Customer Reviews (2)

Nothing wrong with the way this book was written
"No one has examined the poems more sensitively or set down his results more lucidly.His analyses of 'The Waste Land' and of many other poems are the most complete, reliable, and forthright yet written; they are the product of a deep and long knowledge of Eliot's work."

--Richard Ellman

Cull your highschool essays from here..
I've not been well pleased by this book. Though some of its insights are valuable, and though it is somewhat well researched and fairly comprehensive, it's a chore to read. The author has a style that borders on the incomprehensible -- one feels that he is one of these people who uses tortuous turns of phrase in the mistaken belief that they'll make him seem sophisticated. As a result, the text is disjointed and difficult, its arguments meandering and ill-defined. Williamson has some good ideas, and probably knows what he means, but doesn't get his points across clearly -- it's almost as though he's trying to emulate Eliot's style (or to merely restate the poetry as prose) and, frankly, one often feels as though Williamson has ideas above his station.

In short, this has all of the hallmarks of high school essay-writing -- perhaps the author has spent too long in the company of his students. Using 'difficult' language is neither big nor clever if it serves only to obfuscate meaning; here, the wealth of double-negatives, run-on sentences and unexplained, bewildering conjecture is simply not helpful to the reader of an already difficult poet. If the reader works at it, he or she will gleam some benefit from this book - but there are far better, and better written, works out there. If in doubt, take a look at the excerpts on this site -- it may be that the rather purple prose will appeal to some readers; but I regret that where I had hoped for intelligent discourse, I instead found awkwardly adolescent writing that thought itself more clever than it actually was. ... Read more

Book Description

Includes:

The Waste Land

The Hollow Men

"Journey of the Magi" from the Ariel Poems

La Figlia che Piange

Landscapes: New Hampshire; Virginia; Usk; Rannoch by Glencoe Cape Ann

Morning at the Window

Difficulties of a Statesman from Coriolan

Sweeney Among the Nightingales

Whispers of Immortality

Macavity: the Mystery Cat

Customer Reviews (2)

Not quite essential
I love these recordings, particularly the one of The Wasteland.However, Prufrock is missing.

Inadequate content.
Buyer beware! It is wonderful to hear Eliot read his poetry, but this CD collection is much reduced in content from Caedmon's audiotape collection: T.S. Eliot Reads: The Wasteland, Four Quartets and Other Poem. One can hardly imagine Eliot without "Four Quartets," "Ash Wednesday," and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," so one cannot call this CD "Essential Eliot." Because of this, the word "unabridged" on the cover appears misleading, even deceptive. Caedmon & HarperCollins need replicate the audiotape content on compact disc, so that superior content can be wedded with the superior medium. ... Read more

Book Description
An exploration of the divide between saint and sinner in the greatest poet of the twentieth century. Lyndall Gordon's biographical work on T. S. Eliot has drawn dramatic accolades from many quarters but has been unavailable for years. In T. S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life, Gordon brings fascinating new material together in one volume with the best of her earlier work. She draws on scores of recently discovered letters, and she addresses in full the issue of Eliot's anti-Semitism as well as the less-noted issue of his misogyny. She also provides an unparalleled exploration of the participation of women in his work. Gordon's first book, Eliot's Early Years, was described by Richard Ellman as "the most thorough and best-written account of Eliot's early life and works"; and her second, Eliot's New Life, was hailed by Cynthia Ozick in The New Yorker as "daring, strong, psychologically brilliant." Throughout, as Michiko Kakutani has written, Gordon writes "with judicious sympathy and an intimate knowledge of his poetry and plays." The aim, Gordon writes, is "to follow the trials of a searcher whose flaws and doubts speak to all of us whose lives are imperfect." With exquisite skill and intuition, she remains true to the mysteries of art as she chronicles the poet's "insistent search for salvation." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

One of the best biographies of anyone
I've probably read hundreds of biographies in my life and this one stands out as one of the most literate and fascinating.I've actually begun to read it a second time and I can't remember the last time I reread a biography.Yes, it's complex and not the standard "Eliot's favorite toothpaste was Crest" kind of minutiae that seldom are more than compendiums of trivia.It focuses on Eliot the poet and thinker and tortured soul.If that's not what you're looking for, read something else.

