Anthony Powell’s eighth book
in his sequence is The Soldier’s Art
and was published in 1968.
It begins in
1941 with our narrator Nick Jenkins buying an army greatcoat in the
neighbourhood of Shaftesbury Avenue, ‘where, as well as officers’ kit and
outfits for sport, they hire or sell theatrical costume’. (p5) As ever, Powell provides
an excellent scene setting for a humorous interlude where the tailor’s
assistant, ‘bent, elderly, bearded, with the congruous demeanour of a Levantine
trader’ is convinced he has seen Nick acting on stage, and can’t be swayed from
this, ending with ‘I’ll wish you a good run.’ (p7)
England is in the midst of
the blitz. ‘Announced by the melancholy dirge of sirens, like ritual wailings
at barbarous obsequies, the German planes used to arrive shortly before
midnight…’ (p9) and these air-raids are significant, notably towards the end of
the book. The targeted populace could only hope and pray the raids were not too
long – ‘… the hope that the Luftwaffe, bearing in mind the duration of their
return journey, would not protract with too much Teutonic conscientiousness the
night’s activities.’ (p10).
Besides pricking the
pomposity of individuals, Powell puts in his sights the Treasury: ‘… the
cluster of highly educated apes ultimately in charge of such matters at the
Treasury.’ (p20)
Again, we’re introduced to several
new characters. Cocksidge: ‘… the imaginative lengths to which he would carry
obsequiousness to superiors displayed something of genius. He took a keen
delight in running errands for anyone a couple of ranks above himself, his subservience
even to majors showing the essence of humility.’ (p39) Soper, the Division
Catering Officer, who stared at a piece of rejected meat on Biggs’s plate: ‘…
to implyu censure of too free and easy table manners, or, in official capacity
as DCO, professionally assessing the nutritive value of that particular cube of
fat – and its waste – in wartime.’ (p71)
And we meet people from the
earlier books, too. Nick is working for Widmerpool now, who has not improved in
his manner: ‘We are not in the army to have fun, Nicholas.’ (p72)
Then there’s Chips Lovell who
meets up with Nick: ‘I hope there’ll be something to drink tonight. The wine
outlook becomes increasingly desperate since France went.’ (p115) How will we
ever cope after Brexit…?
Another person from earlier
is Mrs Maclintick, who is now sharing a house with Moreland; ‘What lax morals
people have these days,’ Moreland says (p216). ‘Small, wiry, aggressive, she
looked as ready as ever for a row, her bright black eyes and unsmiling
countenance confronting a world from which perpetual hostility was not merely
potential, but presumptive.’ (p118)
Charles Stringham turns up in
the army, too, having become tea-total, and is quite happy to be an ‘other rank’,
the officers’ mess waiter. He makes a telling statement, too: ‘How severe you
always are to human weakness, Nick.’
Some characters we’ve known
die – victims of the war. The scenes where Nick appears at the aftermath of a
bombing are touching though Powell inevitably steers clear of sentimentality
and any emotion.
Throughout, and as evinced by
the above examples, Powell has a good turn of phrase. ‘I began to tell my
story. He cut me short at once, seeming already aware what was coming, another
tribute to the General’s powers of transmuting thought into action.’ (p89) And ‘The
comparative enthusiasm Farebrother managed to infuse into this comment was something
of a masterpiece in the exercise of dissimulation.’ (p194)
We’re barely aware of what is
happening in the war, apart from an occasional line such as ‘military action in
Syria’ and ‘the Germans attacked in Crete’ (p168) And Germany invades Russia
(p219) bringing some kind of hope…
The book’s title comes from
Robert Browning’s Childe Roland to the
Dark Tower came: ‘Think first, fight afterwards – the soldier’s art;’
(p214)
Eight books down, four to go.
We, the reader, shall soldier on!
Next: 9 – The Military Philosophers.
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