Talk:Kenneth Widmerpool

Untitled
The Kenneth Widmerpool page is a work in progress with material on his career to be added. All contributions to his memorial to a memorable literary villain welcome. --Balliol 19:34, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for adding the Career subsection, O Spirit. It reads like an entirely convincing fourth obit in the Times! -- Balliol 23:43, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Article's Discussion of D.N.Pritt
The article makes two statements about the left-wing lawyer and MP Dennis Nowell Pritt: (a) that he was a GRU (Soviet Army Intelligence) agent involved in pre-war espionage, and that (b) in the early fifties he was expelled from his party for Stalinism.

Well now, statement (b) at least seems to be inaccurate. According to his own Wikipedia entry, Pritt was expelled for his Soviet sympathies in 1940, rather than the early fifties.

I am not sure about statement (a). Pritt was certainly an inveterate fellow traveler, but a GRU agent? There is no statement to this effect in his own Wikipedia entry.

If there are others with detailed knowledge of the arguments on this, it would be good to hear from them. In the meanwhile, I propose to (a) correct the date, and (b) add that the GRU affiliation is as stated by Nigel West, the source cited.

(I shall not add to the article, though it is worth noting here, that West has had some credibility issues of his own, as his Wikipedia article reveals in spite of periodic campaigns to censor the relevant reference). Nandt1 (talk) 14:09, 15 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Editors should note that the references to Pitt in the text have been modified during the article's expansion in January 2013. Brianboulton (talk) 16:50, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Pronunciation of the Name?
I hope I'm not commenting on something I've missed, but there must shurely be a chumly sort of pronunciation for the man's name. "Wirrim"? "Worm"? "Wimmul"? "Rimple"?

David Lloyd-Jones (talk) 06:26, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

Denis Capel-Dunn
The source at A Dance to the Music of Time says the Powell confirmed in his journals that Denis Capel-Dunn was the model of Widmerpool, which would be rather more definitive than we say in this article and certainly would warrant inclusion. Alas, I do not have access to the journals. - Sitush (talk) 16:59, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

Bernard Bergonzi perspective on W
I found an interesting comment about Widmerpool while working on The Valley of Bones article. I wonder if it would be a good addition to the section called "Critical and popular reception". Here's the proposed addition:


 * Bernard Bergonzi, in The New York Review of Books in 1964, said "the presiding genius of The Music of Time is undoubtedly Kenneth Widmerpool"; he continued "For Powell, Widmerpool embodies in an unusually pure form the power of the will: he is obtuse, pompous, socially inept, and at the same time possessed of an almost demonic energy and an unstoppable urge to succeed."

...thanks! Novellasyes (talk) 01:13, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

Comment from Tim riley: I support this addition. It seems to me relevant and useful. (Caveat: I have read only two or three of the Dance to the Music of Time novels, and I realise more expert editors may have other views.)  Tim riley  talk   19:05, 4 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I think it's a beneficial addition. I've taken the liberty to tweak both the text and citation a little. The text is negotiable, the citation is now in line with the rest of the article. - SchroCat (talk) 07:34, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Just wanted to say that what sells me on this quote is the phrase "possessed of an almost demonic energy". Gotta love it. And that reminds me of a broader question, which is not about this article but is about Mr. Widmerpool. I am slowly (and to my mind, pathetically) working on The Valley of Bones. Wikipedia has an article about both A Dance to the Music of Time and also about each of the individual novels. Those pages are mostly very, very sparse and seem to have a complex editing history. Would it be wrong to include a section in The Valley of Bones that is about Widmerpool's appearance in it? If that were to occur, that could be done in the other eleven articles as well. One might also do that about Mr. Jenkins in each of that type of article. This comment is beyond the scope of this discussion, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway. Novellasyes (talk) 15:02, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I can't think why your text on The Valley of Bones shouldn't include a section on Widmerpool's appearance in it. I have vague thoughts on other aspects of the WP coverage of the cycle, and if I can get them into some sort of cogent form I may drop you a line on your talk page at some point. (Prenez garde!)   Tim riley  talk   15:44, 5 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Thanks to both of you! I went ahead and put it into the article. Novellasyes (talk) 21:23, 23 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Looks good. I don't think I'm sailing near WP:OWN when I say I think the main author, the late BB, would have approved of your addition.  Tim riley  talk   20:05, 24 June 2020 (UTC)