The most frustrating and subjective biography ever written!!
I have always been impressed with the man T.S. Eliot but I cannot say the same about his biogrpaher, Lyndall Gordon.This book made my eyes go buggy and released the bats in the bellfry of my brain!I read this book when I was very sick and it was a very poor choice to say the least.I found her writing style thick with euphemisms, abrstractions, and other vague notions.Very little is mentioned about the man Eliot himself!What a ridiculous concept for a biography.She includes far too many segments of his poetry that only make sense in context.She spews them all over the book and leaves the reader wondering aloud, "Say what?".Though this book has a marvelous, intriguing cover it has nothing but blurry accounts of the man, T.S. Eliot.Find another biographer and you will be better off.

The most frustrating and subjective biography ever written!!
I have always been impressed with the man T.S. Eliot but I cannot say the same about his biogrpaher, Lyndall Gordon.This book made my eyes go buggy and released the bats in the bellfry of my brain!I read this book when I was very sick and it was a very poor choice to say the least.I found her writing style thick with euphemisms, abrstractions, and other vague notions.Very little is mentioned about the man Eliot himself!What a ridiculous concept for a biography.She includes far too many segments of his poetry that only make sense in context.She spews them all over the book and leaves the reader wondering aloud, "Say what?".Though this book has a marvelous, intriguing cover it has nothing but blurry accounts of the man, T.S. Eliot.Find another biographer and you will be better off.

Sort of awful
The biographer is so obsessed with Eliot's enigmatic inner state that she forgets to mention the things that happened to him during his life.Gordon speaks of Eliot's desire to enlist in WWI without ever explaining why; she never mentions his attitude toward World War II; she doesn't say that he was expelled from high school, what he majored in at college, what his income was during his years of fame, what kind of contact he kept in with his family and how they thought of him later in his life, what kind of contions he liked to write under in the early years, why he put so many allusions in his poetry if he disdained allusion-hunting.On the other hand, we do get excruciatingly detailed biographies of women like Emily Hale, Mary Trevelyan, and Vivienne Haighwood.The book tries to bore into Eliot's psyche and present all of his poetry as autobiographical, despite the damage done to readings of both the life and the poetry.

Spirituality, a key to Eliot
This biography is well-done, far superior to Peter Ackroyd's dull and uninspired "Life."What's most important about Lyndall Gordon's biography is her ability to provide us with a roadmap of Eliot's spiritual life and growth, which is a key to grasping the import of Eliot's poems.The inner life, by definition, is extremely difficult for someone else to grasp, and even more difficult to describe for others, but Gordon has managed to arrive at an understanding of Eliot's spiritual life, and to put it into good solid prose for the rest of us.I found this book to be most helpful.Gordon's insights into the inner life of T.S. Eliot are recommended for anyone interested in the man and the poems. ... Read more

Book Description
This exploration of T. S. Eliot's last major poem, Four Quartets, examines the poem's potential to transform readers' faith journeys. Kramer shows that the power of Four Quartets is its ability to create a dynamic interaction between the poem and the reader that promotes a genuine connection with the natural world, with others, and with the Divine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Read This Book- Now!
Four Quartets captured me in its spell when I first encountered it in November '05. I have been trying to understand it, and its magnetic pull, ever since. Redeeming Time is brilliant in lifting the veil on Four Quartets and revealing the timeless truths so evoked there- and so hidden 'here'. If you are even vaguely interested in the contemplative / mystical life, or in touching 'sacramental existence' in the ordinary, feed your soul here- in Kramer's enabling strucutre- and let Four Quartets flow with even more power. Kenneth Kramer: what a gift. Thanks!

An excellent guide to Four Quartets
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets is one of the most difficult and obscure poems ever written. Kenneth Paul Kramer's Redeeming Time is an excellent guide to understanding the poem's hidden meanings. The author has devoted more than thirty-five years to Eliot's masterpiece: he wrote his Ph D. thesis on Four Quartets, made numerous research trips to all four locations of the titles to each poem, taught courses on it at university, and continued his study of the poems while writing numerous books. Redeeming Time is well-written,clearly organized, and includes one hundred pages of Notes in the back of the book, plus a bibliography of the works cited and an index. This is truly a scholarly work. Best of all, Kramer's analysis unlocks many of the difficulties for the reader. I found this book to be the most helpful and useful analysis on Four Quartets written thus far.I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Book Description
The centenary of Eliot's birth in 1988 provided the salutary occasion to go back to his life and work, to reassess him in the light of issues raised by various critical movements--the new historicism, feminism, reader-reception theory--that have come to the fore since the New Criticism poststructuralist. This sort of reassessment is the lively and pertinent idea behind Ronald Bush's collection of new essays on Eliot. The essays assembled vary in approach, but share a commitment to the discipline of history, and an awareness that history can function as critique as well as celebration.Many of the essays take issue with Eliot's self-presentation and include documents Eliot chose not to emphasize.Some press the limits of literary and intellectual history to enter areas of cultural practice, stressing the institutions of publishing and the social processes of gender formation.Other essays address issues such as the direction of twentieth-century writing, the impact of self-professed masculinist poetry on women readers, and whether modernism's social values were really consistently inimical to liberal visions of the future. ... Read more

