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Eliot's New Life
Focuses on the writer's later years, exploring the dichotomy of his religious convictions and stormy nature, as well as his relationships with Emily Hale and Mary Trevelyan and the influence of an American ethos on his views
- GenresBiography
356 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1989
About the author
Lyndall Gordon
20 books120 followersLyndall Gordon (born 4 November 1941) is a British-based writer and academic, known for her literary biographies. She is a Senior Research Fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford.
Born in Cape Town, she was an undergraduate at the University of Cape Town, then a doctoral student at Columbia University in New York City. She married the pathologist Siamon Gordon; they have two daughters.
Gordon is the author of Eliot's Early Years (1977), which won the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize; Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life (1984), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life (1994), winner of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature; and Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft, shortlisted for the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize. Her most recent publication is Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and her Family's Feuds (2010), which has overturned the established assumptions about the poet's life.
(from Wikipedia)
Born in Cape Town, she was an undergraduate at the University of Cape Town, then a doctoral student at Columbia University in New York City. She married the pathologist Siamon Gordon; they have two daughters.
Gordon is the author of Eliot's Early Years (1977), which won the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize; Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life (1984), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life (1994), winner of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature; and Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft, shortlisted for the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize. Her most recent publication is Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and her Family's Feuds (2010), which has overturned the established assumptions about the poet's life.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 26, 2026
In fact, this book disappointed me. I've heard of Gordon as the academic who understood and respected Eliot's conversion, and I was excited when I stumbled upon a copy in great shape for $5 at the Strand a year or two ago. This year I decided I'd make a point of reading some nonfiction, and was eager to see an academic take that I thought would illuminate the ways Christianity reverberates and shapes the man and his poetry.
While Gordon's research into secondary sources is certainly there (having read Tillich and a number of the Puritans), she chooses not to engage with the Bible directly (almost at all - the only direct reference she makes was, if I recall correctly, a foray into Isaiah). I forgot to mark the page, but somewhere in the book she footnotes Eliot saying that one doesn't have to engage with his religion in order to appreciate his poetry, or something to that effect. Sure, for a casual reader. But she is an eminent biographer writing, largely specifically, on his religion, and her lack of biblical literacy costs her. Gordon often tends to apply passages (either of Eliot's or of profound influences of his) that are rife with biblical allusion toward a narrative structured around the women in Eliot's life (women, it must be said, that Eliot largely treated quite badly). If not to love, then she applies those passages toward interpreting Eliot as following in the tradition of New England Puritans and Calvinists.
Together, her book ends up becoming a narrative of a damaged search for love through the lens of a hermit-leaning, prophetic type of figure who rejected the world and for the most part was pretty despairing until, hey, he falls in love for real this time when he's 68. Undoubtedly, her research and her admiration of the man shine through but there is no real critical framework at play here, and so Eliot sounds kind of like a psychopath. And frankly, if Gordon did appropriately engage his religion I think it would illuminate but not excuse or cover over the man's flaws just because he's a great poet and cultural institution.
Ultimately, Gordon's lack of biblical literacy and engagement make it difficult for me to trust her as his biographer. That's a shame because she absolutely has done her research into Eliot and his influences, and biblical literacy on her part would have deepened and added much exciting and illuminating nuance to her portrait of the man.
(and just, for the sake of fairness: Gordon's written a lot more on Eliot and other notables since this was published in 1988! Much may have changed in her approach. Moreover, I learned loads about Eliot from her, especially around his relationships with women, which do absolutely reflect back on his poetry and open up new facets of Eliot to me, for which I'm grateful.)
While Gordon's research into secondary sources is certainly there (having read Tillich and a number of the Puritans), she chooses not to engage with the Bible directly (almost at all - the only direct reference she makes was, if I recall correctly, a foray into Isaiah). I forgot to mark the page, but somewhere in the book she footnotes Eliot saying that one doesn't have to engage with his religion in order to appreciate his poetry, or something to that effect. Sure, for a casual reader. But she is an eminent biographer writing, largely specifically, on his religion, and her lack of biblical literacy costs her. Gordon often tends to apply passages (either of Eliot's or of profound influences of his) that are rife with biblical allusion toward a narrative structured around the women in Eliot's life (women, it must be said, that Eliot largely treated quite badly). If not to love, then she applies those passages toward interpreting Eliot as following in the tradition of New England Puritans and Calvinists.
Together, her book ends up becoming a narrative of a damaged search for love through the lens of a hermit-leaning, prophetic type of figure who rejected the world and for the most part was pretty despairing until, hey, he falls in love for real this time when he's 68. Undoubtedly, her research and her admiration of the man shine through but there is no real critical framework at play here, and so Eliot sounds kind of like a psychopath. And frankly, if Gordon did appropriately engage his religion I think it would illuminate but not excuse or cover over the man's flaws just because he's a great poet and cultural institution.
Ultimately, Gordon's lack of biblical literacy and engagement make it difficult for me to trust her as his biographer. That's a shame because she absolutely has done her research into Eliot and his influences, and biblical literacy on her part would have deepened and added much exciting and illuminating nuance to her portrait of the man.
(and just, for the sake of fairness: Gordon's written a lot more on Eliot and other notables since this was published in 1988! Much may have changed in her approach. Moreover, I learned loads about Eliot from her, especially around his relationships with women, which do absolutely reflect back on his poetry and open up new facets of Eliot to me, for which I'm grateful.)
April 2, 2018
Published in 1988, this serves as an excellent analysis of Eliot's post-conversion years. It focuses heavily on his relationships with Emily Hale, Mary Trevelyan, and Valerie Fletcher while also providing context for his post-conversion works. Drawing upon unpublished writings, letters, and Eliot's poems, it offers far more than a mere fact-by-fact account examination of his life. It attempts to also deduce his worldview, and, in my opinion, it succeeds, justly examining Eliot's strengths and flaws and avoiding the bias that tends to arise while detailing Eliot's life.
Gordon is an excellent biographer whose view of Eliot's life deserves attention. Even so, since this biography was published in 1988, it works with fewer resources than modern Eliot biographies and is also limited to a pre-21st-century perspective of his life. Instead, I would recommend purchasing her revised biography, T.S. Eliot, An Imperfect Life, which works with updated resources, conveys a slightly more modern perspective, and also covers Eliot's early years.
Gordon is an excellent biographer whose view of Eliot's life deserves attention. Even so, since this biography was published in 1988, it works with fewer resources than modern Eliot biographies and is also limited to a pre-21st-century perspective of his life. Instead, I would recommend purchasing her revised biography, T.S. Eliot, An Imperfect Life, which works with updated resources, conveys a slightly more modern perspective, and also covers Eliot's early years.
February 17, 2016
A great look at the women in T.S. Eliot's life. Very insightful, and I believe the author's opinions are correct due to the evidence presented and the presentation methods and angles of approach to the material. Very good reading if you're interested in T.S. Eliot's personal motivations and the story behind his writing.
August 5, 2014
A good biographical overview of Eliot's career which closely links his life to his works.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews