The Acceptance World

By Anthony Powell

Book Overview

'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.

In this third volume, determined to make a name for himself, Nick Jenkins starts working for a publisher, establishing connections across the London literary scene. But whilst Nick is ready to move forwards with his new life, the past is never far behind.

A weekend away with his friend Templer sees a surprise reunion quickly blossom into an affair, while an Old Boys dinner at the Ritz, in honour of their old housemaster Le Bas, reunites Nick with his schoolmates Stringham and Widmerpool. Set against the backdrop of thirties London, The Acceptance World provides a snapshot of the complicated nature of young love.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0099472422
• ISBN13: 9780099472421
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Arrow
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Anxious to continue the series

This is number three of twelve in the 12-part "A Dance to the Music of Time" series. I found the first two volumes a little dull and slow, but I am continuing to read this series mainly due to Richard Horton's exhortations. With this book, I finally got a sense of why Richard keeps urging me along; something finally clicked. As characters reappeared, I welcomed them back as old friends, and didn't need to flip back to find where they had entered the story before. Jenkins, the narrator, started doing something, rather than just commenting on the actions of Stringham, Templar, and Widmerpool. Marriages were consummated and broken. Literary and political differences moved into the foreground of the novel. For once, I even thought I saw a plot.I guess what really happened is that I warmed to both Powell's prose and subjects. In the first two books, I thought there were occasions upon which Powell waxed poetical--loving bits of description that put both character-building and story into suspension until the subject at hand was drained of detail. I am the first to admit that I am not one fond of overt description, but one can sit still for only so long before something falls asleep.Jenkins and his contemporaries are in their late 20s in this book, which takes place in the golden years between the two World Wars. Trouble is brewing in the world, seen here in some characters who are pronounced revolutionaries, followers of Marx and Trotsky.A quote from page 63 sums up the idea of this series in my mind:Afterwards, that dinner in the Grill seemed to partake of the nature of a ritual feast, a rite from which the four of us emerged to take up new positions in the formal dance with which human life is concerned. At the time, its charm seemed to reside in a difference from the usual run of things.... But, in a sense, nothing in life is planned--or everything is--because in the dance every step is ultimately the corollary of the step before; the consequence of being the kind of person one chances to be.And, while I am in a quoting mood, here is a line that seemed apt: "There is, after all, no pleasure like that given by a woman who really wants to see you." Lines like that have me anxious to continue the series.

Powell at his very best, and one of the three best in'Dance'

I loved Acceptance World, which has Powell's writing on the London art scene (hilarious) and his more meditative style at its most enthralling. This book occassionally puts Powell in Proust's class, in my opinion, and I wouldn't say that about most of the other novels in the series, as much as I have enjoyed them.