<div>Literary criticism from the Nobel Prize winner on subjects from Dante to Dickens. Some one said: &ldquo;The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did.&rdquo; Precisely, and they are that which we know. Celebrated poet and playwright T. S. Eliot was one of the twentieth century&rsquo;s most influential literary critics. In Selected Essays, he compiled his most significant works of criticism and theory written between 1917 and 1932. Included here are what Eliot considered the best essays from The Sacred Wood; his essays on Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists; Tradition and the Individual Talent; Dante; For Lancelot Andrewes; Homage to John Dryden; and many others. This expanded edition is annotated with footnotes and includes a biographical note about the author. &ldquo;Mr. Eliot is a master of critical exposition.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times</div>

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Selected Essays, 1917–1932

<div>Famous for juxtaposing Eastern cultures with Western literary references, The Waste Land has been celebrated for its eloquence, depth of meaning, and numerous subtleties. Rich with allusions to the religious texts of Hinduism and Buddhism, ancient literature, and Eliot&rsquo;s own life, the poem continues to be admired and studied in higher education English literature courses. Quickly ascending to the status of literary classic, The Waste Land is widely considered to be Eliot&rsquo;s finest work, representing maturity in his style and confidence in both expression and research. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.</div>

The Waste Land

<div>An essential collection of classic poems by the father of modernist poetry. In the masterly cadence of T. S. Eliot&rsquo;s verse, the twentieth century found its definitive poetic voice, an incredible &ldquo;image of its accelerated grimace,&rdquo; in the words of Eliot&rsquo;s friend and mentor Ezra Pound. This twenty-four-poem volume is a rich collection of Eliot&rsquo;s greatest works&mdash;including the classic &ldquo;The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock&rdquo;&mdash;all of which unveil the desires, grievances, failures, and heart of modern humanity. This collection includes &ldquo;Gerontion,&rdquo; &ldquo;Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar,&rdquo; &ldquo;Sweeney Erect,&rdquo; &ldquo;A Cooking Egg,&rdquo; &ldquo;Le Directeur,&rdquo; &ldquo;M&eacute;lange Adult&egrave;re de Tout,&rdquo; &ldquo;Lune de Miel,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Hippopotamus,&rdquo; &ldquo;Dans le Restaurant,&rdquo; &ldquo;Whispers of Immortality,&rdquo; &ldquo;Mr. Eliot&rsquo;s Sunday Morning Service,&rdquo; &ldquo;Sweeney Among the Nightingales,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,&rdquo; &ldquo;Portrait of a Lady,&rdquo; &ldquo;Preludes,&rdquo; &ldquo;Rhapsody on a Windy Night,&rdquo; &ldquo;Morning at the Window,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Boston Evening Transcript,&rdquo; &ldquo;Aunt Helen,&rdquo; &ldquo;Cousin Nancy,&rdquo; &ldquo;Mr. Apollinax,&rdquo; &ldquo;Hysteria,&rdquo; &ldquo;Conversation Galante,&rdquo; and &ldquo;La Figlia Che Piange.&rdquo; This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.</div>

Select Poems

<div>From a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the twentieth-century drama that was called &ldquo;the finest verse play since the Elizabethans&rdquo; (The New York Times). This modern verse play by the author of The Waste Land, &ldquo;The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,&rdquo; and other modern masterpieces deals with the problem of man&rsquo;s guilt&mdash;and his need for expiation through his acceptance of responsibility for the sin of humanity. It reveals the depth and versatility of a twentieth-century writer who excelled as both a poet and a dramatist. &ldquo;What poets and playwrights have been fumbling at in their desire to put poetry into drama and drama into poetry has here been realized.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times </div>

