Critics generally find Widmerpool the most interesting and absorbing of the sequence's major characters. He has been described as "one of the most memorable characters of 20th century fiction",[54] and according to the literary critic John Bayley is as "famous a character in the annals of English fiction as either Pickwick or Jeeves".[55] Powell, in a 1978 interview, confessed that he had used Widmerpool as a bait to catch readers, but found that the character had taken over, to a greater extent than he would have wished.[3]