T. S. Eliot and the Ideology of Four Quartets

Recent criticism of Eliot has ignored the public dimension of his life and work. Professor Cooper shows how Eliot consciously addressed the fears of a North Atlantic "mandarinate" during the politically turbulent 1930s. Immediately following publication, Four Quartets was accorded canonical status as a work offering a personal harmony divorced from the painful disharmonies of the emerging postwar world. This powerful study reestablishes the public context in which Eliot's work was received and understood. It will become an essential reference work for all interested in a wider understanding of Eliot and of Anglo-American cultural relations.