Thomas Stearns Eliot was a poet, dramatist and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry." He wrote the poems The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, and Four Quartets; the plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party; and the essay Tradition and the Individual Talent. Eliot was born an American, moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at the age of 25), and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39.
An impressive work by Paul Claes, who not only translated TS Eliot's modernist masterpiece, but also provides notes on this hermetic poem, verse by verse, and identifies and explains the numerous intertextual references and allusions. He not only discusses the existing interpretations of this poem, but also adds his own biographical interpretation. A great advantage of this book is that the original English text is placed next to the fluent translation.
Geen poezie die mij raakte, te veel verwijzingen die ik niet begreep. Wèl blij met deze tweetalige editie die het gedicht voorziet van heel wat duiding en omkadering.