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The Living and the Dead
The Living and the Dead
Jan 14, 2026 9:58 AM

Author:Patrick White

The Living and the Dead

To hesitate on the edge of life or to plunge in and risk change -this is the dilemma explored in THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. Patrick White's second novel is set in thirties London and portrays the complex ebb and flow of relationships within the Standish family. Mrs Standish, ageing but still beautiful, is drawn into secret liaisons, while her daughter Eden experiments openly and impulsively with left-wing politics and love affairs. Only the son, Elyot, remains an aloof and scholarly observer - until dramatic events shock him into sudden self-knowledge.

Reviews

Scene after scene is worked out with exactness and subtlety which no second-string novelist can scent, far less nail to paper

—— Daily Telegraph

An unmistably major writer who commands a scope, power and sheer technical skill which put other more ambitious novelists into the shade

—— A. Alvarez

Brilliant and masterful

—— Nation

Powell’s novel sequence is at once a rich chronicle of 20th-century English social life and an intricately wrought work of art. It is also extremely funny, in its sly fashion.

—— John Banville

The novels of Powell’s “A Dance to the Music of Time” themselves move hand in hand in intricate measure through the last century, bearing wisdom and understanding for the present. In an ever-quicker, ever-shallower world, his steadiness and wit reliably escort the reader into depth and patience. Nobody gives pattern to the spectacle of human existence like Powell.

—— Louisa Young

Reading “A Dance to the Music of Time” was such a joyous experience, I remember wishing there'd been more than twelve volumes.

—— Roddy Doyle

I re-read the "Dance" every five years or so and always find something new – the world has changed but the characters are evergreen. Everybody has a Widmerpool in their life.

—— Daisy Goodwin

A masterful stylist and a wise, often hilarious observer of human nature and his times, Anthony Powell is an under-appreciated literary gem. The pleasures and dramas of the "Dance" continue to illuminate daily life.

—— Claire Messud

Comic, satisfying, thought-provoking, addictive

—— The Telegraph

[A] comic masterpiece

—— Irish Times

It's his supreme skill in mastering a lengthily interwoven chronicle, the evolution of such a range and variety of pin-point characters, the wit and the cultural ambition that give the novel a unique place in English Literature.

—— Melvyn Bragg

He has wit, style, and panache, in a world where those qualities are in permanently short supply

—— The New York Review of Books

Rachel Heath is excellent on the atmosphere of post-war Britain and the lure of South Africa.

—— Independent

This author is good at sex, writing well about female sensuality.

—— Independent

The interweaving of the lives of Gay and Laura is skilfully handled, the plot ever-thickening as the two move towards that fatal voyage back to Britain.

—— Independent

Rachel Heath's dark compelling debut novel tells the tale of two very different girls; both are misfits trying to find a story in which they can star.

—— Daily Mail

... examines the extraordinary lengths people will go to when driven by love.

—— Easy Living

Those who survive do dreadful things. This is the nub of their experiences and also, hints the author of our own.

—— The Sunday Times

A highly accomplished debut, this is a chilling portrait of racial tension, social immorality, betrayal and love, and also an atmospheric examination of the end of innocence.

—— The Lady Magazine

The writing is strong and though the sections featuring Gay's earlier life lose momentum, the story picks up pace when the girls' paths become entwined and the conclusion is compelling and thrillingly macabre.

—— Telegraph

This fictional account of a true story gives a darkly shocking version of the events surrounding this tragic case.

—— Good Book Guide

Brilliantly melds a factual post-war murder into a dark fictional tale

—— Telegraph
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