T. S. Eliot is not only a great poet and dramatist but an outstanding literary critic. This is the first study of his literary criticism to treat it as a coherent whole, with its recantations and development. How does the critic co-exit with the poet? Although there are many books on Eliot, none contrives, as this does, to show his criticism as an invaluable aid to the appreciation of his poetry and drama. Its contributions to our understanding of the literature criticized, and of how poetry is composed and may most responsively be read, are lucidly illustrated.
Eliot’s views on impersonality in art and suggested reasons for his puzzling anxiety about the influence of Milton, are explored in appendices. Between the later and earlier criticism the author observes a change of temper: the later gains much from a new charity and humility. Yet the militant challenges of the earlier are not to be undervalued: ‘If I had not fought,’ Eliot claims, ‘nothing would have been accomplished.’
Professor Brookes has produced a book at once concise, clear and thorough: if there is one indispensable appraisal of Eliot’s critical writings, this is it.
Harold Brooks is Emeritus Professor of English Literature in the University of London. He has an international reputation as a Shakespearean and Restoration scholar.
