Hearing Secret Harmonies by Anthony Powell

Hearing Secret Harmonies is the twelfth and last of the series of novels by Anthony Powell collectively titled A Dance to the Music of Time.

With this novel we reach the end of the dance. In novel number one, we met Nicholas Jenkins, our narrator and guide and sort-of stand-in for Anthony Powell in this sort-of memoir Back then, Jenkins was a teen-aged boy at school with his friends Peter Templer and Charles Stringham. There too, was a slightly older student, an object of scorn, and pity, and fun, named Kenneth Widmerpool. In this, the final novel, only Jenkins and Widmerpool are still at the dance. Templer and Stringham have died. And in the final pages, Widmerpool too, will collapse.

This novel continues the line of the previous two novels that traces the career of X. Trapnel. In novel number ten, Books Do Furnish a Room, Trapnel was a writer struggling to finish a novel and getting disastrously entangled with Pamela Widmerpool. (Pamela Widmerpool was previously Pamela Flitton, the daughter of Flavia Wisebite’s second husband; Flavia being Charles Stringham’s elder sister.) In novel number eleven, Temporary Kings, Trapnel has died but we meet Russell Gwinnett, working on writing his biography. Gwinnett gives up, temporarily, when he himself gets entangled with Pamela Widmerpool and then Pamela dies. In this novel, Gwinnett’s has finished and published Trapnel’s biography.

But first, we begin with Jenkins and his wife Isobel allowing an odd group of young people to camp overnight on the grounds of their home in the country. The group include Isobel’s niece, Fiona (daughter of her sister Susan and Susan’s husband Rodney Cutts) who has joined a mystical hippie cult led by a beguiling young man named Scorpio Murtlock. Clearly we’re in the 1960s, now, maybe 1967 or so, ten years after the end of the previous novel. (Powell published this novel in 1975, twenty-four years after the first. He died in 2000 at the age of 94.) Murtlock belongs to the same religious line as the deceased Dr. Trelawny. There’s another young woman named Rusty and another young man named Barnabas Henderson, all of whom seem to be in love with Murtlock, or at least under his spell. Jenkins tells Murtlock about a local neolithic site called the Devil’s Fingers, which intrigues Murtlock, and which figures later in the novel

In Chapter Two we learn of the Magnus Donners Memorial Prize, awarded each year to a biography of an Englishman. Jenkins is persuaded to serve on the judges panel, along with Emily Brightman and Mark Members. The award is administered by Matilda Donners, Magnus’ widow. And we’re introduced to a new character, a secretary to Matilda who is also a poet named Gibson Delavacquerie. Russell Gwinnett is nominated for the prize for his biography of Trapnel but there’s a complication. Widmerpool is a director on the Board of the Donners-Brebner company, which is awkward because of Gwinnett and Widmerpool both being caught up in Trapnel’s life through the escapades of Pamela Widmerpool. Widmerpool, though, makes no objection.

In Chapter Three we have the awards dinner. Widmerpool attends and brings along two students from the university where Widmerpool now works as a chancellor. These are the twins Amanda and Belinda, who happen to be the daughters of JG Quiggins and Ada Leintwardine. Widmerpool has been persuaded by this generation of students, exemplified by the two girls, that the time for social revolution and radical liberation has arrived. At the dinner, he makes a speech on that theme until he’s interrupted by the two girls setting off a stink bomb and clearing the hall.

Chapter Four finds Jenkins at another dinner. This one for the Royal Academy. Jenkins is seated beside an actor, who talks to him about an actress he’s appearing with in a play, Polly Duport, and a boyfriend of hers who appears occasionally, Gibson Delavacquerie, and on his other side a clergyman, Paul Fenneau. It turns out Fennel knows Jenkins, having met him long ago at a tea party in the rooms of the university don, Sillers. Fenneau also knows Scorpio Murtlock, and is of the same mystical (he fashions it “alchemical) spirit. Then Widmerpool shows up and interrupts Jenkins’ conversation with Fenneau. Widmerpool knows of Fenneau’s connection to Murtlock and wants an introduction. He sees in Murtlock a manifestation of the radical social change he thinks the time has arrived for and wants to be part of it.

In chapter five it turns out Widmerpool has gone so far as to join Murtlock’s cult and given his house to the group. Widmerpool has designs to wrest control of the cult from Murtlock, attracted by the subversive power he wields. Gwinnett is involved, too, from an academic perspective, intrigued by the gothic mix of sex and death and recruited to the group by Murtlock who has heard the rumors about Pamela Widmerpool’s death sacrifice for Gwinnett.

