This satire of modern life was the first novel published in the long and distinguished career of Anthony Powell. The targets of Powell’s satire are artists, intellectuals, and aristocratic poseurs; his own extensive knowledge of the arts underpins the fully rounded characters he creates to serve as vehicles of the human follies he implicitly condemns.
The story opens with the bored conversation between William Atwater, a museum curator, and Raymond Pringle, a young painter. Others in search of a good time soon join these young men, and all of them are invited by Harriet Twining, a beautiful and idle young woman, to crash a party. Atwater and Pringle amuse themselves observing the party, providing Powell with numerous targets for understated satirical comments. A not unattractive art student named Lola strikes up a meaningless but wittily ironic conversation with Atwater. In the midst of this pursuit, however, he sees a vision of loveliness enter his life when Susan Nunnery arrives. His attraction to Susan is not so strong as to force him to throw over a sure thing such as Lola; nonetheless, he has been stricken with a nascent and half-comprehended love for Susan. For his part, Pringle is soon in pursuit of Harriet, and much to his disappointment he gets her.
The plot follows the romantic entanglements of these friends through bohemian dinner parties, hip night clubs, and summer cottages. Atwater maintains his affair with Lola on the side and becomes an onlooker in Susan’s life as newcomers to their circle are attracted to her. One such newcomer is a well-to-do gentleman in his 40s, Verelst, who is simultaneously hated for being a Jew and yet envied for his wealth, refined manners, and flawless sense of style. On Atwater’s last date with Susan, he takes her to a boxing match, which serves as a metaphor of their relationship. He loses the struggle; she is going away. Later he learns she has gone to America with Verelst.
The romance between Pringle and Harriet is also a struggle: He has difficulty coping with the intense jealousy she provokes in him with her continual flirtations. At a weekend house party, Pringle stumbles on Harriet and another artist, his friend and rival, in a passionate embrace. When Pringle fails to turn up for lunch, his guests find a suicide note attached to the roast beef. Before they can make their befuddled escape, however, the presumed dead man turns up in fisherman’s clothes, having been rescued from his planned expiration. Harriet now appreciates what she nearly lost, and Pringle is ready to forgive her. When the fisherman comes to claim his clothes, one of the funniest passages in the book occurs as the guests try to decide how much they should tip the man for rescuing the intended suicide. Back in London after this holiday, the story ends where it began: Several young people in search of a good time are on the verge of crashing yet another party.
Powell tells this story through the point of view of a third-person objective narrator. The reader sees the characters through descriptions of them and hears the witty banter they spend their lives exchanging, but there is little interior exploration of their feelings and personalities. This approach suits Powell’s satirical purpose well: A detailed exploration of their minds would create too much sympathy for them. The effects of Powell’s satire occur without the sacrifice of character depth. He is able to make Pringle the target of both ridicule and compassion, for example, and he invests the character of Susan Nunnery with a touching pathos. Although psychological realism is frequently associated with serious narratives, Powell’s well-developed characters are as believable to readers as are their own friends and acquaintances, but he uses them to achieve highly comic effects without flattening or stereotyping them.
Bibliography
Brennan, Neil Francis. Anthony Powell. Rev. ed. Twayne’s English Authors, 158. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.
Gorra, Michael. The English Novel at Mid-Century: From the Leaning Tower. New York: Macmillan, 1990.
Tucker, James. The Novels of Anthony Powell. New York: Macmillan, 1976.