The Acceptance World
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Anthony Powell |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | James Broom-Lynne |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | A Dance to the Music of Time |
| Publisher | Heinemann |
Publication date | 1955 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 214 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | A Buyer's Market |
| Followed by | At Lady Molly's |
The Acceptance World is the third book of Anthony Powell's twelve novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. Nick Jenkins continues the narration of his life and encounters with many friends and acquaintances in London between 1931 and 1933.
Themes
One consistent theme in the book is the uneven pace at which contemporaries mature, some, like Templer, reaching an early plateau. Jenkins' own development serves as a pacemaker against which the growth of others is measured. This is reflected in a subtle but discernible change in the language employed in dialogue compared to that of the two earlier volumes.
The occult undercurrent running through the entire cycle surfaces with the appearance of Mrs Erdleigh, a figure presented by the author with characteristic ambiguity.
The pretensions of Edwardian novelists, here represented by the ludicrous figure of St John Clarke (mischievously based on John Galsworthy), are guyed in a memorable scene in which the elderly writer is shown lending modish support to a demonstration while pushed in his wheelchair by the Marxist Quiggin.
Jenkins is now seen to move freely and fluidly between the worlds of high society and demi-monde, offering snapshots of both.
Plot summary
In the book, Nick meets Uncle Giles for tea at the Ufford Hotel and is introduced to the clairvoyant Mrs. Erdleigh who proceeds to tell their fortunes.
Jenkins arranges to meet Mark Members at the Ritz, but the appointment is kept by J.G. Quiggin who has replaced Members as secretary to novelist St John Clarke; Nick eventually dines with Peter & Mona Templer and Jean Duport and is invited for a weekend at the Templers' in Maidenhead.
This house party sees the start of an affair with Jean. Quiggin is invited for Sunday, but has to leave due to concerns over his master. Mrs. Erdleigh is also there with Jimmy Stripling in tow, and presides over a seance.
Later in spring 1933 Nick spends a day in encounters with Quiggin and Members. This includes a Memorial Exhibition for the artist Horace Isbister and a demonstration led by St John Clarke, wheeled in his chair by Quiggin and Mona. There follow various further encounters with Jean and a visit to Foppa's restaurant. At Foppa's Nick and Jean unexpectedly meet Barnby and Anne Stepney. Dicky Umfraville is there also. The group goes to Mrs. Andriadis' home and there meet Werner Guggenbuhl.
Summer 1933 sees Jenkins, Templer, Stringham and Widmerpool at the Le Bas dinner for Old Boys at the Ritz. Stringham arrives the worse for drink and Widmerpool makes an uninvited, boring and pompous speech, silenced only by Le Bas collapsing with a stroke. Widmerpool and Jenkins take the drunken Stringham home to bed. The book ends with intimations of an end to Nick's affair with Jean.
External links
| ||||||