What's Become of Waring

Anthony Powell’s final pre-war novel was published in early 1939, on the eve of World War II. Indeed, many of the characters are or have been involved with the military, although the novel is mostly concerned with their pursuit of civilian lives. One exception is the dance party that is held at the Headquarters of the Territorial unit to which some of the characters are attached.

This novel is also Powell’s first to be written in a first person narrative. Like Nick Jenkins, the narrator of the Dance novels, the narrator of WBW is employed by a publishing firm, but unlike Nick, he is not named. The publishing firm is Judkins & Judkins, a family enterprise run by two brothers (Hugh and Bernard) which has much in common with Duckworths, the firm where Powell worked in the thirties.

As in Dance, there are several fictitious writers and works described in WBW to comic effect. These include Shirley Handsworth, who writes “historic reconstructions” and is one of the firm’s more successful authors, and Minhinnick, who is less successful and writes earnest works of non-fiction such as his Aristogeiton: a Harmony which the firm is considering pulping. Most notably, there is TT Waring, the elusive writer of travel books who is the firm’s best seller.

It is the press announcement of Waring’s death that starts the mystery plot around which the novel’s narrative revolves. Hugh Judkins decides that the firm will commission a biography of Waring to take advantage of his popularity before it wears off. Capt. “Tiger” Hudson, an officer in a Territorial unit, who the narrator meets at a séance and who is an ardent fan of Waring, is selected over existing writers on the firm’s list even though his writing experience is limited to an unfinished history of his Regiment.

Capt. Hudson is engaged to Beryl Pimley, daughter of a General whose family were neighbors of the narrator’s family when they both lived on the Salisbury Plain many years before. The narrator accompanies Capt. Hudson on a visit to the Pimley family who now live in Camberley. There is another daughter, Winefred, as well as the General’s aged father living at home. A son, Alec, who was Hudson’s school friend, was expelled from the family circle for being something of a “bad hat,” according to Hudson.

The narrator and Capt. Hudson later join another character, Eustace Bromwich, for a holiday in the South of France. Bromwich is a recently retired Army Captain whose ironic detachment is reminiscent of many Powell characters. The trio unexpectedly encounter Alec Pimley who has formed a liaison with a wealthy American widow, Mrs Cromwell, known to the others through her attendance at various London séances. These séances provide the occasions for Powellian set pieces at the beginning and end of the novel and are clearly precursors of more elaborate occult activities in Dance involving Dr Trelawney, Mrs Erdleigh and the planchette.

The characters also include a beautiful and intelligent young woman, Roberta Payne, an ambitious writer who may be a precursor of Pamela Flitton. She was previously engaged to TT Waring, had an affair with Bromwich, and manages to break up Capt. Hudson’s engagement. She later works her charms on Hugh Judkins to further her literary career.

The novel’s mystery plot relating to Waring’s death is well-crafted and worthy of the better sort of detective novels. [Those who don’t want to know the ending should read no further.] It turns out that “Waring” and his books are in fact fraudulent. The books were actually cribbed by Alec Pimley from existing but little read texts. After this discovery during the sojourn of the narrator and his two friends in the South of France, Alec and Mrs Cromwell debark in her yacht, sail into a storm in the Mediterranean and drown. Hudson drops his plans for a biography of the non-existent Waring and patches things up with Beryl Pimley. Roberta and Bromwich also make it up and become engaged. At the novel’s conclusion, the narrator is still working on a book about Stendahl , and, in what is perhaps a preview of Dance, is contemplating how ambitions and the quest for power have driven the lives of many of the characters.

[First published in Anthony Powell Society Newsletter, 23 (Summer 2006)]