My love for the series, A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell, continues to grow. (See my earlier post on A Question of Upbringing). If I had nothing else on my plate to read, I would devour all twelve right now. I know I will miss them when I am done.
In books 2, A Buyer's Market and 3, The Acceptance World, Nicholas Jenkins is now working for a publisher of art books and struggling to write novels on the side. In the evenings he attends social dances with his peers. These are set up for young people by their parents as a way of arranging marriages for the women. In book 3, he outgrows the dances and instead attends parties - lots of parties, running into his old college chums as well as meeting lords, ladies, artists and fools. An eccentric lot to be sure. The books rely on that eccentricity for the wry humor to flow.
In terms of romances, it is puppy love in book 2 and his first long-term romance in book 3. The latter is actually an affair with a married woman whose husband returns from abroad at the end of the leaving us to wonder if she will still be around in book 4.
On a side note: I bought a used copy of Invitation to the Dance, a reader's companion to A Dance to the Music of Time that tracks characters, events and places throughout the 12-book series. At this point, I am still able to keep track of what's gone on, but I expect that by book 5 I will be relying on Invitation heavily.
Next: Book 4 - At Lady Molly's
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