Agents & Patients: A Novel

Anthony Powell

mar 2014 · University of Chicago Press

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A wealthy Londoner falls victim to conmen on a journey through interwar Europe in this early novel by the celebrated author (New York Times).

Unsavory artists, aristocratic nitwits, and charlatans with an affinity for Freud—such are the oddballs who animate the early novels of Anthony Powell. A genius of social satire and dry wit, Powell built his comedies on the foibles of British high society between the wars. These slim yet vastly entertaining novels reveal the early stirrings of the unequaled style, ear for dialogue, and eye for irony that would reach their caustic peak in Powell’s epic A Dance to the Music of Time.

First published in 1936, Agents and Patients chronicles the exploits of the memorably named Blore-Smith, a decent enough chap with more money than sense. Feeling that his life has grown dull, he finds adventure in the company of two con artists—one an aspiring filmmaker, the other a would-be psychoanalyst. Their elaborate ploys bring Blore-Smith to the art galleries and whorehouses of Paris, Berlin, and beyond. Filled with eccentric characters and piercing insights, Powell’s work is achingly hilarious, human, and true.

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Anthony Powell (1905-2000) was an English novelist best known for A Dance to the Music of Time, which was published in twelve volumes between 1951 and 1975. He also wrote seven other novels, a biography of John Aubrey, two plays, and three volumes of collected reviews and essays, as well as a four-volume autobiography, an abridged version of which, To Keep the Ball Rolling, is available from the University of Chicago Press.