The Album of Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time

by Violet Powell (Editor), Anthony Powell (Preface), John Bayley (Introduction)

With 224 period drawings, paintings and photographs of English country house life between the two World Wars.

A visual analogue to the author's monumental 12-volume series, Dance to the Music of Time.

152 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Lady Violet Powell, born Violet Georgiana Pakenham, third daughter of Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford and Lady Mary Julia Child Villiers (daughter of Victor Child-Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey), was a writer and critic.

Reviews

[David]

A visual companion to Powell's 12-volume series, this book, with an introduction by John Bayley, puts in literal perspective some of the many paintings, statues, vistas, advertisements, styles and settings to which Powell alludes in the course of his roman fleuve. Perhaps not easy to find, but worth finding for anyone who loves the novels. Re-read tonight, the 116th anniversary of Powell’s birth, and after completing my 65th reading of Dance.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just as Invitation To The Dance -- the reference book for A Dance to the Music of Time -- was reminiscent of similar books about long-running science fiction TV shows, so this made me think of the early large-format picture books about Doctor Who, such as The Doctor Who Monster Book and Doctor Who: A Celebration; Two Decades Through Time and Space.

And as I felt on reading Invitation to the Dance, it's slightly odd that this picture book for a literary fiction series should exist, and also odd that it should have been published when it was -- twelve years after the series finished publication, and ten years before the TV adaptation. But here it is, and however odd it seems that a publisher thought it would be a good idea in 1987, I'm glad it exists.

My low-ish star rating feels a little unfair, and is no doubt influenced by my desire to get on with my life after finishing the series, much as I enjoyed it, and after then revisiting the series exhaustively in Invitation. I think it would have been better to read this by looking at the pages associated with each novel immediately after finishing it.

The illustrations, and the quotations from the series, are well chosen. I was especially happy to see the illustration of "the electronically illuminated young lady in a bathing dress [who] dives eternally through the petrol-tainted air". When I read The Acceptance World I tried to find out about this neon sign via Google, without success.

It was a shame that the captions for all the illustrations are relegated to the back of the book. It was hard to keep a bookmark in there while reading in bed.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved paging through this, and the preface and introduction are both interesting. I hadn't given much thought to how important art and image are in Dance but seeing this will inform my next read. There was enough of the novels in here that it kind of felt like revisiting the whole series, which was great. Reminded me of how much I love those books.

[Sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a special addition to the library. Powell's wife, Lady Violet, compiled this "album" in the 1980s, a time of great interest in Powell's magisterial 12-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time. Lady Violet combines art, photography, advertising and cartoons from throughout modern history to capture the world of her husband's magnum opus. Along the way, we revisit the stories and characters from the novels, in a beautifully compiled collection.

Far from necessary, but a sumptuous grace note to the series, nevertheless.

[John Abbott]

Great visual material and textual summary of highlights, but only useful after a reading of all 12 volumes of Powell's "Dance" sequence