A Dance to the Music of Time Books in Order

Nicholas Jenkins recalls his schooldays with Charles Stringham and Peter Templer before their lives begin moving in different directions. The opening novel of A Dance to the Music of Time introduces friendships, social distinctions, and ambitions that echo through the sequence.

Leaving school and university behind, Nick Jenkins enters the parties and artistic circles of late-1920s London. Old friends reappear alongside painters and new acquaintances, as his introduction to adult society exposes shifting loyalties, ambitions, and romantic possibilities.

Nick Jenkins continues his account of London life between 1931 and 1933, moving among friends, acquaintances, and artistic interests. The third Dance novel follows changing relationships and social positions as his circle negotiates the uncertainties of early adulthood.

Marriage becomes a central concern among Nick Jenkins's acquaintances in mid-1930s England. Bohemian lives and landed society intersect through courtships, existing unions, and changing careers, while the growth of fascism casts a shadow beyond their immediate social concerns.

Nick Jenkins appears to have found stability in London, but his friends remain unsettled. Composer Hugh Moreland risks his marriage through an affair and Stringham struggles with drinking, while the approach of war makes their futures increasingly uncertain.

Nick Jenkins's memories reach back to childhood before the First World War, then turn toward Britain's entry into another conflict. The sixth Dance novel connects private recollections and familiar social lives with the disruption gathering around the coming war.

Having joined the army, Nick Jenkins enters military life in early 1940. The first wartime Dance novel brings Powell's social observation to soldiers, officers, and institutional routines, tracing the peculiar relationships and follies created by wartime service.

Nick Jenkins remains with his division in Northern Ireland in 1941 while possibilities for another posting emerge. The second wartime Dance novel follows military ambitions and personal encounters against the wider pressures of Britain's experience of the conflict.

Nick Jenkins serves in a Whitehall liaison role with Britain's wartime allies, working with Polish, Belgian, and Czech representatives. The final wartime Dance novel examines official life, literary interests, and social connections during the later years of the conflict.

After the war, Nick Jenkins and his surviving acquaintances attempt to resume civilian life amid austerity. The literary world comes forward through writer X. Trapnel and the magazine Fission, exposing the uncertain relationships and ambitions of postwar publishing.

A literary conference takes Nick Jenkins to Venice, where the lives of old acquaintances remain difficult to escape. Widmerpool's rising public status faces whispered espionage accusations, while interest in the late writer X. Trapnel draws attention to Pamela.

Nick and Isobel Jenkins live in the countryside as the sixties bring new cultural currents. Widmerpool continues seeking public influence, while younger people challenge the older generation's world and a wedding gathers familiar faces near the sequence's close.