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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on May 22, 1859, the third of tenchildren Early on, he e!inced a talent for storytelling, wowing teachers and friends in "esuit school with his yarns #is $rst %ublication ca&e in 18'9 with ()he Mystery of*asassa +alley( in the Chambers's Journal.

At the sa&e ti&e, Doyle %ursued a career in &edicine at Edinburgh ni!ersity, going onto beco&e a surgeon of so&e renown at *outhsea, -orts&outh .hile a &edical student,he wor/ed with Dr 0ell, who was ece%tionally obser!ant Doyle thought he would writestories, said Doyle, (in which the hero would treat cri&e as Dr 0ell treated disease andwhere science would ta/e the %lace of chance(

In a series of storiesstarting with A Study in Scarlet  and The Sign of the Four Doyle%roduced the &e&orable character, *herloc/ #ol&es, a detecti!e who relied on facts ande!idence rather than chance In 1891, si (Ad!entures of *herloc/ #ol&es( showed u%in Strand &aga3ine, with si &ore a%%earing the net year 0y 1894, The Memoirs ofSherlock Holmes, as the collected stories were now called, was a huge hit )he %ublic&ourned #ol&es death in ()he 6inal -roble&( Doyle changed his decision to %ursue&ore serious literary endea!ors in 1971, when $nances and %ublic %ressure yielded TheHound of the asker!illes. )he sa&e year that The Hound of the asker!illes was%ublished, Doyle %roduced a %iece of %ro%aganda on the 0oer .ar, and the author was/nighted for his eortsDoyle continued %utting out *herloc/ #ol&es stories, including the collected"eturn ofSherlock Holmes. ater in life, when his son was /illed in the $rst .orld .ar, Doylede!oted hi&self to his chosen faith, s%iritualis& )he notion of life after death and theidea of %sychic abilities infor& the character of Doyles fa&ous detecti!e *herloc/#ol&es is a &an who can see beyond a%%earances and lin/ ostensibly unrelated factsinto a coherent whole )he *herloc/ #ol&es stories also owe a debt to Edgar Allan -oe, who is often creditedwith ha!ing created the &odern detecti!e tale The #old ug:18;4<, The Murders in the"ue Morgue :18;1<, The Mystery of Marie "og$t :18;2=18;4<, and The %urloined

&etter  :18;;< are all, in a sense, %recursors to Conan Doyles detecti!e stories

The Hound of the Baskervilles o%ens with a &ini &ystery*herloc/ #ol&es and Dr.atson s%eculate on the identity of the owner of a cane that has been left in their o>ceby an un/nown !isitor .owing .atson with his fabulous %owers of obser!ation, #ol&es%redicts the a%%earance of "a&es Morti&er, owner of the found ob?ect and a con!eniententr@e into the baing curse of the 0as/er!illes

Entering the o>ce and un!eiling an 18th century &anuscri%t, Morti&er recounts the &ythof the lecherous #ugo 0as/er!ille #ugo ca%tured and i&%risoned a young country lass athis estate in De!onshire, only to fall !icti& to a &arauding hound of hell as he %ursuedher along the loneso&e &oors late one night E!er since, Morti&er re%orts, the0as/er!ille line has been %lagued by a &ysterious and su%ernatural blac/ hound )he

recent death of *ir Charles 0as/er!ille has re/indled sus%icions and fears )he net of /in,the duo $nds out, has arri!ed in ondon to ta/e u% his %ost at 0as/er!ille #all, but he hasalready been inti&idated by an anony&ous note of warning and, strangely enough, thetheft of a shoe

Agreeing to ta/e the case, #ol&es and .atson Buic/ly disco!er that *ir #enry 0as/er!illeis being trailed in ondon by a &ysterious bearded stranger, and they s%eculate as towhether the ghost be friend or foe #ol&es, howe!er, announces that he is too busy inondon to acco&%any Morti&er and *ir #enry to De!onshire to get to the botto& of thecase, and he sends Dr .atson to be his eyes and ears, insisting that he re%ort bac/regularly

nce in De!onshire, .atson disco!ers a state of e&ergency, with ar&ed guards on thewatch for an esca%ed con!ict roa&ing the &oors #e &eets %otential sus%ects in Mr0arry&ore and Mrs 0arry&ore, the do&estic hel%, and Mr "ac/ *ta%leton and his sister0eryl, 0as/er!ille neighbors

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

A series of &ysteries arri!e in ra%id successionG 0arry&ore is caught s/ul/ing around the&ansion at nightH .atson s%ies a lonely $gure /ee%ing watch o!er the &oorsH and thedoctor hears what sounds li/e a dogs howling 0eryl *ta%leton %ro!ides an enig&aticwarning and .atson learns of a secret encounter between *ir Charles and a local wo&anna&ed aura yons on the night of his death

Doing his best to unra!el these threads of the &ystery, .atson disco!ers that0arry&ores nightly ?aunts are ?ust his atte&%t to aid the esca%ed con, who turns out tobe Mrs 0arry&ores brother )he doctor inter!iews aura yons to assess herin!ol!e&ent, and disco!ers that the lonely $gure sur!eying the &oors is none other than*herloc/ #ol&es hi&self It ta/es #ol&eshidden so as not to ti% o the !illain as to hisin!ol!e&entto %iece together the &ystery

Mr *ta%leton, #ol&es has disco!ered, is actually in line to inherit the 0as/er!ille fortune,and as such is the %ri&e sus%ect aura yons was only a %awn in *ta%letons ga&e, a0as/er!ille bene$ciary who& *ta%leton con!inced to reBuest and then &iss a late nighta%%oint&ent with *ir Charles #a!ing lured Charles onto the &oors, *ta%leton releasedhis ferocious %et %ooch, which frightened the su%erstitious noble&an and caused a heartattac/

In a dra&atic $nal scene, #ol&es and .atson use the younger 0as/er!ille as bait to catch*ta%leton redhanded After a late su%%er at the *ta%letons, *ir #enry heads ho&e acrossthe &oors, only to be waylaid by the enor&ous *ta%leton %et Des%ite a dense fog,#ol&es and .atson are able to subdue the beast, and *ta%leton, in his %anic/ed ightfro& the scene, drowns in a &arshland on the &oors 0eryl *ta%leton, who turns out to be "ac/s harried wife and not his sister, is disco!ered tied u% in his house, ha!ing refused to%artici%ate in his dastardly sche&e

