T. S. Eliot

As a poet, editor and essayist, T. S. Eliot was one of the defining figures of twentieth century poetry. This selection, which was made by Eliot himself, includes many of his most celebrated works, including The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Waste Land. Other volumes in this series: Auden, Betjemen, Plath, Hughes and Yeats.

Selected Poems

The poems that established T.S. Eliot decisively as the voice of a disillusioned generation.

And Other Poems

The Waste Land

Cocktail Party, the

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock", is the first professionally published poem by American-born British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910, and it was first published in the June 1915 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse at the instigation of Ezra Pound (1885–1972). It was later printed as part of a twelve-poem pamphlet (or chapbook) titled Prufrock and Other Observations in 1917. At the time of its publication, Prufrock was considered outlandish, but is now seen as heralding a paradigmatic cultural shift from late 19th-century Romantic verse and Georgian lyrics to Modernism. The poem's structure was heavily influenced by Eliot's extensive reading of Dante Alighieri and makes several references to the Bible and other literary works—including William Shakespeare's plays Henry IV Part II, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet, the poetry of seventeenth-century metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell, and the nineteenth-century French Symbolists. Eliot narrates the experience of Prufrock using the stream of consciousness technique developed by his fellow Modernist writers. The poem, described as a "drama of literary anguish", is a dramatic interior monologue of an urban man, stricken with feelings of isolation and an incapability for decisive action that is said "to epitomize frustration and impotence of the modern individual" and "represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment". Prufrock laments his physical and intellectual inertia, the lost opportunities in his life and lack of spiritual progress, and he is haunted by reminders of unattained carnal love. With visceral feelings of weariness, regret, embarrassment, longing, emasculation, sexual frustration, a sense of decay, and an awareness of mortality, "Prufrock" has become one of the most recognised voices in modern literature. Among the most significant works by Eliot's: "Portrait of a Lady", "Preludes", "Whispers of Immortality", "Gerontion", "The Waste Land", "The Hollow Men", "Ash Wednesday", Ariel Poems", "Journey of the Magi", "A Song for Simeon", "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats", "The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles", "Gus: The Theatre Cat", "Growltiger's Last Stand", "The Naming of Cats", "Burnt Norton", "East Coker", "The Dry Salvages", "Little Gidding", "Four Quartets".

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

A comedic play about the universal quest for meaning, written in some of Eliot’s “most beautiful poetry” (The New York Times). A sterling example of contemporary theater, The Cocktail Party is a dramatic tour de force from one of our greatest writers to date.

The Cocktail Party

April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain . . . Published in 1922, The Waste Land was the most revolutionary poem of its time, offering a devastating vision of modern civilisation which has lost none of its power as we enter a new century.

The Waste Land and Other Poems

The last major verse written by Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot, considered by Eliot himself to be his finest work Four Quartets is a rich composition that expands the spiritual vision introduced in “The Waste Land.” Here, in four linked poems (“Burnt Norton,” “East Coker,” “The Dry Salvages,” and “Little Gidding”), spiritual, philosophical, and personal themes emerge through symbolic allusions and literary and religious references from both Eastern and Western thought. It is the culminating achievement by a man considered the greatest poet of the twentieth century and one of the seminal figures in the evolution of modernism.

Four Quartets

This reissue of the first edition, now back with its original publisher, brings to life the most important poem of the 20th century, which defined modernity after the First World War, for a new generation of readers.

The Waste Land (Liveright Classics)

Charles Williams

The story begins with Lester Furnival wandering around London in a bit of a haze. Slowly she remembers that she was recently killed by a plane crashing along the Thames and that she is now a ghost wandering through an eerily vacant city. Lester has left behind her husband, Richard, who is good friends with the painter Jonathan Drayton. Drayton has recently been commissioned by Lady Wallingford to paint the portrait of her spiritual mentor, Simon le Clerk, often known simply as Father or The Clerk. Drayton does a wonderful job of it, but captures too closely the dark nature of the Clerk. Lady Wallingford is repulsed by it and demands that it be destroyed. However, Simon finds it a true and accurate likeness and tries to pull Drayton into his twisted circle. We learn gradually that Simon le Clerk is trying to control the world through spiritual means, and critical to this plan is the death of his daughter whom he sired via Lady Wallingford, who also happens to be engaged to Jonathan Drayton. Into this fray wanders Lester's ghost and Richard also, to reach a climactic confrontation between the forces of good (as represented by Lester, Richard, and Jonathan) and the forces of evil (Simon and Lady Wallingford).

All Hallows' Eve

The naming of Cats is a difficult matter, It isn't just one of your holiday games; You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES. So begins one of the best-known poetry collections of all time. The practical cats need no introduction, but this stunning new full-colour version, illustrated by Júlia Sardà, is the perfect companion to Old Toffer's Dogs. Whether you are a cat or a dog person, you will be enchanted by Júlia's highly original interpretation.

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Illustrated Poems for Christmas

Ariel Poems

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’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’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.

Murder in the Cathedral

The definitive edition of the most influential poem of the twentieth century

The Annotated Waste Land with Eliot's Contemporary Prose

"I do not know for certain how much of my own mind he invented."—William Empson

Practical Cats and Further Verses

The Poems of T. S. Eliot

"The more we know of Eliot, the better."—Ezra Pound

Collected and Uncollected Poems

Each year Eliot's presence reasserts itself at a deeper level, to an audience that is surprised to find itself more chastened, more astonished, more humble.' Ted Hughes Poet, dramatist, critic and editor, T. S. Eliot was one of the defining figures of twentieth-century poetry. This edition of Collected Poems 1909-1962 includes his verse from Prufrock and Other Observations (1917) to Four Quartets (1943), and includes such literary landmarks as The Waste Land and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

T. S. Eliot - Collected Poems, 1909-1962

Gualter Cunha

A terra devastada

Poet, dramatist, critic and editor, T. S. Eliot was one of the defining figures of twentieth-century poetry. This edition of The Complete Poems and Plays, published for the first time in paperback, includes all of his verse and work for the stage, from Prufrock and Other Observations (1917) to Four Quartets (1943), and includes such literary landmarks as The Waste Land, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and Murder in the Cathedral. 'Each year Eliot's presence reasserts itself at a deeper level, to an audience that is surprised to find itself more chastened, more astonished, more humble.' Ted Hughes

Henry James

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