Reviews

The Waste Land and Other Writings by T.S. Eliot

ashley_rolfe's review

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4.0

In retrospect this actually was brilliant, thank you Tamlyn <3

eleitner's review

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

twylghast's review against another edition

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slow-paced

1.75

wunderkindl's review

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5.0

I know alot of my list is very cliche, but I can reread "The Lovesong of Alfred J. Prufrock" and take in something new each time.

amandalala's review

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5.0

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all."
- Prufrock and Other Observations

“[…] the critic must not coerce, and he must not make judgements of worse and better. He must simple elucidate: the reader will form the correct judgement for himself.” (72)
“A creation of art […] should replace the philosophy.” (113)

josh_paul's review against another edition

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3.0

Pretentious, but quite good in places.

misslapin's review against another edition

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2.0

While I do enjoy poetry (I love Larkin, Petrarch, Baudelaire, Whitman, Dante, and Rimbaud), I just can't find a way into to Eliot. Perhaps it's because the poetry is SO intertextual (and Eliot is aware of that as he appended notes to the Wasteland) that I find it impossible to immerse myself in the actual poem. Instead, I get overwhelmed by the constant flux of languages and literary references.

His work certainly references and interweaves varies fascinating sources, but ultimately it's too dense for me.

empire's review

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

greenrain's review

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2.0

I can understand why English professors make us suffer through poetry like this, but I would never willingly read this on my own. It is very tedious to get through all of the references and then spend even more time figuring out what in the world Elliot is trying to say, if anything at all.

panelparty's review against another edition

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2.0

Read for the Local Author prompt of the Popsugar Reading Challenge.

Either I am too stupid to understand these poems, or this is decidedly Not My Thing. Maybe both. I had to force myself to keep turning pages and found the experience wholly unenjoyable. I should have just gone with a William Burroughs book but I wanted to try and branch out into some classics I had never read.