Books do Furnish a Room - post II

Having buried his brother in law Jenkins is dragged into the publishing world set up by Craggs and his old acquaintance Quiggin. Given a job as a reviewer he starts to mingle with a host of characters that enjoy a drink, a good argument about Marxist politics and sponging money of wealthy friends.

Amongst all of this is Widmerpool who has dressed himself up as a Labour MP and is involved with the magazine venture produced by the left-wing publishers. He not only writes for the magazine they produce – Fission – but also helps manage the financial side of affairs.

Meanwhile Widmerpool is constantly upstaged by his wife Pamela Flitton who reaches new levels of rudeness being sick in vases and showing utter contempt for most of the people she meets.

Have to confess that I don’t like Widmerpool and he has gone from being a slightly clownish character to something clearly a slot more sinister as he is motivated purely by power.

There is a great passage that describes the social upheaval caused by the war, which ultimately saw the demise of the aristocratic world that Jenkins moved in at the start of the Dance novels – I will dig it out and update this post with it tomorrow.