The Imperfect Life of T. S. Eliot

Highly acclaimed when it was first published, Virago now reissues Lyndall Gordon's wonderful biography, THE IMPERFECT LIFT OF T.S. ELIOT.

Exploring Eliot's poetry, drama and essays in relation to his life in America and England, and to four quite different women who offer clues to his guarded character, this biography sees life and work as reciprocal parts of one design, the search for faith. Eliot once spoke of a lifetime burning in every moment. He had the mind to conceive a perfect life, and he also had the honesty to admit that he could not meet it.

Here, close up, is the divide between saint and sinner in the greatest poet of the twentieth century. By viewing Eliot from the vantage point of the next century, this enduring book follows the trials of a searcher whose flaws and doubts speak to all of us whose lives are imperfect.

“The most valuable single book yet published about Eliot”

-- Jonathan Raban Sunday Times
A nuanced, discerning account of a life famously flawed in its search for perfection New Yorker
An intellectually demanding, sophisticated and distinguished book . . . Probing and extremely thoughtful -- Richard Bernstein New York Times

Lyndall Gordon is the prizewinning biographer of people such as Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf and Mary Wollstonecraft. Born and raised in South Africa, Lyndall is a fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford.

T. S. Eliot once spoke of a lifetime burning in every moment. He had the mind to conceive a perfect life, and he also had the honesty to admit he could not meet it. 'He was a man of extremes whose deep flaws and high virtues were interfused,' writes Lyndall Gordon in this perceptive and innovative biography of the great poet. She brilliantly explores his poetry, drama and essays in relationship to the four quite different women in his life and to his time in America and England. The Imperfect Life of T.S. Eliot follows the trials of a searcher whose flaws and doubts speak to all of us whose lives are imperfect. 'Writing with judicious sympathy and an intimate knowledge of his poetry and plays, Ms Gordon artfully moves back and forth between the life and the work, creating a subtle portrait of Eliot as a Jamesian hero torn between memory and desire, worldly happiness and a more rarefied world of the spirit' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 'Always revealing and interesting' Stephen Spender

Highly acclaimed when it was first published, Virago now reissues Lyndall Gordon's wonderful biography, THE IMPERFECT LIFT OF T.S. ELIOT.Exploring Eliot's poetry, drama and essays in relation to his life in America and England, and to four quite different women who offer clues to his guarded character, this biography sees life and work as reciprocal parts of one design, the search for faith. Eliot once spoke of a lifetime burning in every moment. He had the mind to conceive a perfect life, and he also had the honesty to admit that he could not meet it.Here, close up, is the divide between saint and sinner in the greatest poet of the twentieth century. By viewing Eliot from the vantage point of the next century, this enduring book follows the trials of a searcher whose flaws and doubts speak to all of us whose lives are imperfect.

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