. There's even a brief discussion of Woolf's recently published Orlando.
But the second half fared much better -- engagements made, engagements broken off; affairs ended, affairs began; old characters popping up in unlikely places.
Uneven, to be sure, but the second half was enjoyable enough to make up for having to slog through the first half.
Casanova's Chinese Restaurant -- 4/5
This one started out almost as slow as the previous novel, but also started out quite differently from any of the others (so far). Up to this point, all of the novels have followed a straightforward, chronological order; this fifth installment, however, starts at a time somewhere between the second and third novels.
Memory is oft-times faulty and doesn't always follow a linear, chronological path -- so why should these novels be expected to.
And much like the last novel, this novel (once it jumps ahead to the current point in the story) finds the characters even older and dealing with a world that is growing older with them. There are marriages, affairs, miscarriages, death, suicide, a quick descent into alchoholism -- all in the ever-growing shadow of the looming Nazi uprising.
I enjoyed this one more than the previous installment. It started out slow and tedious, but (much like with the last novel) the last two chapters more than made up for the first two.
The Kindly Ones -- 5/5
Yet another fantastic third-book from Powell's arch.
Starting out with another strange shift, the novel begins with a scene from Jenkins' childhood. Jenkins' parents and early home life are fleshed out a bit, and we're introduced to the messiah-in-waiting of Dr. Trelawney.
Once the narrative shifts back to the current point, the story really soars. The plot continues to move forward -- a major-ish character dies, marriages are ended, babies are made, war finally begins to break out; however the novel also acts as a recap for everything that has happened up to this halfway point -- every character is at least heard from/about if they aren't actually seen, and previous events begin to tie in together and connect. Powell continually looks backwards as he moves the reader forwards.
So far, this has been my favorite novel of the bunch. But once again, I'm left wondering if it has to do with the actual strength of the novel itself, or if it simply has to do with how well Powell brings everything together and justifies the previous five novels.
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