The main setting for this chapter is back near the country home of Jenkins and his wife, and specifically the area of the Devil’s Fingers. The neighbors are out surveying the area because the local quarry wants to expand their operation by taking over some adjacent land that will impact the Devil’s Finger’s area. That brings Jenkins into contact with Russell Gwinnett who has just spent the night at the monument observing and taking notes as Murtlock led a few of his group (Fiona, Rusty, Barnabas) in a midnight ritual dance and orgy. Widmerpool was there, too, taking part in the ritual and also assigned the task of recording it. Gwinnett tells Jenkins that Murtlock had slashed Widmerpool across the face as they struggled over who should lead the group. Gwinnett is still there the following morning having lost the way back to his car. The chapter ends with Delavacquerie telling Jenkins that Fiona has left the cult and is now living with him (she had formerly been his son’s lover until she joined up with Murtlock).

Chapter six is a wedding. Sebastian Cutts, Fiona’s brother, marries Clare Akworth at the chapel in the village near Stourwater, the castle that formerly belonged to Magnus Donners but has lang since been given over to a girl’s school. All of the Tollands are there. So is Flavia Wisebite, who just happens to be the god-mother of Clare Akworth, but who is also the mother-in-law of Kenneth Widmerpool (Her daughter was Pamela Flitton). Clare’s grandfather, Bertram Akworth does the reading during the service. The reception is at Stourwater itself, the school being on holiday. Jenkins cuts away from the party for a moment and runs into Fiona, arriving late, with her new husband, Russell Gwinnett. Jenkins gives them a tour of the house and they end up outside where… what should they see? but Kenneth Widmerpool in a blue robe leading a bunch of the cult members in a run, which they do for spiritual purposes. As Murtlock isn’t with them, Fiona feels emboldened to call them over and say hello. Bizarrely, Bithel, too is with them, the older man, often drunk that Jenkins knew back in the war and who got sacked from his position in the Mobile Laundry by Widmerpool. Apparently, Murtlock learned of that story and invited Bithel to join the commune both to make amends for Widmerpool’s ill treatment of him, and to embarrass Widmerpool.

Fiona invites the group to join the wedding reception party, which seems like a terrible idea. But they say yes. Barnabas Henderson is excited to hear that his old boyfriend, Chuck is at the party. Chuck worked as a driver in Clare Akworth’s firm. Parenthetically let me say her that we’ve come a long way from the whispering, indirect way that the homosexuality of earlier characters, Edgar Deacon and Max Pilgrim is talked about. I suppose that’s the difference between the 1920s and the 1960s.

Widmerpool, who is reluctant to join the party changes his mind when he hears that Bertram Akworth is present. Long ago, back in his school days, Bertram had sent Widmerpool a schoolboy crush love note. Widmerpool had reported it to the administration and Bertram had been sent home. Now, in his new, enlightened, liberated, state, Widmerpool sees his moral error and a chance to do penance. Coming across Bertram, Widmerpool prostrates himself and causes a scene. Flavia Wisebite faints. Bithel gets roaring drunk. As the party breaks up Barnabas announces that he wants to stay with Chuck and leave the cult. Widmerpool forbids it. But then Murtlock shows up and contradicts Widmerpool, gently allowing Barnabas to leave. He chastises Widmerpool for letting the group join the party and letting Bithel get drunk. Now Widmerpool has had enough and announces he wants to go, too. But Murtlock won’t let him, and Widmerpool backs down. Where can he go? His house is now occupied by the cult.

Chapter seven (this is the only chapter with more than five chapters) takes place at an art gallery near Jenkins’ home run by Barnabas and Chuck. They’ve mounted a show of Edgar Deacon’s homoerotic classical paintings, and a second show of seascapes from the collection of Bob Duport. Bob is there, in a wheelchair, being looked after by his daughter, Polly (the actress) and her mother, Jean (sister of Peter Templer, ex-wife of Bob Duport, one-time lover of Jenkins, widow of Colonel Flores the former all-but dictator of some South American country recently assassinated). Polly announces that she’s getting married to Gibson Delavacquerie. Norman Chandler is here, too. He reminiscences with Jenkins about Edgar Deacon.

After they all leave Chuck and Barnabas close up the gallery but Barnabas invites Jenkins down to the office to share a little more about the Widmerpool/Murtlock story. It’s what we’ve heard before: a power struggle with Widmerpool getting the worst of it, humiliated by Murtlock and unable to leave. Barnabas hears the dirt from Bithel who sometimes comes into town to do odd jobs or carry messages for the cult and stops in to see Barnabas. Then there’s a ring at the door and it’s Bithel himself: drunk again, worse than ever and in a horrible state. It’s Bithel who tells the story of Widmerpool’s death.

Murtlock got the whole commune up early for one of their runs despite it being terrifically cold. Widmerpool trying to prove himself ran ahead of the others and ended up collapsing on the path. By the time the others caught up he was dead. Murtlock then ordered the commune to gather up all of Widmerpool’s belongings and burn them. Bithel saved one item from the fire, an item that Barnabas had told him he wanted if there was ever a chance to get it for him: a Modigliani drawing that Widmerpool, no art-lover, had inexplicably kept with him.

The story ends there. The novel ends there. The novels end there. I’ll post a few closing thoughts about the whole series in a separate post.