0ac/ in ondon, #ol&es ties u% the loose ends, announcing that the stolen shoe was usedto gi!e the hound #enrys scent, and that &ysterious warning note ca&e fro& 0eryl*ta%leton, whose %hilandering husband had denied their &arriage so as to seduce anduse aura yons .atson $les the case closed

RUDYARD KIPLING

 Joseph Rudyad K!p"!#$ :JKr L d ? d K/ N% lNOJ RUD y(d KIP lingH 47 Dece&ber 18P5 = 18 "anuary 194P<Q1R was an English shortstory writer, %oet, and no!elist chiey re&e&beredfor his tales and %oe&s of 0ritish soldiers in India and his tales for children #e was bornin 0o&bay, in the 0o&bay -residency of 0ritish India, and was ta/en by his fa&ily toEngland when he was $!e years oldQ2R i%ling is best /nown for his wor/s of $ction,including The Jungle ook  :a collection of stories which includes (Si//i)i//i)a!i(<, Just SoStories :1972<, )im :1971< :a tale of ad!enture<, &any short stories, including ( )he Man.ho .ould 0e ing( :1888<HQ4RQ;R and his %oe&s, including (Mandalay( :1897<, (Tunga Din(:1897<, ( )he .hite Mans 0urden( :1899< and (If( :1917< #e is regarded as a &a?or(inno!ator in the art of the short story(HQ5R his childrens boo/s are enduring classics of

childrens literatureH and his best wor/s are said to ehibit (a !ersatile and lu&inousnarrati!e gift(QPRQ'R

i%ling was one of the &ost %o%ular writers in England, in both %rose and !erse, in thelate 19th and early 27th centuriesQ5R #enry "a&es saidG (i%ling stri/es &e %ersonally asthe &ost co&%lete &an of genius :as distinct fro& $ne intelligence< that I ha!e e!er/nown(Q5R In 197' he was awarded the Uobel -ri3e in iterature, &a/ing hi& the $rstEnglishlanguage writer to recei!e the %ri3e, and to date he re&ains its youngestreci%ientQ8R A&ong other honours, he was sounded out for the 0ritish -oetaureateshi% and on se!eral occasions for a /nighthood, all of which he declinedQ9R

i%lings subseBuent re%utation has changed according to the %olitical and social cli&ateof the ageQ17RQ11R and the resulting contrasting !iews about hi& continued for &uch of the27th centuryQ12RQ14R Teorge rwell called hi& a (%ro%het of 0ritish i&%erialis&(Q1;R iterary

critic Douglas err wroteG (#e Qi%lingR is still an author who can ins%ire %assionatedisagree&ent and his %lace in literary and cultural history is far fro& settled 0ut as the

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age of the Euro%ean e&%ires recedes, he is recognised as an inco&%arable, ifcontro!ersial, inter%reter of how e&%ire was e%erienced )hat, and an increasingrecognition of his etraordinary narrati!e gifts, &a/e hi& a force to be rec/oned with(Q15R

The Jungle Book  :189;< is a collection of stories by English Uobel laureate Sudyardi%ling )he stories were $rst %ublished in &aga3ines in 1894=9; )he original%ublications contain illustrations, so&e by Sudyards father, "ohn oc/wood i%ling i%ling was born in India and s%ent the $rst si years of his childhood there After aboutten years in England, he went bac/ to India and wor/ed there for about siandhalf years )hese stories were written when i%ling li!ed in +er&ontQ1R  )here is e!idence that it waswritten for his daughter "ose%hine, who died in 1899 aged si, after a rare $rst edition ofthe boo/ with a %oignant handwritten note by the author to his young daughter wasdisco!ered at the Uational )rusts .i&%ole #all in Ca&bridgeshire in 2717Q2R

 )he tales in the boo/ :and also those in The Second Jungle ook  which followed in 1895,and which includes $!e further stories about Mowgli< are fables, using ani&als inan anthro%o&or%hic &anner to gi!e &oral lessons )he !erses of The &a* of the Jungle,for ea&%le, lay down rules for the safety of indi!iduals, fa&ilies and co&&unitiesi%ling %ut in the& nearly e!erything he /new or (heard or drea&ed about the Indian ?ungle(Q4R ther readers ha!e inter%reted the wor/ as allegories of the %olitics and society

of the ti&eQ;R  )he best/nown of the& are the three stories re!ol!ing around thead!entures of an abandoned (&an cub( Mowgli who is raised by wol!es in the Indian ?ungle )he &ost fa&ous of the other stories are %robably (Si//i)i//i)a!i(, the story of aheroic &ongoose, and ( )oo&ai of the Ele%hants(, the tale of a young ele%hanthandler Aswith &uch of i%lings wor/, each of the stories is %receded by a %iece of !erse, andsucceeded by another

The Jungle ook , because of its &oral tone, ca&e to be used as a &oti!ational boo/ bythe Cub *couts, a ?unior ele&ent of the *couting &o!e&ent )his use of the boo/suni!erse was a%%ro!ed by i%ling after a direct %etition of Sobert 0aden-owell, founderof the *couting &o!e&ent, who had originally as/ed for the authors %er&ission for theuse of the Memory #ame fro& )im in his sche&e to de!elo% the &orale and $tness ofwor/ingclass youths in cities A/ela, the head wolf in The Jungle ook , has beco&e a

senior $gure in the &o!e&ent, the na&e being traditionally ado%ted by the leader ofeach Cub *cout %ac/

Cha%ters

 )he co&%lete boo/, ha!ing %assed into the %ublic do&ain, is online at -ro?ectTutenbergs o>cial website and elsewhere Each of the e!ennu&bered ite&s below is ane%igra&&atic %oe& related to the %re!ious story

1 (Mowglis 0rothers(G A boy is raised by wol!es in the Indian "ungle with the hel%of 0aloo the bear and 0agheera the blac/ %anther, and then has to $ght thetiger *here han )his story has also been %ublished as a short boo/ in its ownrightG +ightSong in the Jungle

2 (#unting*ong of the *eeonee -ac/(

4 (aas #unting(G )his story ta/es %lace before Mowgli $ghts *here han .henMowgli is abducted by &on/eys, 0aloo and 0agheera set out to rescue hi& withthe aid of Chil the ite and aa the %ython Maims of aloo

; (Soad *ong of the 0andarog(

5 ( )igerV )igerV(G Mowgli returns to the hu&an !illage and is ado%ted by Messua andher husband who belie!e hi& to be their longlost son Uathoo 0ut he has troublead?usting to hu&an life, and *here han still wants to /ill hi& )he storys title ista/en fro& the %oe& ( )he )yger( by .illia& 0la/e

