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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 821.912
EAN num: 9780393320930
ISBN number: 0393320936
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 752
Printing Date: 1999-12
Publishing house: W. W. Norton & Company
Sale Popularity Level: 464742
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Brief Book Summary:
Lyndall Gordon's biographical work on T. S. Eliot has won many dramatic accolades. In this 'nuanced, discerning account of a life famously flawed in its search for perfection' (The New Yorker), Gordon captures Eliot's 'complex spiritual and artistic history . . . with tact, diligence, and subtlety' (Boston Globe). Drawing on recently discovered letters, she addresses in full the issue of Eliot's anti-Semitism as well as the less-noted issue of his misogyny. Her account 'rescues both the poet and the man from the simplifying abstractions that have always been applied to him' (New York Times), and is 'definitive but not dogmatic, sympathetic without taking sides. . . . Its voice rings with authority' (Baltimore Sun). Praised by Cynthia Ozick as 'daring, strong, psychologically brilliant,' Gordon's study remains true to the mysteries of art as she chronicles the poet's 'insistent search for salvation.'
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I've probably read hundreds of biographies in my life and this one stands out as one of the most literate and fascinating. I've actually begun to read it a second time and I can't remember the last time I reread a biography. Yes, it's complex and not the standard "Eliot's favorite toothpaste was Crest" kind of minutiae that seldom are more than compendiums of trivia. It focuses on Eliot the poet and thinker and tortured soul. If that's not what you're looking for, read something else.
Rated by buyers 
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I have always been impressed with the man T.S. Eliot but I cannot say the same about his biogrpaher, Lyndall Gordon. This book made my eyes go buggy and released the bats in the bellfry of my brain! I read this book when I was very sick and it was a very poor choice to say the least. I found her writing style thick with euphemisms, abrstractions, and other vague notions. Very little is mentioned about the man Eliot himself! What a ridiculous concept for a biography. She includes far too many segments of his poetry that only make sense in context. She spews them all over the book and leaves the reader wondering aloud, "Say what?". Though this book has a marvelous, intriguing cover it has nothing but blurry accounts of the man, T.S. Eliot. Find another biographer and you will be better off.
Rated by buyers -
I have always been impressed with the man T.S. Eliot but I cannot say the same about his biogrpaher, Lyndall Gordon. This book made my eyes go buggy and released the bats in the bellfry of my brain! I read this book when I was very sick and it was a very poor choice to say the least. I found her writing style thick with euphemisms, abrstractions, and other vague notions. Very little is mentioned about the man Eliot himself! What a ridiculous concept for a biography. She includes far too many segments of his poetry that only make sense in context. She spews them all over the book and leaves the reader wondering aloud, "Say what?". Though this book has a marvelous, intriguing cover it has nothing but blurry accounts of the man, T.S. Eliot. Find another biographer and you will be better off.
Rated by buyers 
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The biographer is so obsessed with Eliot's enigmatic inner state that she forgets to mention the things that happened to him during his life. Gordon speaks of Eliot's desire to enlist in WWI without ever explaining why; she never mentions his attitude toward World War II; she doesn't say that he was expelled from high school, what he majored in at college, what his income was during his years of fame, what kind of contact he kept in with his family and how they thought of him later in his life, what kind of contions he liked to write under in the early years, why he put so many allusions in his poetry if he disdained allusion-hunting. On the other hand, we do get excruciatingly detailed biographies of women like Emily Hale, Mary Trevelyan, and Vivienne Haighwood. The book tries to bore into Eliot's psyche and present all of his poetry as autobiographical, despite the damage done to readings of both the life and the poetry.
Rated by buyers 
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This biography is well-done, far superior to Peter Ackroyd's dull and uninspired "Life." What's most important about Lyndall Gordon's biography is her ability to provide us with a roadmap of Eliot's spiritual life and growth, which is a key to grasping the import of Eliot's poems. The inner life, by definition, is extremely difficult for someone else to grasp, and even more difficult to describe for others, but Gordon has managed to arrive at an understanding of Eliot's spiritual life, and to put it into good solid prose for the rest of us. I found this book to be most helpful. Gordon's insights into the inner life of T.S. Eliot are recommended for anyone interested in the man and the poems.
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