The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After sitting through T.S. Eliot's reading of "The Waste Land," listeners may be inclined to hang up the earphones for a spell. There are no flaws to Eliot's steady-toned interpretation; in fact, his delivery is quite remarkable in its ability to match the poem's constant, somber mood. It's just that 25-plus minutes of Eliot's desolate landscapes--rendered even more real by the author's incessant tones--can wear on the emotions.

In addition to the full-length version of "The Waste Land," this recording includes Eliot's stirring narration of "The Hollow Men," "Sweeney Among the Nightingales," and "Macavity the Mystery Cat." Listen to Eliot read from "The Waste Land." Visit our audio help page for more information. (Running time: 47 minutes, 1 cassette) --Rob McDonald --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Along with the two title pieces, this collection includes "Portrait of a Lady," "Rhapsody on a Windy Night," "Gerontion," and numerous other Eliot greats. To have these poems in a single volume that costs roughly the price of a candy bar is nothing less than a miracle. (Classic Returns, LJ 12/98)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (January 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486400611
• ISBN-13: 978-0486400617
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #485,642 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a good edition of Eliot for the casual reader, October 20, 2005

By	Enlightenment Man "oracle1028" (Chicago, IL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Waste Land and Other Poems (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I found this edition by Penguin to be very useful for a casual reading. The notes on the poems, in particular "the Waste Land," are detailed enough to give the reader a perception of Eliot's vast literary knowledge and its effect on his poems. However, the notes are inadequate if your purpose is to deeply understand the background of Eliot's complex and difficult poetry. So if you are looking for deep insights, I would recommend the Norton Critical Edition. For the normal reader, this is satisfying and straightforward.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Waste Land -- Audio CD -- www.bnpublishing.com, November 21, 2007

By	"Disappointed" (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Waste Land (Audio CD)

The Waste Land

From the listing this item appears to be a recording of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, read by the poet himself; but it's not, it's a performance by another reader, and therefore it had (to me) no interest; it was not what I wanted or needed. I suggest that the product description should be made clearer, so that other customers do not make the same mistake.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not to be missed, May 30, 2005

By	Paul Stilwell - See all my reviews

I remember when I first read through some parts of 'The Wasteland' when I was a teenager. I basically didn't get any of it, yet there was something that vividly burned itself in my mind. All that I could remember from the first reading was the departure of some nymphs and wind crossing brown land, a slimy rat's belly dragging across a bank, and some sailor on the bed of the sea being picked apart by a deep sea current. But it wasn't just the images that stuck; there was something else. What stuck, I think, is the 'visionary' quality some people refer to as being 'cinematic'. The writing in the poem has a way of getting you to view a whole assortment of apparently disconnected events as though you were a disembodied spirit -unnoticed, but there, listening in. I've read the poem quite a few more times since then, and you begin to notice the overall structure. When the poem gets to the last part, 'What the Thunder said', there is this transition that is at once magnificent, sobering, yet somewhat hallucinatory and disturbing. This part always gets me:

"Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
-But who is that on the other side of you?"

'The Wasteland' is perhaps the least 'telly' of Eliot's work. I've come to appreciate more and more 'The Four Quartets' over any other of his works, but 'The Wasteland' remains the one poem of his that is the most tight, the one that gets across its business to the reader superbly, showing and not telling, while at the same time being the work of art that was the departure from the 'antiquated' verse, a whole new aesthetic that was no mere aesthetic, but was totally viable and worked and was vivid.

While many of the other poems in this book are well worth reading, I'm not sure 'The Love Song of Prufrock' really belongs. I don't understand how that one always gets bundled into books containing 'The Wasteland' and Eliot's other poems, which are far superior to 'Prufrock'. To my mind 'Prufrock' has not held up over the years. It marks the experiment that Eliot was to take over the years to betterment. It had its glory in his day, but I can't help feeling the poem is really not all that good.