P (Mowglis *ong(

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

' ()he .hite *eal(G otic/, a rare whitefurred Uorthern fur seal, searches for a newho&e for his %eo%le, where they will not be hunted by hu&ans )he (ani&allanguage( words and na&es in this story are a %honetic s%elling of Sussians%o/en with an Aleut accent, for ea&%le (*taree/V( :W XYZ[\]V< W (old &anV(,(chen scoochnie( :said by otic/< W (I a& !ery loneso&e( W ^_` ]_:correctly &eans (!ery boring(<, holluschic/ :%lural ie< :W Yj], %l \ W

(bachelor(< :used in the story for (un&arried( young adult seals<

8 (u/annon(

9 (Si//i)i//i)a!i(G Si//i)i//i the &ongoose defends a hu&an fa&ily li!ing in Indiaagainst a %air of cobras )his story has also been %ublished as a short boo/

17 (Dar3ees Chaunt(

11 ( )oo&ai of the Ele%hants(G )oo&ai, a tenyear old boy who hel%s to tend wor/ingele%hants, is told that he will ne!er be a fulledged ele%hanthandler until he hasseen the ele%hants dance )his story has also been %ublished as a short boo/

12 (*hi! and the Trassho%%er(

14 (#er Ma?estys *er!ants( :originally titled (*er!ants of the kueen(<G n the nightbefore a &ilitary %arade a 0ritish soldier ea!esdro%s on a con!ersation betweenthe ca&% ani&als

1; (-arade*ong of the Ca&% Ani&als( %arodies se!eral well/nown songs and%oe&s, including 0onnie Dundee

HER%ERT GEORGE &ELL'

#erbert Teorge .ells was born in 18PP in ondon #e attended 0ro&ley Acade&y, a%ri!ate day school After attending the Uor&al *chool of *cience in *outh ensington, hebeca&e a science teacher At the Uor&al *chool, he studied under )ho&as #enry #uley,a fa&ous ad!ocate of the scienti$c theory of e!olution

*e!eral early !ersions of The Time Machinewere %ublished in the early 1897s, but theco&%leted no!ella did not a%%ear until 1895, when .ells was 4; years old It was the $rsttale of ti&e tra!el, and it is considered one of the forerunners of the science $ction genreThe Time Machines literary inuences are nu&erous Most ob!ious is "onathan*wifts #ulli!er's Tra!els, written a century earlier The Time Machine is a fusion of talesfro& fantastic lands, co&&entary on current 0ritish social Buestions, and an introductionto cuttingedge scienti$c theories.ells went on to %ublish &ore wor/s of science $ction, including The -sland of octor

Moreau :189P<, The -n!isible Man :189'<, and The /ar of the /orlds :1898< #e also%ublished co&ic wor/s of $ction such as The History of Mr. %olly  :1917< and An 0utline ofHistory  :1927<

THE TI(E (ACHINE

A grou% of &en, including the narrator, is listening to the )i&e )ra!eller discuss his theorythat ti&e is the fourth di&ension )he )i&e )ra!eller %roduces a &iniature ti&e &achineand &a/es it disa%%ear into thin air )he net wee/, the guests return, to $nd their hoststu&ble in, loo/ing dishe!eled and tired )hey sit down after dinner, and the )i&e )ra!eller begins his story

 )he )i&e )ra!eller had $nally $nished wor/ on his ti&e &achine, and it roc/eted hi& intothe future .hen the &achine sto%s, in the year 872,'71 AD, he $nds hi&self in a%aradisiacal world of s&all hu&anoid creatures called Eloi )hey are frail and %eaceful,and gi!e hi& fruit to eat #e e%lores the area, but when he returns he $nds that his ti&e

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

&achine is gone #e decides that it has been %ut inside the %edestal of a nearby statue#e tries to %ry it o%en but cannot In the night, he begins to catch gli&%ses of strangewhite a%eli/e creatures the Eloi call Morloc/s #e decides that the Morloc/s li!e belowground, down the wells that dot the landsca%e Meanwhile, he sa!es one of the Eloi fro&drowning, and she befriends hi& #er na&e is .eena )he )i&e )ra!eller $nally wor/s u%enough courage to go down into the world of Morloc/s to try to retrie!e his ti&e &achine

#e $nds that &atches are a good defense against the Morloc/s, but ulti&ately they chasehi& out of their real& 6rightened by the Morloc/s, he ta/es .eena to try to $nd a %lacewhere they will be safe fro& the Morloc/s nocturnal hunting #e goes to what he calls the-alace of Treen -orcelain, which turns out to be a &useu& )here, he $nds &ore&atches, so&e ca&%hor, and a le!er he can use as a wea%on )hat night, retreating fro&the Morloc/s through a giant wood, he accidentally starts a $re Many Morloc/s die in the$re and the battle that ensues, and .eena is /illed )he ehausted )i&e )ra!eller returnsto the %edestal to $nd that it has already been %ried o%en #e strides in con$dently, and ?ust when the Morloc/s thin/ that they ha!e tra%%ed hi&, he s%rings onto the &achineand whi33es into the future

 )he )i&e )ra!eller &a/es se!eral &ore sto%s In a distant ti&e he sto%s on a beach wherehe is attac/ed by giant crabs )he bloated red sun sits &otionless in the s/y #e then

tra!els thirty &illion years into the future )he air is !ery thin, and the only sign of life is ablac/ blob with tentacles #e sees a %lanet ecli%se the sun #e then returns, ehausted,to the %resent ti&e )he net day, he lea!es again, but ne!er returns

The War of the Worlds :1898<, a science $ction no!el by # T .ells, is the $rst%ersonnarrati!e of an unna&ed %rotagonists :and his brothers< ad!enturesin *urrey and ondon as Earth is in!aded by Martians .ritten in 1895=9',Q2R it is one ofthe earliest stories that details a conict between &an/ind and an etraterrestrial raceQ4R )he no!el is one of the &ost co&&entedon wor/s in the science $ction canonQ;R

The /ar of the /orlds has two %arts, ook 0ne1 The Coming of the Martians and ookT*o1 The 2arth under the Martians )he narrator, a %hiloso%hically inclined author,struggles to return to his wife while seeing the Martians lay waste to southern England0oo/ ne :Cha%ters 1;, 1P, and 1'< i&%arts the e%erience of his brother, also unna&ed,who describes e!ents in the ca%ital and esca%es the Martians by boarding a shi%near )illingha& on the coast sity$!e &iles northeast of ondon and is not &entionedagain

