The Annotated Waste Land with Eliot’s Contemporary Prose
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T. S. Eliot; Edited, with Annotations and Introduction, by Lawrence Rainey
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Format: PaperPrice: $21.95
One of the twentieth century’s most powerful—and controversial—works, The Waste Land waspublished in the desolate wake of the First World War. This definitive edition of T. S. Eliot’s masterpiece presents a new and authoritative version of the poem, along with all the essays Eliot wrote as he was composing The Waste Land,seven of them never before published in book form. The volume is enriched with period photographs and a London map of locations mentioned in the poem.
Featured in the book are Lawrence Rainey’s groundbreaking account of how The Waste Land cameto be composed; a history of the reactions of admirers and critics; and full annotations to the poem and Eliot’s essays. The edition transforms our understanding of one of the greatest modernist writers and the magnificent poem that became a landmark in literary history.
A selection of Readers' Subscription
"Rainey’s edition combines impressive scholarship with a readable and expert presentation of the poem and its background. Students will find it invaluable—and so will their teachers."—David Chinitz, author of T. S. Eliot and the Cultural Divide
“This book will take its place as the standard edition of one of the most important documents of twentieth-century literature in English.”—Ronald Bush, Drue Heinz Professor of American Literature, Oxford University
“[A] superb edition. . . . Like the poem, all of the prose is exhaustively annotated. Equally important is Rainey’s lucid introduction to the volume. . . . The new standard study text of Eliot’s monumental poem, this volume is indispensable for every library. Essential.”—Choice
"More than any previous editor, Rainey provides the reader with every resource that might help explain the genesis and significance of the poem. . . . The most imaginative and useful edition of The Waste Land ever published."—Adam Kirsch, New Criterion
“Just when you thought there were enough books about Eliot already, Rainey offers this priceless nugget.”—Nan Goldberg, Newark, N.J. Sunday Star
“[A] terrific edition of a modernist work that retains its power to shock, as well as a high degree of allusive difficulty. Rainey’s essay and notes describe the poem’s genesis and printing history, and carefully—without damaging the poem’s many ambiguities—elucidates most if not all of its textual knots. . . . For the student or for anyone who wants to get the maximum amount of information out of a foundational modernist work, this is the best available edition.”—Publishers Weekly
"The Annotated Waste Land is a nearly indispensable tool for scholars and students alike. With clear, balanced, and well-written scholarship, Lawrence Rainey soothes, with knowledge, our anxiety about approaching Eliot’s famously difficult poem and allows us much easier access to the poem’s greatness. I raced through the book, cover to cover, with pleasure and profit, and I will, I’m sure, return to it frequently."—Andrew Hudgins, author of After the Lost War
Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2006.
Publication Date: August 28, 2006
13 b/w illus.
![](https://drupal.yalebooks.yale.edu/sites/default/files/styles/book_jacket/public/imagecache/external/41bde47c768019988f4d8215d9d28a4d.jpg?itok=uS6Nlpmg "Revisiting "The Waste Land"")
