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‘He is, as Proust was before him, the great chronicler of his culture in his time.’ Guardian

‘An intricately wrought work of art.’ John Banville

‘An incomparable treat.’ Michael Palin

‘A Dance to the Music of Time’ is universally acknowledged as one of the great works of English literature. Now in the first volume’s 75th anniversary year, this twelve-volume series is ready to delight and entrance a new generation of readers.

In this fifth volume, Nick Jenkins finally seems to be settling down and enjoying the life he has made for himself in London. However, the same cannot be said of his friends, each of whom are dealing with their own dramas and heartaches. The composer, Hugh Moreland, is risking his marriage for a pointless affair while Nick’s old school friend, Stringham, has nearly destroyed himself with drink.

With the rumblings of war getting closer and closer, the future is starting to look uncertain for these once bright young things.

Praise for 'A Dance to the Music of Time’
‘A world as rich as Joyce's on the one hand and P. G. Wodehouse’s on the other.’ Guardian
‘One of the great novel-sequences in English Literature.’ William Boyd
‘One of the greatest pleasures of my reading life.’ Michael Palin
‘An epic, elegant masterpiece.’ Lauren Groff
‘A joyous experience.’ Roddy Doyle
‘An intricately wrought work of art.’ John Banville
‘The finest long comic novel that England has produced.’ Anthony Burgess
‘Mr Powell’s imagination is inexhaustible.’ Evelyn Waugh
‘One of English fiction’s few twentieth-century masterpieces.’ London Review of Books
‘There is no other novelist whose work gives so much or such consistent pleasure.’ Times Literary Supplement