 )he %lot has been related to in!asion literature of the ti&e )he no!el has been !ariouslyinter%reted as a co&&entary on e!olutionary theory, 0ritish i&%erialis&, and generally+ictorian su%erstitions, fears and %re?udices At the ti&e of %ublication it was classi$ed asa scienti$c ro&ance, li/e his earlier no!el The Time Machine The /ar of the /orlds hasbeen both %o%ular :ha!ing ne!er gone out of %rint< and inuential, s%awning half a do3enfeature $l&s, radio dra&as, a record albu&, !arious co&ic boo/ ada%tations, a tele!isionseries, and seBuels or %arallel stories by other authors It has e!en inuenced the wor/ ofscientists, notably Sobert #utchings Toddard

 JOHN GAL'&ORTHY 

 Joh# Ga"s)othy M :JKm l3 w r p iJH 1; August 18P' = 41 "anuary 1944< was an Englishno!elist and %laywright Uotable wor/s include The Forsyte Saga :197P=1921< and itsseBuels, A Modern Comedy  and 2nd of the Cha3ter  #e won the Uobel -ri3e initerature in 1942

 "ohn Talsworthy was born at ingston #ill in *urrey, England, the son of "ohn and 0lanche0ailey :n@e 0artleet< Talsworthy #is fa&ily was wealthy and well established, with alarge estate in ingston u%on )ha&es that is now the site of three schoolsG Mary&ountInternational *chool, So/eby -re%aratory *chool, and #oly Cross #eattended #arrow and Uew College, ford, training as a barrister, and was called to thebar in 1897 #owe!er, he was not /een to begin %ractising law and instead tra!elledabroad to loo/ after the fa&ilys shi%%ing business During these tra!els he &et "ose%hConrad, then the $rst &ate of a sailingshi% &oored in the harbour of Adelaide, Australia,

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

and the two future no!elists beca&e close friends In 1895 Talsworthy began an aairwith Ada Ue&esis -earson Coo%er :18P;=195P<, the wife of his cousin Ma?or ArthurTalsworthy After her di!orce ten years later, they &arried 24 *e%te&ber 1975 andstayed together until his death in 1944 0efore their &arriage, they often stayedclandestinely in a far&house called .ingstone in the !illage of Manaton on Dart&oor,De!onQ1R 6ro& 1978 he too/ out a long lease on %art of the building and &ade it their

regular second ho&e until 1924Q1R

From the Four /inds, a collection of short stories, was Talsworthys $rst %ublished wor/in 189' )hese and se!eral subseBuent wor/s were %ublished under the %en na&e "ohn*in?ohn, and it would not be until The -sland %harisees :197;< that he would begin%ublishing under his own na&e, %robably owing to the death of his father #is $rst fulllength no!el, Jocelyn was %ublished in an edition of '57 under the na&e of "ohn *in?ohn =he later refused to ha!e it re%ublished #is $rst %lay, The Sil!er o  :197P<,Q2R = in whichthe theft of a %rostitutes %urse by a rich young &an of good fa&ily is %laced beside thetheft of a sil!er cigarette case fro& the rich &ans fathers house by a %oor de!il, with!ery dierent re%ercussionsQ4R = beca&e a success, and he followed it u% with The Man of%ro3erty  :197P<, the $rst in the 6orsyte trilogy Although he continued writing both %laysand no!els, it was as a %laywright that he was &ainly a%%reciated at the ti&e Along with

those of other writers of the ti&e, such as Teorge 0ernard *haw, his %lays addressedthe class syste& and social issues, two of the best /nown being Strife :1979< and TheSkin #ame :1927<

#e is now far better /nown for his no!els, %articularly The Forsyte Saga, his trilogy aboutthe e%ony&ous fa&ily and connected li!es )hese boo/s, as with &any of his otherwor/s, deal with social class, u%%er&iddle class li!es in %articular Although sy&%atheticto his characters, he highlights their insular, snobbish, and acBuisiti!e attitudes and theirsuocating &oral codes #e is !iewed as one of the $rst writers of the Edwardian era whochallenged so&e of the ideals of society de%icted in the %receding literature of+ictorian England )he de%iction of a wo&an in an unha%%y &arriage furnishes anotherrecurring the&e in his wor/ )he character of Irene in The Forsyte Saga is drawn fro& Ada-earson, though her %re!ious &arriage was not as &iserable as that of the character

 )hrough his writings he ca&%aigned for a !ariety of causes, including %rison refor&,wo&ens rights, ani&al welfare, and the o%%osition of censorshi% During .orld .ar I hewor/ed in a hos%ital in 6rance as an orderly after being %assed o!er for &ilitary ser!ice#e was elected as the $rst %resident of the -EU International literary club in 1921, wasa%%ointed to the rder of Merit in 1929after earlier turning down a /nighthoodandwas awarded the Uobel -ri3e in 1942 #e was too ill to attend the Uobel awardscere&ony, and died si wee/s later of a stro/e

 "ohn Talsworthy li!ed for the $nal se!en years of his life at 0ury in .est *usse #e diedfro& a brain tu&our at his ondon ho&e, Tro!e odge,#a&%stead In accordance with hiswill he was cre&ated at .o/ing with his ashes then being scattered o!er the *outhDowns fro& an aero%lane,Q;R but there are also &e&orials in #ighgate UewCe&eteryQ5R and in the cloisters of Uew College, fordQPR :the latter cut and %laced in the

cloisters by Eric TillQ'RQ8R

< )he %o%ularity of his $ction waned Buic/ly after his death but thehugely successful ada%tation of The Forsyte Saga in 19P' renewed interest in his wor/

A nu&ber of "ohn Talsworthys letters and %a%ers are held at the ni!ersity of0ir&ingha& *%ecial Collections

In 277', ingston ni!ersity, ondon o%ened a new building na&ed in recognition of hislocal birth

The Forsyte Saga, $rst %ublished under that na&e in 1922, is a series ofthree no!els and two interludes :inter!ening e%isodes< %ublished between 197P and 1921by Uobel -ri3ewinning English author "ohn Talsworthy )hey chronicle the !icissitudes ofthe leading &e&bers of an u%%er &iddleclass 0ritish fa&ily, si&ilar to Talsworthys ownQ1R nly a few generations re&o!ed fro& their far&er ancestors, the fa&ily &e&bers are

/eenly aware of their status as (new &oney( )he &ain character, *oa&es 6orsyte, seeshi&self as a (&an of %ro%erty( by !irtue of his ability to accu&ulate &aterial %ossessionsbut this does not succeed in bringing hi& %leasure

