THE ACCEPTANCE WORLD

by Anthony Powell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 16, 1956

The third in the series which began with A Question of Upbringing and A Buyer's Market, and which may well continue beyond the present volume, patterns a society and a generation with extreme skill if with no discernible narrative and at an unhurried pace. So it is, that through occasional moments, and a number of people introduced in the earlier volumes, there are glimpses which form a collective view of what is now defined as the ""acceptance world"". This is a financial term here applied to many of these young people, like Nick Jenkins, the narrator, who has learned the price to be paid on a fluctuating exchange for certain values- any happiness, or love. Peter Templer whom he so admired in his university days is now married to the full blown Mona, but loses her to the literary leftwinger, Quiggin; Jenkins himself his romance with Jean Templer; other marriages are dissolved- and new attachments form; and the poet Members, the spiritualist Mrs. Erdleigh, crotchety Uncle in a cumulative perspective... Powell writes at a certain distance from all his characters; there is considerable irony and acumen- rather than the softer emotions and he is an expert commentator at a level not likely to engage the average American reader.

Pub Date: Feb. 16, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION