Selected Essays, 1917–1932

Literary criticism from the Nobel Prize winner on subjects from Dante to Dickens. Some one said: “The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did.” Precisely, and they are that which we know. Celebrated poet and playwright T. S. Eliot was one of the twentieth century’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. “Mr. Eliot is a master of critical exposition.” —The New York Times