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*e%arate sections of the saga, as well as the lengthy story in its entirety, ha!e beenada%ted for cine&a and tele!ision )he $rst boo/, The Man of %ro3erty , was ada%ted in19;9 by #ollywood as That Forsyte /oman, starring Errol 6lynn, Treer Tarson, .alter-idgeon and Sobert qoung )he00C %roduced a %o%ular 2P%art serial in 19P', that alsodra&atised a subseBuent trilogy concerning the 6orsytes, A Modern Comedy  In2772, Tranada )ele!ision %roduced two series for the I)+networ/ called The Forsyte

Saga and The Forsyte Saga1 To &et  )he 19P' !ersion ins%ired the %o%ular Master3ieceTheatre tele!ision %rogra&, and the two Tranada series &ade their runs in the * as %artof that %rogra& In 2774, The Forsyte Saga was listed on the 00Cs )he 0ig Sead %oll ofthe s (bestlo!ed no!el(

The an of Pro!erty  *+,0-.

In this $rst no!el of the Forsyte Saga, after introducing us to the i&%ressi!e array of6orsytes headed by the for&idable Aunt Ann, Talsworthy &o!es into the &ain action ofthe saga by detailing *oa&es 6orsytes desire to own things, including his beautiful wife,Irene 6orsyte :n@e #eron< #e is ?ealous of her friendshi%s and wants her to be his alone#e concocts a %lan to &o!e her to the country, to Sobin #ill and a house he had built,away fro& e!eryone she /nows and cares about *he resists his gras%ing intentions, fallsin lo!e with the architect -hili% 0osinney who has been engaged by *oa&es to build the

house and has an aair with hi& #owe!er, 0osinney is the $anc@ of her friend "une6orsyte, the daughter of *oa&ess cousin qoung "olyon )here is no ha%%y endingG Irenelea!es *oa&es after he asserts what he %ercei!es to be his ulti&ate right on his %ro%erty he ra%es Irene, and 0osinney dies under the wheels of a cab after being dri!en franticby the news of Irenes ra%e by *oa&es )he story of *oa&es cousin "olyon 6orsyte is toldin %arallel "olyon, an artist, who years ago left his wife for his daughters go!erness,brea/ing o with his fa&ily, is %resented as a contrast to *oa&es #e obser!es fro& adistance the e!ents between *oa&es and Irene, while trying to rebuild his relationshi%with his father ld "olyon "olyon ta/es an interest in Irene and tries to hel% her after0osinneys death but the story concludes dra&atically with *oa&es shutting the door on "olyons face

Indian Su""er of a Forsyte *+,+/.

In a short interlude after The Man of %ro3erty , Talsworthy del!es into the newfoundfriendshi% between Irene and ld "olyon 6orsyte :"unes grandfather, and by now theowner of the house *oa&es had built< )his attach&ent gi!es ld "olyon %leasure, butehausts his strength #e lea!es Irene &oney in his will with qoung "olyon, his son, astrustee In the end ld "olyon dies under an ancient oa/ tree in the garden of the Sobin#ill house

In #han$ery  *+,20.

 )he &arital discord of both *oa&es and his sister .inifred is the sub?ect of the secondno!el, the title being a reference to the Court of Chancery, which deals with do&esticissues )hey ta/e ste%s to di!orce their s%ouses, Irene, and Montague Dartie res%ecti!ely#owe!er, while *oa&es tells his sister to bra!e the conseBuences of going to court, he isnot willing to go through a di!orce hi&self Instead he stal/s and hounds Irene, followingher abroad, and as/ing her to ha!e his child, which is his fathers wish lti&ately,*oa&es re&arries, wedding Annette, the young daughter of a 6rench *oho restaurantowner .ith his new wife, he has his only child, 6leur 6orsyte

As for Irene, she is left the su& of 15,777 after ld "olyons death #is son, (qoung( "olyon 6orsyte, also *oa&ess cousin, ta/es care of Irenes $nances .hen she $rst lea!es*oa&es, he oers his su%%ort At the ti&e of the death of young "olyons son "olly in the*outh African .ar, Irene has de!elo%ed a strong friendshi% with "olyon )hen, *oa&esconfronts young "olyon and Irene at Sobin #ill accusing the& :falsely< of ha!ing an aair qoung "olyon and Irene assert that they ha!e had an aair since *oa&es has it in his &indalready )hat gi!es *oa&es the e!idence he needs for di!orce %roceedings )hatconfrontation s%ar/s an actual aair between young "olyon and Irene, leading to their&arriage and the birth of a son "olyon "on 6orsyte

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 %&akening *+,20.

 )he sub?ect of the second interlude is the nai!e and euberant lifestyle of eightyearold "on 6orsyte #e lo!es and is lo!ed by his %arents #e has an idyllic youth, his e!ery desireindulged

To 'et  *+,2+.

 )his no!el concludes the 6orsyte *aga *econd cousins 6leur and "on 6orsyte &eet andfall in lo!e, ignorant of their %arents %ast troubles, indiscretions and &isdeeds nce*oa&es, "olyon, and Irene disco!er their ro&ance, they forbid their children to see eachother again Irene and "olyon also fear that 6leur is too &uch li/e her father and once shehas "on in her gras%, will want to %ossess hi& entirely Des%ite her feelings for "on, 6leurhas a !ery suitable suitor, Michael Mont, heir to a baronetcy, who has fallen in lo!e withher *hould they &arry, 6leur would ele!ate the status of her fa&ily fro& (nou!eau riche(to the aristocratic u%%er class )he title deri!es fro& *oa&es reections as he brea/s u%the house in which his ncle )i&othy, recently deceased in 1927 at age 171 and the lastof the older generation of 6orsytes, had li!ed a recluse, hoarding his life li/e %ro%ertynowing he is soon to die fro& a wea/ heart, "olyon writes a letter to "on, detailing thee!ents of Irenes &arriage to *oa&es, including her lo!e aair with -hili% 0osinney and

*oa&ess ra%e of her and warns hi& that Irene would be alone if were to &arry 6leur 0utwhile "on reads the letter, "olyon suddenly dies of a heart attac/ and "on is left tornbetween the %ast and his %resent lo!e for 6leur #e ulti&ately re?ects 6leur, brea/ing hisown heart as well as hers and lea!es for Canada 6leur &arries Michael Mont, though she/nows she doesnt lo!e hi& .ith her &arriage *oa&es is se%arated fro& the only %ersonwho& he has lo!ed selessly Irene also lea!es for Canada, selling the house at Sobin #ill*oa&es and Irene briey echange glances at a distance and a /ind of %eace is &adebetween the& but *oa&es is left conte&%lating all that he has lost

