Investigating Powell's a Dance to the Music of Time

Isabelle Joyau's critical study of A Dance to the Music of Time begins with an assessment of Anthony Powell's popularity.

The detailed examination of individual themes (the narrator's quest for truth, time, the sociological aspect, structure, surface and depth, the abyss of camality, the series and its generic affiliations) is subordinate to the book's wider purpose: the examination of a compelling epic of insignificance, intertextuality, with philosophical reading, awareness of the fiction of Powell's contemporaries, and a strong parallel drawn with Montaigne's essays - more relevant than the comparison with Proust - best illuminates the richness of Powell's unique achievement.