T. S. Eliot is not only one of the most important poets of the twentieth century; as literary critic and commentator on culture and society, his writing continues to be profoundly influential. Every student of English must engage with his writing to understand the course of modern literature. This book provides the perfect introduction to key aspects of Eliot's life and work, as well as to the wider contexts of modernism in which he wrote. John Xiros Cooper explains how Eliot was influenced by the intellectual climate of both twentieth-century Britain and America, and how he became a key...

Nearly everyone who addresses T.S. Eliot's imaginative and critical work must acknowledge the importance of music in thematic and formal terms. This volume explores this aspect of his work from a number of perspectives.

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...

John Xiros Cooper asserts that the avant-garde is actually one of the defining instances of capitalist culture: part of the brash, new capitalist culture in the early twentieth century. The Modernist avant-garde exemplified the impact of capitalism on everyday life in their personal relationships, gender roles and sexual contacts. Cooper explores this provocative theme across a wide range of Modernist authors.