 JO'EPH CONRAD

 "ose%h Conrad was born in the /raine in 185' #is father was a -olish re!olutionary, so "ose%h s%ent his youth with se!eral dierent relati!es in se!eral dierent %laces In 18';,he $rst went to sea 6or the net twenty years he &ade his li!ing as a sailor, ?oining the

English &erchant ser!ice in 18'8 and e!entually beco&ing a shi% ca%tain In his twenties,after ?oining the English eet, Conrad anglici3ed his *la!ic na&e and learned English #edid not begin to write until he was in his forties &ord Jim is the $rst of his &a?or no!els Ita%%eared in 1977, the year after Heart of arkness, which is %erha%s his best/nownwor/ Conrad was only &oderately successful during his lifeti&e, although he &o!ed in%ro&inent literary circles and was friends with %eo%le li/e #enry "a&es and 6ord Mado6ordH with the latter he coauthored se!eral wor/sConrad was writing at the !ery &o&ent when the +ictorian Age was disa%%earing and the&odern era was e&erging +ictorian &oral codes still inuenced the %lots of no!els, butsuch %rinci%les were no longer absolute Uo!elists and %oets were beginning toe%eri&ent with for& )he ?u&bled ti&e seBuence and elaborate narrati!e fra&es of &ord Jim are %art of this &o!e&ent As Conrad wrote in the %reface to The +igger of the'+arcissus', another of his no!els, $ction wanted to (strenuously as%ire to the %lasticity of

scul%ture, to the colour of %ainting, and to the &agic suggesti!eness of &usic( &ord Jim,with its insistence on the freBuent inability of language to co&&unicatestraightforwardly, o%ens itself to new ways of using words A ter& as elusi!e as(inscrutable( &ay contain within itself the i&&ediately co&%rehensible essence of theno!els %rotagonist, while a si&%le word li/e (water( &ay fracture into a &ulti%licity of&eanings, each one a!ailable to only a single indi!idual )he sun hadnt set yet on +ictorias e&%ire, howe!erH in fact, it was at its 3enith .hilethis is one of Conrads no!els least in!ol!ed in the set of issues surroundingcolonialis&, &ord Jim ne!ertheless situates itself in a world where national dierences areoften reduced to the dichoto&y of (us( and (the&,( where the ter& (us( can enco&%assa sur%risingly heterogeneous grou% 0oth econo&ic and racial !ersions of the colonialdyna&ic co&e into %lay in this no!el.hen Conrad died in 192;, the $rst .orld .ar had co&e and gone, and &odernis&do&inated literature )he new world was one in which a no!el li/e &ord Jim, in which anolder set of ideals about herois& do co&bat with a &odern sense of troubled %ersonal

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identity, could no longer be written with serious intent .or/s li/e The #reat#atsby  and The Sound and the Fury,which feature the sa&e sort of conict, %resent thestruggle as absurd and futile, and no longer %rofound &ord Jim co&es out of a uniBue and!ery s%eci$c &o&ent in ti&e

LORD JI(&ord Jim is the story of a &an na&ed Marlows struggle to tell and to understand the lifestory of a &an na&ed "i& "i& is a %ro&ising young &an who goes to sea as a youth #erises Buic/ly through the ran/s and soon beco&es chief &ate Saised on %o%ular sealiterature, "i& constantly daydrea&s about beco&ing a hero, yet he has ne!er faced anyreal danger 6inally, his chance co&es #e is ser!ing aboard a !essel calledthe %atna,carrying Musli& %ilgri&s to Mecca, when the shi% stri/es an underwater ob?ectand s%rings a lea/ .ith a stor& a%%roaching, the crew abandons her and her %assengersto their fate "i&, not thin/ing clearly, abandons the shi% with the rest of the crew )he %atna does not sin/, howe!er, and "i&, along with the rest of the o>cers, is sub?ectedto an o>cial inBuiry by his fellow sea&en It is at this inBuiry, where "i& is stri%%ed of hiso>cers certi$cation, that he $rst &eets Marlow

*eeing so&ething in "i& that he recogni3es, or %erha%s fears, in hi&self, Marlow stri/esu% a tortured friendshi% with "i& "i& tells hi& his story, and Marlow hel%s hi& obtain aseries of ?obs )he %atnaincident haunts hi&, thoughH each ti&e it is &entioned, "i& eeshis current situation, enlisting Marlows hel% once again 6inally, with the hel% of *tein, ane%atriate trader, Marlow gets "i& situated as %ost &anager in the re&ote territory of-atusan "i& is initially ca%tured by one of the warring factions of the area, but soonesca%es and $nally beco&es a hero by defeating a local bandit #e falls in lo!e with "ewel,the beautiful, halfnati!e ste%daughter of the %re!ious trading %ost &anager, a bitter little&an called Cornelius "i& beco&es the s%iritual leader of -atusan Its citi3ens %lace theirtrust in hi& and rely on hi& to enforce ?usticene day, Tentle&an 0rown, a %irate, shows u% in -atusan with his crew in search of%ro!isions A s/ir&ish ensues, and 0rown holes u% ato% a hill Cornelius, annoyed by "i&ssuccess and his own failures, secretly &eets with 0rown and a cons%iracy, including a

dissenting -atusan faction, is for&ed against "i& "i&, unaware of the %lot, agrees to let0rown lea!e the area %eacefully :0rown guesses at "i&s dishonorable %ast, and "i&decides it would be still &ore dishonorable to /ill 0rown si&%ly because 0rown /nows thetruth about hi&< Cornelius guides 0rown down an alternate ri!er channel, which leadshi& to the ca&% of Dain .aris, the son of "i&s closest ally, Dora&in 0rown and his &ena&bush the ca&%, /illing Dain .aris "i&, reali3ing that he has still not been able toesca%e his initial failure aboard the%atna, ignores "ewels %leas and goes to Dora&insco&%ound, where the grie!ing father shoots and /ills hi&

