Eliot's Early Years

by Lyndall Gordon

Book Overview

This is an account of T.S.Eliot's early life and works, which attempts to provide, not only a biographical profile of the poet's early years, but also a critical analysis of the poetry of those years,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198120788
• ISBN13: 9780198120780
• Release Date: April 1977
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent companion to "The Waste Land"

I teach "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in my high school classes, but "The Waste Land" has always been a complete mystery to me. This book, a hybrid of biography and literary criticism, enabled me to understand a large chunk of the poem. It turns out, according to Gordon, that "The Waste Land" is a sort of spiritual clearinghouse for Eliot's religious and personal reflection. I now think it's impossible to adequately interact with the poem without a basic understanding of Eliot's religious philosophy and his personal life. Gordon uses many of Eliot's unpublished poems to illuminate these facets of his life and thought. As such I found it very useful, although it was not an easy read. (The language is rather dry and academic.) Still, I recommend it highly for anyone interested in tackling "The Waste Land."