The Family Reunion

<div>The famed series of Trinity College and Johns Hopkins lectures in which the Nobel Prize winner explored history, poetry, and philosophy. While a student at Harvard in the early years of the twentieth century, T. S. Eliot immersed himself in the verse of Dante, Donne, and the nineteenth-century French poet Jules Laforgue. His study of the relation of thought and feeling in these poets led Eliot, as a poet and critic living in London, to formulate an original theory of the poetry generally termed &ldquo;metaphysical&rdquo;&mdash;philosophical and intellectual poetry that revels in startlingly unconventional imagery. Eliot came to perceive a gradual &ldquo;disintegration of the intellect&rdquo; following three &ldquo;metaphysical moments&rdquo; of European civilization&mdash;the thirteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth centuries. The theory is at once a provocative prism through which to view Western intellectual and literary history and an exceptional insight into Eliot&rsquo;s own intellectual development. This annotated edition includes the eight Clark Lectures on metaphysical poetry that Eliot delivered at Trinity College in Cambridge in 1926, and their revision and extension for his three Turnbull Lectures at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1933. They reveal in great depth the historical currents of poetry and philosophy that shaped Eliot&rsquo;s own metaphysical moment in the twentieth century.</div>

The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry

<div>The collected dramatic works of the Nobel Prize winner, from Murder in the Cathedral to The Elder Statesman. T. S. Eliot&rsquo;s plays&mdash;Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, The Cocktail Party (which won a Tony Award for its Broadway production), The Confidential Clerk, and The Elder Statesman&mdash;are brought together for the first time in this volume. They summarize the Nobel Prize winner&rsquo;s achievements in restoring dramatic verse to the English and American stages, an effort of great significance both for the theater and for the development of Eliot&rsquo;s art. Between 1935, when Murder in the Cathedral was first produced at the Canterbury Festival, and 1958, when The Elder Statesman opened at the Edinburgh Festival prior to engagements in London and New York, Eliot had given three other plays to the theater. His paramount concerns can be traced through all five works. They have been said to be closely related, marking stages in the development of a new and individual form of drama, in which the poet worked out his intention &ldquo;to take a form of entertainment, and subject it to the process that would leave it a form of art.&rdquo; What Mark Van Doren said, in reviewing Murder in the Cathedral, is true of all these plays: &ldquo;Mr. Eliot adapts himself to the stage with dignity, simplicity, and skill.&rdquo;</div>

The Complete Plays of T. S. Eliot

<div>Discover another side of the Nobel Prize&ndash;winning modernist poet: &ldquo;The imaginative dimensions of this [book] are altogether extraordinary&rdquo; (The Boston Globe). Hidden away for decades, this newly discovered trove of previously unpublished early works includes drafts of T .S. Eliot&rsquo;s poems such as &ldquo;The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock&rdquo; and &ldquo;Portrait of a Lady&rdquo;&mdash;as well as ribald verse and other youthful curios that reveal a very different man from Eliot&rsquo;s public persona. Edited by Christopher Ricks, its publication was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as &ldquo;perhaps the most significant event in Eliot scholarship in the past twenty-five years.&rdquo; </div>

Inventions of the March Hare

<div>This critique of modern society argues that culture must be organic, and cannot be planned or imposed. The word culture has been widely and erroneously employed in political, educational, and journalistic contexts. In helping to define a word so greatly misused, T. S. Eliot contradicts many of our popular assumptions about culture, reminding us that it is not the possession of any one class but of a whole society&mdash;and yet its preservation may depend on the continuance of a class system, and that a &ldquo;classless&rdquo; society may be a society in which culture has ceased to exist. Surveying the post&ndash;World War II world, Eliot finds evidence of decay in cultural standards in every department of human activity, and expects the phenomenon to continue. He suggests that culture and religion have a common root&mdash;and if one decays, the other may die too. In observing the superpowers of his day and the course of recent history, he reminds us that &ldquo;the Russians have been the first modern people to practise the political direction of culture consciously, and to attack at every point the culture of any people whom they wish to dominate.&rdquo; The appendix includes Eliot&rsquo;s broadcasts to Europe, ending with a plea to preserve the legacy of Greece, Rome, and Israel, and Europe&rsquo;s legacy throughout the last two thousand years. &ldquo;Behind the urbanity, the modesty, the mere good manners of Mr. Eliot&rsquo;s exposition, one cannot mistake the force and significance of what he has to say, or ignore that it constitutes a fundamental attack on most of our assumptions on the subject.&rdquo; &mdash;The Spectator</div>