Much of the no!el is concerned with Marlows atte&%ts to %iece together "i&s story fro&a !ariety of sources 6inally, he recounts the story to a grou% of acBuaintances At this%oint in ti&e, though, 0rown has not yet co&e to -atusan, and the story re&ainsun$nished nce e!ents are co&%leted, Marlow writes the& down in &anuscri%t for&,

which he then sends to a &e&ber of the audience of the $rst %art of the story )he no!elfrag&ents ti&e, and Marlow ?uta%oses dierent, nonchronological %ieces of "i&s storyfor &ai&u& eect, all the while see/ing to disco!er the source of his own fascinationwith "i& and the &eaning behind the story

HEART OF DARKNE''

Co#tet

 "ose%h Conrad did not begin to learn English until he was twentyone years old #e wasborn "o3ef )eodor onrad or3eniows/i on Dece&ber 4, 185', in the -olish /raine .henConrad was Buite young, his father was eiled to *iberia on sus%icion of %lotting againstthe Sussian go!ern&ent After the death of the boys &other, Conrads father sent hi& tohis &others brother in ra/w to be educated, and Conrad ne!er again saw his father #etra!eled to Marseilles when he was se!enteen and s%ent the net twenty years as asailor #e signed on to an English shi% in 18'8, and eight years later he beca&e a 0ritish

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&anager and his fa!orite, the bric/&a/er, see& to fear urt3 as a threat to their %ositionurt3 is ru&ored to be ill, &a/ing the delays in re%airing the shi% all the &ore costlyMarlow e!entually gets the %arts he needs to re%air his shi%, and he and the &anager setout with a few agents :who& Marlow calls %ilgri&s because of their strange habit ofcarrying long, wooden sta!es where!er they go< and a crew of cannibals on a long,di>cult !oyage u% the ri!er )he dense ?ungle and the o%%ressi!e silence &a/e e!eryone

aboard a little ?u&%y, and the occasional gli&%se of a nati!e !illage or the sound ofdru&s wor/s the %ilgri&s into a fren3y

Marlow and his crew co&e across a hut with stac/ed $rewood, together with a notesaying that the wood is for the& but that they should a%%roach cautiously *hortly afterthe stea&er has ta/en on the $rewood, it is surrounded by a dense fog .hen the fogclears, the shi% is attac/ed by an unseen band of nati!es, who $re arrows fro& the safetyof the forest )he African hel&s&an is /illed before Marlow frightens the nati!es awaywith the shi%s stea& whistle Uot long after, Marlow and his co&%anions arri!e at urt3sInner *tation, e%ecting to $nd hi& dead, but a halfcra3ed Sussian trader, who &eetsthe& as they co&e ashore, assures the& that e!erything is $ne and infor&s the& that heis the one who left the wood )he Sussian clai&s that urt3 has enlarged his &ind andcannot be sub?ected to the sa&e &oral ?udg&ents as nor&al %eo%le A%%arently, urt3

has established hi&self as a god with the nati!es and has gone on brutal raids in thesurrounding territory in search of i!ory )he collection of se!ered heads adorning thefence %osts around the station attests to his &ethodsv )he %ilgri&s bring urt3 out ofthe stationhouse on a stretcher, and a large grou% of nati!e warriors %ours out of theforest and surrounds the& urt3 s%ea/s to the&, and the nati!es disa%%ear into thewoods

 )he &anager brings urt3, who is Buite ill, aboard the stea&er A beautiful nati!e wo&an,a%%arently urt3s &istress, a%%ears on the shore and stares out at the shi% )he Sussiani&%lies that she is so&ehow in!ol!ed with urt3 and has caused trouble before throughher inuence o!er hi& )he Sussian re!eals to Marlow, after swearing hi& to secrecy, thaturt3 had ordered the attac/ on the stea&er to &a/e the& belie!e he was dead in orderthat they &ight turn bac/ and lea!e hi& to his %lans )he Sussian then lea!es by canoe,

fearing the dis%leasure of the &anager urt3 disa%%ears in the night, and Marlow goesout in search of hi&, $nding hi& crawling on all fours toward the nati!e ca&% Marlowsto%s hi& and con!inces hi& to return to the shi% )hey set o down the ri!er the net&orning, but urt3s health is failing fast

Marlow listens to urt3 tal/ while he %ilots the shi%, and urt3 entrusts Marlow with a%ac/et of %ersonal docu&ents, including an eloBuent %a&%hlet on ci!ili3ing the sa!ageswhich ends with a scrawled &essage that says, Eter&inate all the brutesVv )he stea&erbrea/s down, and they ha!e to sto% for re%airs urt3 dies, uttering his last words)hehorrorV )he horrorVvin the %resence of the confused Marlow Marlow falls ill soon afterand barely sur!i!es E!entually he returns to Euro%e and goes to see urt3s Intended :his$anc@e< *he is still in &ourning, e!en though it has been o!er a year since urt3s death,and she %raises hi& as a %aragon of !irtue and achie!e&ent *he as/s what his last

words were, but Marlow cannot bring hi&self to shatter her illusions with the truthInstead, he tells her that urt3s last word was her na&e

&ILLIA( %UTLER YEAT'

.illia& 0utler qeats was born in Dublin in 18P5 to a chaotic, artistic fa&ily #is father, a%ortrait %ainter, &o!ed the fa&ily to ondon when qeats was two, and .illia& s%ent&uch of his childhood &o!ing between the cold urban landsca%e of the &etro%olis andthe congenial countryside of County *ligo, Ireland, where his &others %arents li!ed Anaesthete e!en as a boy, qeats began writing !erse early, and %ublished his $rst wor/in 1885 In 1889, qeats &et the Irish %atriot, re!olutionary, and beauty Maud Tonne #efell i&&ediately in lo!e with her, and re&ained so for the rest of his lifeH !irtually e!eryreference to a belo!ed in qeatss %oetry can be understood as a reference to Maud Tonne )ragically, Tonne did not return his lo!e, and though they re&ained closely associated:she %ortrayed the lead role in se!eral of his %lays<, they were ne!er ro&anticallyin!ol!ed Many years later, qeats %ro%osed to her daughterand was re?ected again

