This Is A Comprehensive Study Of The Whole Æuvre Of T.S. Eliot, His Poetry, Criticism, Drama And Social Writings From The Pen Of A Penetrating Scholar. The Writings Of Eliot Still Form Major Documents Of Twentieth Century English Literature Presenting Challenges And Problems To The Reader. Using The Tools Of 'Background' And 'Domain' Assumptions, The Author Has Brought Out Eliot'S Philosophical Moorings And Sociological Preoccupations. A Study Of This Book Is A Must If Eliot'S Esoteric Doctrines And Poetry Have To Be Seen As A Systematic Whole.

Two long essays: "The Idea of a Christian Society" on the direction of religious thought toward criticism of political and economic systems; and "Notes towards the Definition of Culture" on culture, its meaning, and the dangers threatening the legacy of the Western world.

These influential essay and lectures by T. S. Eliot span nearly a half century--from 1917, when he published The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, to 1961, four years before his death. With the luminosity and clarity of a first-rate intellect, Eliot considers the uses of literary criticism, the writers who had the greatest influence on his own work, and the importance of being truly educated. Every thoughtful person who yearns to do more than simply get through the day will be reinforced by The Aims of Education. Other pieces include To Criticize the Critic, From Poe to Valäry, American Literature and the American Language, What Dante Means to Me, The Literature of Politics, The Classics and the Man of Letters, Ezra Pound: His Metric and Poetry, and Reflections on Vers Libre.

T. S. Eliot’s Ascetic Idealcharts an intellectual history of T. S. Eliot’s interaction with asceticism. Eliot’s early encounters with the ascetic ideal began a lifetime of interplay and reflection upon self-denial, purgation, and self-surrender.