Wrapping up
a twelve book series that spans a half a century is no mean feat, especially a
series whose various plots are sprawling and inclusive of hundreds of named
characters, and yet Anthony Powell provides a satisfying and thoughtful ending
to A Dance to the Music of Time with his final volume, Hearing Secret
Harmonies. The last three books of
the series have been the most powerful and beautifully written, which only
makes sense given that Powell’s experience as a writer, his familiarity with
his world, and his understanding of what he can do with that world had only
deepened over the twenty-four years he had been writing the books. In addition, I think that the character of
the world shifts slightly after the war.
While Powell has never indulged in nostalgia, and while I have argued
that the effect of covering so large a stretch of time is to show the way things
don’t change rather than the way they
do—in spite of those things, there is something different about these last
three books, a new interest and a new focus.
Characters of mesmerizing will who pit that will against others have a
unique place in these concluding novels.
While Pamela
Flitton appeared during the war years, she takes on a much greater role in Books
Do Furnish a Room and Temporary Kings. As Widmerpool’s wife and as a lover to both
Trapnel and Gwinnett, her character is defined by her resistance to others and
the ferocity of her actions. She and
Trapnel are in direct conflict with Widmerpool, though Widmerpool rides out the
storm as best he can, having faith that Pamela will return to him, even as it
is unclear what either gets out of their relationship. With Trapnel’s passing, Gwinnett becomes the
new rival for Pamela’s affection. The
nature of his magnetism is more mysterious than Trapnel’s. Nick describes Trapnel as a man playing too
many parts to decide the proper way to act, as a man who is always trying to
reconstruct himself. Gwinnett, on the
other hand, is fully formed, knowing precisely what he wants and seeking it
with a fierce determination. Pamela is
unexpectedly taken with him and gives herself to him fully. In Hearing Secret Harmonies, Gwinnett’s quiet
powers arise again as he wins over Fiona while we are not looking. And while his hold over her is not as frightening
as Murtlock’s hold over her, there is a parallel established between Gwinnett
and Murtlock. And of course what all
these powerful personalities have in common is their direct relationship, and
competition, with Widmerpool.
Widmerpool
has been an adversary to many over the course of the novels. His maneuverings have displaced Quiggins as
St. Clark’s secretary, supplanted Duport as Donners right-hand man, effected
Bithel’s removal from his position, and had an adverse effect on many others. He has gone toe to toe with Sunny Farebrother
in the army and in the political world afterwards. And through all these conflicts, Widmerpool
has had his way and engineered his movement up the chains of power. In these final three books, that power
reaches its highest point and then crumbles away beneath him, sending him on an
unrecoverable fall that ends in his sad death.
These issues
of power and social position have been present throughout the earlier novels, but
they have never taken center stage as they do in these most recent ones,
especially in this final book. The
counter-culture presented in Hearing Secret Harmonies is not all that different
from the mainstream culture that it is reacting to. Widmerpool’s desire to “drop out” is really a
desire to be king of a different realm, to become a spiritual leader as opposed
to a political leader. But in the
spiritual world, Widmerpool is outmatched by Murtlock. Murtlock is every bit as ruthless as Widmerpool,
but he has charm and charisma in addition.
The only two characters who resist Murtlock’s sway spiritually speaking
are Canon Freneau and Gwinnett. The
difference in these two men is that they are not competing with Murtlock for
domination of anything other than themselves.
Gwinnett’s ambitions are entirely his own, for his own studies, his own
work, his own edification. He is
independently willed, but he never forces himself on others, and I think that
is part of Powell’s point.
Nick, our
narrator, has never been the dramatic center of the story. He is the point around which all the stars of
the system rotate, but only as a matter of perspective. Nick himself is not involved in all the
goings on. He is not a man of ambition,
not a man out to make a name for himself or gather followers. He is a private man who keeps matters of his
own life as much out of his stories as he is able. The characters who are most attractive to him
are those who are equally decent to others, those whose ambitions are private, or
those who are humble or good-spirited failures.
There is a treatise on power and peace here, but handled with the same
gentle touch that Powell handles all of his other subjects. Compassion and an ironic eye are the
recurring hallmarks of Powell’s style, and they are what makes reading his
books so rewarding.
As a side
note, I must say that I love the way that Murtlock’s cult is both specific to
the late 1960s and early 1970s when this book takes place and part of the
larger recurring theme of occultism as represented by Trelawney and Madam Erdleigh. This treatment is directly tied in to what I
was saying in my post about Temporary Kings, in which history is shown
to be constant even as the particulars change.
The players and the specifics of their actions may change, but human
nature and the nature of our exchanges with each other remains the same.
This is a
collection whose whole is greater than the individual parts would suggest. I was pretty harsh in my review of the first
book and some of the earlier books, but Powell achieves something greater than
I expected from those early readings.
Hearing Secret Harmonies is not an explosive conclusion, but then nothing
about the series is explosive. Threads are wrapped up but the sense that
life continues on as it ever did is preserved as well. A Dance to the Music of Time is a
study not only of dozens of characters but of the character of humanity, and it
is well worth the journey to delight in Powell’s prose, insight, and wit.