Book Description
Manju Jain's innovative study of T. S. Eliot's Harvard years traces the genesis of his early work as a student of philosophy and explores its influence on his poetic and critical practice.The philosophical debates (and Eliot's work as he grappled with them) point forward to important issues in contemporary philosophy and hermeneutics.Drawing extensively on unpublished sources, Manju Jain offers answers to the questions of why Eliot failed to find satisfaction in an academic career devoted to philosophy and why he abandoned the speculations of metaphysics for the dogmas of theology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Brilliant Graduate Student
It is perhaps a pity that Eliot's thesis "Knowledge and Experience in the philosophy of F. H. Bradley" published in 1964 determined our impression of Eliot's youthful philosophical studies for so long. The thesis is subtle, but profoundly obscure. In fact it is a monument of Eliot's failure as a philosopher, his inability to distill from his abundant thoughts a coherent philosophical vision. He saw too many sides of every question and became increasingly disengaged from the challenge of constructing a strong personal outlook as a philosopher. But Manju Jain's packed and absorbing book reveals another Eliot -- the brilliant graduate student who could engage critically with the leading intellectuals of his time, both his Harvard mentors and contemporary French and German luminaries. On topics that have enthralled academia in recent decades -- pluralism, historicity, skepticism, non-foundationalism, relativism -- Eliot was amazingly expert as a young man. His later investment in orthodox faith did not erase the skeptical complexion of his mind; the combination of faith and questioning lends enigmatic appeal to "Four Quartets" and the plays. He continued to philosophize in his critical essays, often striking notes from beyond the world of the average literary scholar. Manju Jain has traced many fugitive publications in obscure journals and many manuscripts not published at all, in order to bring out the full range of Eliot's mind. When will the Library of America undertake to give us an edition of Eliot's complete prose writings?

T. S. Eliot - a poet with a philosopher's mind
T. S. Eliot, the illustrious American 20th century poet, was - like every great poet - also an extraordinary philosophical person. Unlike some other poets he was not only interested in philosophical questions, but also very knowledgeable about
philosophical matters and the history of philosophy. M. Jain's very informative book describes how T. S. Eliot got the foundations of his philosophical erudition and what the main themes of his thinking were. Eliot's primary influences were the philosophers of German idealism and thinkers like George Santayana and especially F. H. Bradley, about whom he wrote his dissertation. T. S. Eliot became growingly skeptical about philosophy and preferred to be a poet rather than a philosopher, although his Harvard teachers seemed to be sure that he had the ability to become an important philosopher. Manju Jain's work is an important book for all those who are interested in Eliot's biography as well as for those who want to understand the philosophical background of his poems and essays. ... Read more

Book Description
T. S. Eliot is not only one of the most important poets of the twentieth century; as literary critic and commentator on culture and society, his writing continues to be profoundly influential. Every student of English must engage with his writing to understand the course of modern literature. This book provides the perfect introduction to key aspects of Eliot's life and work, as well as to the wider contexts of modernism in which he wrote. John Xiros Cooper explains how Eliot was influenced by the intellectual climate of both twentieth-century Britain and America, and how he became a key cultural figure on both sides of the Atlantic. The continuing controversies surrounding his writing and his thought are also addressed. With a useful guide to further reading, this is the most informative and accessible introduction to T. S. Eliot. ... Read more

Book Description
A member of the Romantic tradition, T.S. Eliot is considered a central figure in Western literary culture. He is said to have created some of the best poetry of the 20th century. Study Eliot with this text, which includes an extensive biography of the author, literary criticism, a list of works by and about the author, and more.

