A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1) QUOTES

1 " For some reason, the sight of snow descending on fire always makes me think of the ancient world – legionaries in sheepskin warming themselves at a brazier: mountain altars where offerings glow between wintry pillars; centaurs with torches cantering beside a frozen sea – scattered, unco-ordinated shapes from a fabulous past, infinitely removed from life; and yet bringing with them memories of things real and imagined. These classical projections, and something in the physical attitudes of the men themselves as they turned from the fire, suddenly suggested Poussin’s scene in which the Seasons, hand in hand and facing outward, tread in rhythm to the notes of the lyre that the winged and naked greybeard plays. The image of Time brought thoughts of mortality: of human beings, facing outwards like the Seasons, moving hand in hand in intricate measure: stepping slowly, methodically, sometimes a trifle awkwardly, in evolutions that take recognisable shape: or breaking into seeminly meaningless gyrations, while partners disappear only to reappear again, once more giving pattern to the spectacle: unable to control the melody, unable, perhaps, to control the steps of the dance. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

2 " The latter's boast that he had never read a book for pleasure in his life did not predispose me in his favour. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

3 " Human relationships flourish and decay, quickly and silently, so that those concerned scarcely know how brittle, or how inflexible, the ties that bind them have become. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

4 " It doesn’t do to read too much,’ Widmerpool said. ‘You get to look at life with a false perspective. By all means have some familiarity with the standard authors. I should never raise any objection to that. But it is no good clogging your mind with a lot of trash from modern novels. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

5 " Brains and hard work are of very little avail, Jenkins, unless you know the right people. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

6 " Silted-up residues of the years smouldered uninterruptedly—and not without melancholy—in the maroon brickwork of these medieval closes: beyond the cobbles and archways of which (in a more northerly direction) memory also brooded, no less enigmatic and inconsolable, among water-meadows and avenues of trees: the sombre demands of the past becoming at times almost suffocating in their insistence. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

7 " Gathered round the bucket of coke that burned in front of the shelter, several figures were swinging arms against bodies and rubbing hands together with large, pantomimic gestures: like comedians giving formal expression to the concept of extreme cold. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

8 " It was, however, in keeping with the way my uncle conducted his life that he should reach his destination without knowing the name of the goal. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

9 " It is not easy—perhaps not even desirable—to judge other people by a consistent standard. Conduct obnoxious, even unbearable, in one person may be readily tolerated in another; apparently indispensable principles of behaviour are in practice relaxed—not always with impunity—in the interests of those whose nature seems to demand an exceptional measure. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

10 " I was somewhat put out to find that recurrent projections in the mind of the images of either of them, Jean or Suzette, did not in the least exclude that of the other. That was when I began to suspect that being in love might be a complicated affair. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

11 " These classical projections, and something in the physical attitudes of the men themselves as they turned from the fire, suddenly suggested Poussin’s scene in which the Seasons, hand in hand and facing outward, tread in rhythm to the notes of the lyre that the winged and naked greybeard plays. The image of Time brought thoughts of mortality: of human beings, facing outward like the Seasons, moving hand in hand in intricate measure: stepping slowly, methodically, sometimes a trifle awkwardly, in evolutions that take recognisable shape: or breaking into seemingly meaningless gyrations, while partners disappear only to reappear again, once more giving pattern to the spectacle: unable to control the melody, unable, perhaps, to control the steps of the dance. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

12 " His turn-out was emphatically excellent, and he diffused waves of personality, strong, chilling gusts of icy air, a protective element that threatened to freeze into rigidity all who came through the door, before they could approach him nearer. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

13 " Like many persons more interested in power than sensual enjoyment, Sillery touched no strong drink. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

14 " Being in love is a complicated matter; although anyone who is prepared to pretend that love is a simple, straightforward business is always in a strong position for making conquests. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

15 " Later in life, I learnt that many things one may require have to be weighed against one’s dignity, which can be an insuperable barrier against advancement in almost any direction. However, in those days, choice between dignity and unsatisfied curiosity was less clear to me as a cruel decision that had to be made. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

16 " The clocks were striking midnight at different places all over the town as I stepped through the door of my college. The rain had cleared. Moonlight gave the grass and towers an air of unreality, as if all would be removed in the morning to make way for another scene. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

17 " He delayed entry for a brief period, pressing the edge of the door against his head, the other side of which touched the wall: rigid, as if imprisoned in a cruel trap specially designed to catch him and his like: some ingenious snare, savage in mechanism, though at the same time calculated to preserve from injury the skin of such rare creatures. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

18 " For Uncle Giles had been relegated by most of the people who knew him at all well to that limbo where nothing is expected of a person, and where more than usually outrageous actions are approached, at least conversationally, as if they constituted a series of practical jokes, more or less enjoyable, according to where responsibility for clearing up matters might fall. The curious thing about persons regarding whom society has taken this largely self-defensive measure is that the existence of the individual himself reaches a pitch when nothing he does can ever be accepted as serious. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

19 " As a rule Uncle Giles took not the slightest interest in anyone or anything except himself and his own affairs—indeed was by this time all but incapable of absorbing even the smallest particle of information about others, unless such information had some immediate bearing on his own case. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)

20 " Although incomplete, the story of Templer’s London adventure—to be recapitulated on countless future occasions—had sufficiently amplified the incident for its significance to be inescapably clear to Stringham and myself. This was a glimpse through that mysterious door, once shut, that now seemed to stand ajar. It was as if sounds of far-off conflict, or the muffled din of music and shouting, dimly heard in the past, had now come closer than ever before. "

― Anthony Powell , A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1)