Notes Towards the Definition of Culture

<div>An indispensable collection of the Nobel Prize winner&rsquo;s most renowned works. &ldquo;In ten years&rsquo; time,&rdquo; wrote Edmund Wilson in Axel&rsquo;s Castle, &ldquo;Eliot has left upon English poetry a mark more unmistakable than that of any other poet writing in English.&rdquo; In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize &ldquo;for his work as a trail-blazing pioneer of modern poetry.&rdquo; This book is made up of six individual titles: Four Quartets, Collected Poems: 1909&ndash;1935, Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, Old Possum&rsquo;s Book of Practical Cats, and The Cocktail Party. It offers not only enjoyment of one of the great talents in contemporary literature, but a deeper understanding of such classics as &ldquo;The Waste Land,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Hollow Men,&rdquo; &ldquo;Ash Wednesday,&rdquo; &ldquo;Prufrock,&rdquo; &ldquo;Murder in the Cathedral,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Cocktail Party.&rdquo; The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot is indispensable. </div>

The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909–1950

<div>Two essays on Western society&rsquo;s deep interconnection with religion from the Nobel Prize-winning poet, playwright, and critic. One of our most prized writers takes a poignant look at the powerful influences of religion and culture in the Western world in these two penetrating essays. The first, &ldquo;The Idea of a Christian Society,&rdquo; examines the undeniable link between religion, politics, and economy, suggesting that a real Christian society requires a direct criticism of political and economic systems. And in &ldquo;Notes towards the Definition of Culture,&rdquo; Eliot sets out to discover the true definition of &ldquo;culture,&rdquo; a word whose misuse and ambiguity presents a danger to the legacy of the Western world. Intellectually, Eliot was years ahead of his time, and these essays are an invaluable tool for analyzing and understanding the nature of society today. &ldquo;A substantial contribution to our understanding of the nature of culture, the nature of the relationship between culture and religion, and the role of what often are termed cultural pursuits&mdash;including literature, the visual arts, architecture, and the like&mdash;in making life worth living.&rdquo;&mdash;The Imaginative Conservative</div>

Christianity and Culture

<div>One of the twentieth century&rsquo;s great thinkers and writers explores what it means to incorporate Christian values into our worldly lives. Originally delivered in 1939 at Corpus Christi College, these three lectures by the renowned poet and playwright T. S. Eliot address the direction of religious thought toward criticism of political and economic systems. With sincerity and intellectual rigor, the Nobel Prize winner asks whether&mdash;and how&mdash;it is possible for Christianity to coexist with Western democracy and capitalism.</div>

The Idea of a Christian Society

<div>The verse dramatization of the medieval murder of Thomas Becket at Canterbury by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Archbishop Thomas Becket speaks fatal words before he is martyred in T. S. Eliot&rsquo;s best-known drama, based on the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170. Praised for its poetically masterful handling of issues of faith, politics, and the common good, T. S. Eliot&rsquo;s play bolstered his reputation as the most significant poet of his time. It has been performed on stage, film, and television since 1935 and was the basis for the opera Assassinio nella Cattedrale by the Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti.</div>

