praise for and What’s Become of Waring

“What’s Become of Waring is a ‘powerful’ book, a good diver- sion for springtime, and a must for Powell devotees.” edmund fuller, New York Times Book Review

“This is a comic novel of exceptional charm and invention.” melvin maddocks, Christian Science Monitor

“A grand, glittering array of splendid comic characters do- ing funny things. Mr. Powell’s prose is beautiful and hilari- ous, and the whole nutty arrangement ends too soon.” New Yorker

“What’s Become of Waring . . . ushers in the distinctive fi rst- person narrative, at once detached and inquisitive, that is the Music of Time’s hallmark.” Paris Review

“[This is] the kind of novel Waugh and Huxley wrote when they were younger.” paul pickrel, Harper’s Magazine

“Good funny novels are so extremely rare that when one is published it needs celebrating. I do not see how anyone who is not an imbecile can fail to be amused and delighted with What’s Become of Waring.” Observer (London) books by ANTHONY POWELL

A Dance to the Music of Time, First Movement (including the following three novels) A Question of Upbringing A Buyer’s Market A Dance to the Music of Time, Second Movement (including the following three novels) At Lady Molly’s Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant The Kindly Ones

A Dance to the Music of Time, Third Movement (including the following three novels) The Soldier’s Art The Military Philosophers A Dance to the Music of Time, Fourth Movement (including the following three novels) Temporary Kings Hearing Secret Harmonies

other novels Afternoon Men Venusberg From a View to a Death Agents and Patients Fisher King O, How the Wheel Becomes It! What’s Become of Waring

other works To Keep the Ball Rolling: The Memoirs of Anthony Powell Volume I: Infants of the Spring Volume II: Messengers of Day Volume III: Faces in My Time Volume IV: The Strangers Are All Gone John Aubrey and His Friends Brief Lives: And Other Selected Writings of John Aubrey Miscellaneous Verdicts: Writing on Writers Under Review: Further Writing on Writers, 1946–1990

plays The Garden God The Rest I’ll Whistle WHAT’S BECOME OF WARING A Novel

by Anthony Powell

‘What’s become of Waring Since he gave us all the slip, Chose land- travel or seafaring, Boots and chest or staff and scrip, Rather than pace up and down Any longer London- town?’ robert browning

the university of chicago press For EDITH

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 Copyright © 1939 by Anthony Powell All rights reserved Originally published in 1939 University of Chicago Press edition 2014 Printed in the United States of America

23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5

isbn-13: 978-0- 226- 13718- 6 (paper) isbn-13: 978-0- 226- 13721- 6 (e-book) doi: 10.7208 / chicago / 9780226137216.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Powell, Anthony, 1905–2000, author. What’s become of Waring / by Anthony Powell. pages cm isbn 978-0-226-13718-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-226-13721-6 (e-book) I. Title. pr6031.o74w47 2014 823'.912—dc23 2013033837

o This paper meets the requirements of ansi / niso z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).