Principal Characters
| Character | Details | Historical inspirations |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Jenkins | Narrator | A cypher, everyman; Powell himself |
| Isobel Tolland | One of the Tolland sisters, whom Jenkins later marries | Lady Violet Pakenham, third daughter of the 5th Earl of Longford. |
| Kenneth Widmerpool | A mediocre student whose rise seems unstoppable. | AP confirmed character inspired by Col. Denis Capel-Dunn, under whom he served in the Cabinet Office. Plus an element from Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller's schooldays. Soviet bloc connection may be intended to suggest Labour MP Denis Nowell Pritt. |
| Charles Stringham | Schoolfriend of Nick's. A romantic. | Drawn from Hubert Duggan, whose glamorous mother married Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India. Not, as is often supposed, based on Powell's friend and fellow author Henry Green. |
| Uncle Giles ("Captain Jenkins") | Nick's uncle, unreliable and usually untraceable. | Ne'er-do-well type adopting military persona familiar between the wars. |
| Peter Templer | Raffish schoolfellow of Nick's. | based on John Spencer, friend of the author's. |
| Jean Templer | Peter's sister; Nick's lover | Unpredictable and self-absorbed, unexpected tastes in men. |
| Sillery | Manipulative Oxford don | Professor Sir Ernest Barker, and "Sligger" Urquhart. Not Sir Maurice Bowra as often suggested. |
| Pamela Flitton | Femme Fatale | based on Barbara Skelton, tempestuous sometime wife of Cyril Connolly. |
| Mark Members | Promising poet | Peter Quennell, all-purpose literary personage, poet, and cultural historian. The name and the conference-going suggest Stephen Spender. |
| Edgar Deacon | Disreputable painter and antique dealer | Combination of Mr Bailey, an alcoholic antiques dealer, and eccentric bookseller Christopher Millard. |
| Dr Trelawney | Occultist | Aleister Crowley, self-styled Great Beast 666 |
| The Field Marshal | Leader of desert warfare | Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein |
| X. Trapnel | Novelist and parodist | Julian Maclaren-Ross |
| Hugh Moreland | Composer | Constant Lambert |
| St John Clarke | Passé author | John Galsworthy |
| Max Pilgrim | Entertainer | in the manner of Noël Coward inspired by Douglas Byng |
| Sir Magnus Donners | Magnate and government minister | partly drawn from Lord Beaverbrook |
| J G Quiggin | Marxist writer | Conflation of Powell's enemies, novelist CP Snow and critic F R Leavis. |
| Erridge (Earl of Warminster) | Socialist peer; Jenkins's brother-in-law | The Earl of Longford, Powell's brother-in-law. Also Powell's friend George Orwell – lives as a tramp for a time, fights in Spanish Civil War, dies in his forties. |
Read more about this topic: A Dance To The Music Of Time
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