The Soldier's Art

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

‘Powell is very like a drug, the more compelling the more you read him.’ Sunday Times

‘[Has] a unique place in English literature.’ Melvyn Bragg

‘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 eighth volume, as the Second World War rumbles on, Nick Jenkins finds himself posted to Divisional Headquarters as the assistant to his old friend, the rapidly rising Major Widmerpool. Having to work alongside the obnoxious Captain Biggs, Nick is pleased when his old school pal, Charles Stringham, becomes the latest recruit to the armed forces.

However, the cruelties of war are not far behind. As the Blitz intensifies, tragedy and despair are in store for Nick and his friends.

Praise for A Dance to the Music of Time’
‘A world as rich as Joyces 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