 The essayist Tariq Ali views Widmerpool as a giant among fictional characterisations of his kind , comparable to Baron de Charlus in Proust 's epic In Search of Lost Time and Ulrich in Robert Musil 's trilogy The Man Without Qualities . Ali asserts that Widmerpool is " in many ways a more inspired creation than Charlus " . The circumstances of Widmerpool 's death , whereby he is transformed from a believable person into " a sub @-@ Dickensian grotesque " is , says Ali , a cause for much regret . Powell 's A Writer 's Notebook ( 2001 ) reveals that Powell originally considered a different ending for Widmerpool , in which he simply disappears into the mists , his ultimate fate an enigma . Ali argues that this would have been " much more in keeping with the dance of life and death " . 