This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School; preeminent literary critic of our time. The lives of the greatest writers of the world are explored in the new series Bloom's BioCritiques. In addition to a lengthy biography, each book includes an extensive critical analysis of the writer's work, as well as critical views by important literary critics throughout history. These volumes are the perfect introduction to critical study of the important authors currently read and discussed in high schools, colleges, and graduate schools. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

not geared towards the general reader
Usually I find Bloom's books very helpful in understanding difficult worksand authors.However, in this collection, all the essays are geared towardmore serious scholars of Eliot's works, rather than toward the generalreader looking for more information.Yes, the editor includes somestandard and well known essays about Eliot by the likes of Hugh Kenner,Northrop Frye, Richard Ellmann (Joyce's biographer) and some moderncritics, but there is nothing that holds these essays together.It wouldhave been better to organize the essays around particular works -- instead,we get a brief look at Ash Wednesday, a bit on the Wasteland, some otherrandom poems, you get the idea.Many of these essays are outdated by now. If you are a graduate student writing your thesis on Eliot, these essaysmay be useful, but for the general high school student or adult who justswants some help with understanding Eliot, try a more user-friendly serieslike the Twayne's Masterworks, or Norton Critical Editions. ... Read more

Book Description
The twin concerns of primitive and metropolitan life nourished T.S. Eliot's imagination through his childhood and student years and developed to mould and underpin his writing. Ranging from Dr Sweany of St Louis and Eliot's intense interest in anthropology to his interest in Victorian urban writing and popular American models, this book throws new light on Eliot's major works, particularly on The Waste Land and Sweeney Agonistes. In understanding how a great poet obsessively and continually brought together `savages' and the sophisticated as well as slum-dwelling members of modern urban society, we can see his work afresh as possessing remarkable and profound excitement as well as unusual integrity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Of the Book in Question and the Amiable Goodness Thereof
Upon reading the aforementioned work by the great and amiable Englishman Russel Kirk, I have been forced to come to conclusion that the work is, in general, well-written and, in particular, quite enlightening. Hisexplanations of Eliot's important poetical works are biographically sound,and are given support by cross-references to other prose pieces by Eliothimself (whether from Eliot's own _Criterion_ or some other publication).The fact that Kirk was a friend of Eliot's gives the book great strengthand objectivity. I recommend this book to any who are at all serious intheir study of Eliot. It is a work no true fan of Eliot can do without,humbuggery notwithstanding.

Yours truly,

Andy Younan, Esq. ... Read more

Book Description
A distinguished reader of modern literature here offers his most personal book of literary criticism, presenting an illuminating account of his engagement with the works of T.S. Eliot. Whether writing about Eliot's poetry or confronting the poet's (often contentious) prose, Donoghue eloquently demonstrates what it means to hear and read a master of the language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the best books on Eliot's poetry
After going through volumes of literary criticism of Eliot by luminaries like F. R. Leavis, Edmund Wilson, Northrop Frye, and I.A. Richards, Denis Donohue's "Words Alone," (along with an outstanding but out-of-print biography of T.S. Eliot by the great poet Stephen Spender) is, I think, among the best books on Eliot's poetry. Read especially his definition of the symbolist use of words, contrasting its use by Eliot and Yeats.

Disregard the above review by Publisher's Weekly. Eliot's anti-Semitism is tired and old and not especially interesting to those who understand that anti-Semitism in Europe those days was as flagrant as, say, anti-Americanism is today.

Not only Eliot but many poets of his times like Pound were anti-Semites, perceiving Jews as detriments of classical, if high Greco-Roman culture they so admired. Eliot, said Wilson, was the most chiseled person he met and if you trace his lineage from his ancestral Unitarianism (one of his forefathers was a Salem judge), his youthful New England Puritanism, his later English Anglicanism, and his lifelong disdain of "barbarism," you needn't strain too hard to understand his anti-Semitism, agree or no.

And unlike Pound and Woolf, not to mention the French Symbolists before him and Plath and Millay after him, Eliot was too intelligent to end up so tragic a figure, embracing Christianity--the "prodigious responsibility"--late in life. He devoutly prayed the Rosary everyday and met his second and much beloved wife after writing his Christian poem "Journey of the Magi." (Valerie Eliot heard the poem recited by Sir John Gielgud on radio and resolved at once to meet him. In Eliot, Dante met and MARRIED his Beatrice.)

