Anthony Powell

Anthony Powell 1905-2000, English novelist. A distinguished writer of social comedy, he is best known for his 12-volume novel sequence collectively entitled A Dance to the Music of Time, a detailed yet panoramic study of changes in the snobbish, insular world of the English upper and middle classes from World War I to the 1960s. Novels in the series include A Question of Upbringing (1951), The Acceptance World (1955), Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (1960), The Valley of Bones (1964), The Military Philosophers (1969), Books Do Furnish a Room (1971), and Hearing Secret Harmonies (1975). Powell's other novels include Afternoon Men (1931), From a View to a Death (1933), and The Fisher King (1986). He was also the author of a study of John Aubrey (1948), four volumes of memoirs (1976-82; abr. ed. To Keep the Ball Rolling, 2001), Journals, 1982-92 (3 vol., 1995-97), two collections of essays on writing (1990; 1991, rev. ed. 1994), and two plays (1972).

Bibliography: See biographies by N. F. Brennan (rev. ed. 1995) and M. Barber (2004); studies by R. K. Morris (1968), B. Bergonzi (rev. ed. 1971), J. Tucker (1976), H. Spurling (1978), N. McEwan (1991), R. L. Selig (1991), and N. Birns (2004); bibliography ed. by G. P. Lilley (1993).

Powell, Anthony Dymoke (1905–2000) English novelist. He is best known for A Dance to The Music of Time, a series of 12 novels that portrays the snobbish world of the English upper classes after World War I, beginning with A Question of Upbringing (1951) and ending with Hearing Secret Harmonies (1975). His later work includes the novel The Fisher King (1986) and four volumes of autobiography.