“I Would Rather Read Mr. Powell Than Any English Novelist Now Writing.” Kingsley Amis
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praise for ANTHONY POWELL “I would rather read Mr. Powell than any English novelist now writing.” kingsley amis “What makes Powell’s work so exciting is the ability to cre- ate truth, emotional, evocative, revealing . so that reading Powell is like living someone else’s life, inextricably entan- gled with one’s own.” elizabeth janeway, New York Times “[Powell was] more fun than Proust, and at least as true to human nature.” john perry, Salon “A master of wit, paradox, and social delineation.” New York Times “Powell can offer many of the rewards of comic creation we fi nd in a Dickens or a Jane Austen, coupled with the ulti- mate gift of such creations—the fascination of romance as well as the immediacy of humor. Such an art transforms quotidian experience. The author as God can only cre- ate his own universe, and we can be grateful that Anthony Powell has done so.” john bayley, Times Literary Supplement 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 The Acceptance World 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 Valley of Bones The Soldier’s Art The Military Philosophers A Dance to the Music of Time, Fourth Movement (including the following three novels) Books Do Furnish a Room 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 AGENTS AND PATIENTS A Novel by Anthony Powell the university of chicago press The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 Copyright © 1936 by Anthony Powell All rights reserved Originally published in 1936 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- 13735- 3 (paper) isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 13749- 0 (e- book) doi: 10.7208 / chicago / 9780226137490.001.0001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Powell, Anthony, 1905–2000, author. Agents and patients / by Anthony Powell. pages cm isbn 978-0-226-13735-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-226-13749-0 (e-book) I. Title. pr6031.o74a74 2014 823'.912—dc23 2013033835 o This paper meets the requirements of ansi / niso z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper). For VIOLET GEORGIANA 'So in every possible case; He that is not free is not an Agent, but a Patient.' WESLEY: Sermon lxvii. .