If you want to see the effects of Christianity on a great person, simply read Eliot's oevure's of poems in chronological succession and track the progress of his life, going from a poet deeply ingrained with "religious sensibilities," like all true poets, and feeling very ennui to full-blown devout Christian and feeling very happy, unlike most poets.

"In the juvescence of the year Came Christ the tiger..."

But if you TRUELY want to split hairs, read Eliot's critical essays to better understand how he became "a classicist in literature, a royalist in politics, and an Anglican in religion." (And lucky are you who are about to read them for the first time.)

Mr. Donohue presents illuminating stuff--far removed from "intellectual conceit" and academic jumbo-mumbo, it has the flavor of the New Critics, ushered in by the figure of towering Eliot. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Revered poet
This is an excellent introduction to T.S. Eliot criticism and/or it provides a good gateway to his work.Reading this, one is motivated to do some serious rereading.

T.S. Eliot developed new forms and styles.An American, he went to England when he was twenty six.He worked in a bank and a publishing house.He was born in 1888 in St. Louis.His grandfather was a Unitarian minister and the founder of Washington University.His father was a businessman.

After THE WASTELAND, Eliot's career in poetry faltered.In his second phase he wrote religious poetry.In the 1930's he became an authoritative figure.Although he obtained an English accent and British citizenship, in many respects he remained very much an American poet.

MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL was produced in 1935.He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948.In THE FOUR QUARTETS Eliot brought together many aspects of his work.The plays are narrower than the poems.Eliot's prose style was precise and memorable.He was responsible for a change of taste.He contended that the interaction between tradition and the individual writer was the dynamic source of creative writing.

In Eliot's lifetime, he died in 1965, art, literature, became a specialized activity.Eliot had command of many verse forms.He believed the poetic mind constantly amalgamated experiences.Prufrock is intertwined with the creator, Eliot.The poet uses the dramatic monologue in the poem.He uses a flexible rhythm.All of his poetry has a strong underlying rhythm.

Eliot's use of imagery is of greatest importance.A poet's style consists of the characteristics of his verse.There are two problems with poetic drama--language and content.Eliot achieved a new sounding verse form for MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL.
The contemporary plays have characteristics of melodrama and farce.There is a bibliography and an index. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1985, twenty years after T.S. Eliot's death, a special number of The Southern Review was published that was devoted entirely to his life and work.This book, with some additions and excisions, make that number available to a wider audience in the year that marks the 100th anniversary of
Eliot's birth.The collection combines memoirs and critical pieces by thirty-seven contributors, including a previously unpublished lecture by Eliot himself, to present a collective reevaluation of his life and work.The contributors include A. Walton Litz, Cleanth Brooks, Ronald Bush, Christopher
Fry, Sir Alec Guinness, Harry Levin, M.L. Rosenthal, Stanley Sultan, and many others. ... Read more

Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive and stimulating introduction to Eliot's poetry for those reading and studying it, perhaps for the first time.The poems--as well as some of the poetic drama and relevant prose criticism--are discussed in detail and placed in relation to the development of Eliot's oeuvre, to his life, and to a wider context of philosophical and religious enquiry. ... Read more

Book Description
This is a comprehensive overview of the American-born English poet, critic, and dramatist T.S. Eliot. His best-known work, The Waste Land, is a long and difficult poem that depicts the emotional impoverishment, boredom, and spiritual emptiness of the modern world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Out-of-date and incomplete clarification of Eliot's poetry
This CLIFFS NOTES guide to the works of T.S. Eliot may have contained a wealth of information when it was written in 1965, but so many advances have been made in Eliot studies since that this guide is now out-of-date. Since it was written, we have seen the finding of the original manuscripts of "The Waste Land," Valerie Eliot's compedium of T.S. Eliot's letters, Eliot's youth poetry, etc.

The book is heavily slanted towards "Prufrock" and "The Waste Land," so that it gives short shrift to Eliot's later works, which are among his most beautiful. "Four Quartets" is only briefly covered, and the section on "Ash Wednesday" doesn't even mention the Dantean influence that is such a large part of the work!

"The Waste Land" is covered in great detail, but most of the explication is now obviously misguided because it is mostly based on Eliot's footnotes which, after the discovery of the original drafts and Ezra Pound's comments, are now understood as something of a joke.

If you are looking for insight into the poetry of T.S. Eliot, the CLIFFS NOTES guide is not the way to go. Try one of the latest books, such as the one by Cambridge University Press. ... Read more