The Cambridge Companion to T. S. Eliot

In this Companion, an international team of leading T. S. Eliot scholars contribute studies of different facets of the writer’s work to build up a carefully co-ordinated and fully rounded introduction. Five chapters give a complete account of Eliot’s poems and plays from several distinct points of view. The major aspects and issues of his life and thought are assessed: his American origins and his becoming English; his position as a philosopher; his literary, social, and political criticism; and the evolution of his religious sense. Later chapters place his work in a number of historical perspectives; and the final chapter provides an expert review of the whole field of Eliot studies and is supplemented by a listing of the most significant publications. There is a useful chronological outline. Taken as a whole, the Companion comprises an essential handbook for students and other readers of Eliot.

• An essential introduction and handbook to our century’s premier poet • The only book to provide a full introductory critical survey by experts • Also an essential library purchase because of reference material including a full review of Eliot studies

List of contributors; Preface; Chronology of Eliot’s life and works; Abbreviations; 1. Where is the real T. S. Eliot? or the life of the poet James Olney; 2. Eliot as a product of America Eric Sigg; 3. Eliot as philosopher Richard Shusterman; 4. T. S. Eliot’s critical programme Timothy Matherer; 5. The social critic and his discontents Peter Dale Scott; 6. Religion, literature and society in the work of T. S. Eliot Cleo McNelly Kearns; 7. ‘England and nowhere’ Alan Marshall; 8. Early poems: from Prufrock to ‘Gerontion’ J. C. Mays; 9. Improper desire: reading The Waste Land Harriet Davidson; 10. Ash-Wednesday: a poetry of verification John Kwan-Terry; 11. Four Quartets: music word meaning and value A. David Moody; 12. Pereira and after: the cures of Eliot’s theatre Robin Grove; 13. ‘Mature poets steal’: Eliot’s allusive practice James Longenbach; 14. Eliot’s impact on Anglo-American poetry Charles Altieri; 15. Tradition and T. S. Eliot Jean-Michel Rabaté; 16. Eliot: modernism, postmodernism and after Bernard Sharratt; 17. Eliot studies: a review and a select booklist Jewel Spears Brooker; Index.