Murder in the Cathedral

<div>These four timeless poetry collections showcase the pioneering work of some of America&rsquo;s most beloved and influential poets. New Hampshire by Robert Frost: This Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning collection features some of Frost&rsquo;s most enduring works, all inspired by the cold and wild New Hampshire winter. Along with the title poem, this volume includes &ldquo;Fire and Ice,&rdquo; &ldquo;Nothing Gold Can Stay,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,&rdquo; which Frost himself called &ldquo;my best bid for remembrance.&rdquo; Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein: Stein&rsquo;s first published work of poetry, this avant-garde meditation on ordinary living is presented in three sections: &ldquo;Objects,&rdquo; &ldquo;Food,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Rooms.&rdquo; Emphasizing rhythm and sonority over traditional grammar, Stein&rsquo;s wordplay has garnered praise from readers and critics alike. Selected Poems by T. S. Eliot: This twenty-four poem volume is a rich collection of Eliot&rsquo;s greatest works&mdash;including &ldquo;The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,&rdquo; &ldquo;Gerontion,&rdquo; &ldquo;Sweeny Among the Nightingales,&rdquo; and others&mdash;all of which expertly explore the desires, grievances, failures, and heart of modern humanity. Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson: This collection of poems by &ldquo;one of America&rsquo;s greatest and most original poets of all time&rdquo; includes some of Dickinson&rsquo;s best-known works, reflecting her thoughts on nature, life, death, the mind, and the spirit (Poetry Foundation).</div>

Great American Poets

<div>The Nobel Prize–winning author shares his thoughts on literature, religion, and the classics in a series of essays. A collection of essays grappling with some of the most significant topics of our time, Essays Ancient and Modern reveals Eliot’s thoughts on his literary contemporaries and predecessors, the role of religion in a secular society, and the continuing tradition of the classics in modern education. Astute and erudite, here we see the inner thoughts of one of our greatest minds, articulated in some of his most eloquent and direct prose.</div>

Essays Ancient and Modern

<div>The Nobel Prize–winning author created the words for this unique play about religion in the twentieth century. The choruses in this pageant play represent a new verse experiment on Mr. Eliot’s part; and taken together make a sequence of verses about twice the length of “The Waste Land.” Mr. Eliot has written the words; the scenario and design of the play were provided by a collaborator, and the purpose was to provide a pageant of the Church of England for presentation on a particular occasion. The action turns upon the efforts and difficulties of a group of London masons in building a church. Incidentally, a number of historical scenes, illustrative of church-building, are introduced. The play, enthusiastically greeted, was first presented in England, at Sadler’s Wells; the production included much pageantry, mimetic action, and ballet, with music by Dr. Martin Shaw. Immediately after the production of this play in England, Francis Birrell wrote in The New Statesman: “The magnificent verse, the crashing Hebraic choruses which Mr. Eliot has written had best be studied in the book. The Rock is certainly one of the most interesting artistic experiments to be given in recent times.” The Times Literary Supplement also spoke with high praise: “The choruses exceed in length any of his previous poetry; and on the stage they prove the most vital part of the performance. They combine the sweep of psalmody with the exact employment of colloquial words. They are lightly written, as though whispered to the paper, yet are forcible to enunciate . . . . There is exhibited here a command of novel and musical dramatic speech which, considered alone, is an exceptional achievement.”</div>

The Rock

<div>A comedy of mistaken identities erupts in the household of a wealthy London entrepreneur in this play by the Nobel Prize–winning author. A motley play of family mysteries, The Confidential Clerk follows Sir Claude and Lady Elizabeth as they reconnect with their long-lost illegitimate children—even though they aren’t quite certain whose child is whose. “Extraordinarily good fun,” this is one of Eliot’s greatest comedies, full of wit, crisp dialogue, and parental hijinks laced with some of Eliot’s finest poetry and existential reveries (The Atlantic). Praise for The Confidential Clerk “The dialogue . . . has a precision and a lightly felt rhythm unmatched in the writing of any contemporary dramatist.” —Times Literary Supplement (UK) “A triumph of dramatic skill: the handling of the two levels of the play is masterly and Eliot’s verse registers its greatest achievement on the stage—passages of great lyrical beauty are incorporated into the dialogue.” —Spectator (UK)</div>

T. S. Eliot

Books By T. S. Eliot (16 Books)