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Different Speeds, Same Furies

Powell, Proust and other Literary Forms
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( 19 ratings, 6 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Different Speeds, Same Furies by Perry Anderson offers a compelling comparative study of Anthony Powell's ambitious Dance to the Music of Time and Marcel Proust's renowned In Search of Lost Time. Anderson explores the intricate construction of plot and character in both works, arguing that Powell's achievement often surpasses that of Proust. The book delves into themes of bohemia and society, upbringing and mortality, and the nature of relationships and personality, ultimately extending its scope to the historical novel tradition and epistolary fiction.
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Format: Hardback
$3999
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This thought-provoking analysis is ideal for readers interested in literary criticism, comparative literature, and the detailed study of classic English novels. It will especially appeal to fans of Anthony Powell, Marcel Proust, and the evolution of narrative forms in literature.

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Powell vs Proust

Powell vs Proust

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

There are few writers about whom opinions diverge so widely as Anthony Powell, whose Dance to the Music of Time sequence is one of the most ambitious literary constructions in the English language. In Different Speeds, Same Furies, Perry Anderson measures Powell’s achievement against Marcel Proust’s more celebrated In Search of Lost Time.

The literature on Dance is a drop in the ocean compared to that on Proust. Yet in construction of plot and depiction of character, Anderson ranks Powell well above him. How much do particular advantages of this kind matter, and why is Powell an odd man out in English letters? At once so similar and dissimilar, the intricate retrospectives of the two novelists on bohemia and Society, upbringing and mortality, relationships and personality, invite interrelated judgements.

The closing chapters of Different Speeds, Same Furies reach beyond their handlings of time to chart the historical novel from Waverley to Underworld, and the breakthrough in epistolary fiction of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, held together by what its author described as ‘a secret chain which remains, as it were, invisible’.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

William H. Pritchard of the Wall Street Journal praises Anderson’s work for inspiring renewed readings of Proust and Powell, highlighting the critical insight that prompted him to revisit A Dance to the Music of Time.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781804290798

Publisher: Verso Books

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 08 November 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Verso Books

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 19.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 319g

Pages: 224

About the Author

Perry Anderson is the author of, among other things, Ever Closer Union? and The H-Word. He is an Editor at New Left Review and also writes for the London Review of Books.

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