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 qeats li!ed during a tu&ultuous ti&e in Ireland, during the %olitical rise and fall of Charles*tuart -arnell, the Irish Se!i!al, and the ci!il war -artly because of his lo!e for the%olitically acti!e Maud Tonne, qeats de!oted hi&self during the early %art of his career tothe iterary Se!i!al and to Irish %atriotis&, see/ing to de!elo% a new religiousiconogra%hy based on Irish &ythology :)hough he was of -rotestant %arentage, qeats%layed little %art in the conict between Catholics and -rotestants that tore Ireland a%art

during his lifeti&e< #e Buic/ly rose to literary %ro&inence, and hel%ed to found whatbeca&e the Abbey )heatre, one of the &ost i&%ortant cultural institutions in Ireland, atwhich he wor/ed with such lu&inaries as Augusta Tregory and the %laywright "ohn *yngeIn1924, qeats was awarded the Uobel -ri3e for iteraturene of the &ost re&ar/able facts about qeatss career as a %oet is that he only reachedhis full %owers late in life, between the ages of 57 and '5 Indeed, after reaching hisheight, he sustained it u% until the !ery end, writing &agni$cent %oe&s u% until twowee/s before his death )he nor&al e%ectation is that a %oets %owers will fade afterforty or $ftyH qeats de$ed that e%ectation and tru&%ed it entirely, writing &ost of hisgreatest %oe&sfro& the crushing %ower of The To*er  to the eerie &ysticis& of the &ast %oemsin the years after  he won the Uobel -ri3e, a testa&ent to the force andco&&it&ent with which he de!oted hi&self to transfor&ing his inner life into %oetry0ecause his wor/ straddles the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, qeats is stylistically

Buite a uniBue %oetH his early wor/ see&s curiously &odern for the nineteenth century,and his late wor/ often see&s curiously un&odern for the 1947s 0ut qeats wrote great%oe&s in e!ery decade of his life, and his inuence has towered o!er the %ast sidecadesH today, he is generally regarded as the greatest %oet of the twentieth centuryThe 'e3o#d Co4!#$5

Su""ary 

 )he s%ea/er describes a night&arish sceneG the falcon, turning in a widening gyrev:s%iral<, cannot hear the falconerH )hings fall a%artH the center cannot holdvH anarchy isloosed u%on the worldH )he blooddi&&ed tide is loosed, and e!erywhere J )hecere&ony of innocence is drownedv )he best %eo%le, the s%ea/er says, lac/ allcon!iction, but the worst are full of %assionate intensityv

*urely, the s%ea/er asserts, the world is near a re!elationH *urely the *econd Co&ing isat handv Uo sooner does he thin/ of the *econd Co&ing,v then he is troubled by a !asti&age of theS3iritus Mundi, or the collecti!e s%irit of &an/indG so&ewhere in the desert, agiant s%hin :A sha%e with lion body and the head of a &an, J A ga3e as blan/ and%itiless as the sunv< is &o!ing, while the shadows of desert birds reel about it )hedar/ness dro%s again o!er the s%ea/ers sight, but he /nows that the s%hins twentycenturies of stony slee%v ha!e been &ade a night&are by the &otions of a roc/ingcradlev And what rough beast,v he wonders, its hour co&e round at last, J *louchestowards 0ethlehe& to be bornvFor"

)he *econd Co&ingv is written in a !ery rough ia&bic %enta&eter, but the &eter is so

loose, and the ece%tions so freBuent, that it actually see&s closer to free !erse withfreBuent hea!y stresses )he rhy&es are li/ewise ha%ha3ardH a%art fro& the two cou%letswith which the %oe& o%ens, there are only coincidental rhy&es in the %oe&, such as&anv and sunv

#o""entary 

0ecause of its stunning, !iolent i&agery and terrifying ritualistic language, )he *econdCo&ingv is one of qeatss &ost fa&ous and &ost anthologi3ed %oe&sH it is also one of the&ost the&atically obscure and di>cult to understand :It is safe to say that !ery few%eo%le who lo!e this %oe& could %ara%hrase its &eaning to satisfaction< *tructurally, the%oe& is Buite si&%lethe $rst stan3a describes the conditions %resent in the world:things falling a%art, anarchy, etc<, and the second sur&ises fro& those conditions that a

&onstrous *econd Co&ing is about to ta/e %lace, not of the "esus we $rst /new, but of anew &essiah, a rough beast,v the slouching s%hin rousing itself in the desert andlu&bering toward 0ethlehe& )his brief e%osition, though intriguingly blas%he&ous, is

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not terribly co&%licatedH but the Buestion of what it should signify to a reader is anotherstory entirely

 qeats s%ent years crafting an elaborate, &ystical theory of the uni!erse that he describedin his boo/ A 7ision. )his theory issued in %art fro& qeatss lifelong fascination with theoccult and &ystical, and in %art fro& the sense of res%onsibility qeats felt to order his

e%erience within a structured belief syste& )he syste& is etre&ely co&%licated andnot of any lasting i&%ortanceece%t for the eect that it had on his %oetry, which is ofetraordinary lasting i&%ortance )he theory of history qeats articulated in A7ision centers on a diagra& &ade of two conical s%irals, one inside the other, so that thewidest %art of one of the s%irals rings around the narrowest %art of the other s%iral, and!ice !ersa qeats belie!ed that this i&age :he called the s%irals gyresv< ca%tured thecontrary &otions inherent within the historical %rocess, and he di!ided each gyre intos%eci$c regions that re%resented %articular /inds of historical %eriods :and could alsore%resent the %sychological %hases of an indi!iduals de!elo%&ent<)he *econd Co&ingv was intended by qeats to describe the current historical &o&ent:the %oe& a%%eared in 1921< in ter&s of these gyres qeats belie!ed that the world wason the threshold of an a%ocaly%tic re!elation, as history reached the end of the outer gyre:to s%ea/ roughly< and began &o!ing along the inner gyre In his de$niti!e edition of

 qeatss %oe&s, Sichard " 6inneran Buotes qeatss own notesGThe end of an age, *hich al*ays recei!es the re!elation of the character of the net age,is re3resented by the coming of one gyre to its 3lace of greatest e3ansion and of theother to its 3lace of greatest contraction... The re!elation 8that9 a33roaches *ill... take itscharacter from the contrary mo!ement of the interior gyre...

In other words, the worlds tra?ectory along the gyre of science, de&ocracy, andheterogeneity is now co&ing a%art, li/e the frantically widening ight%ath of the falconthat has lost contact with the falconerH the net age will ta/e its character not fro& thegyre of science, de&ocracy, and s%eed, but fro& the contrary inner gyrewhich,%resu&ably, o%%oses &ysticis&, %ri&al %ower, and slowness to the science andde&ocracy of the outer gyre )he rough beastv slouching toward 0ethlehe& is thesy&bol of this new ageH the s%ea/ers !ision of the rising s%hin is his !ision of the

character of the new world

 )his see&s Buite silly as %hiloso%hy or %ro%hecy :%articularly in light of the fact that it hasnot co&e true as yet< 0ut as %oetry, and understood &ore broadly than as a si&%lereiteration of the &ystic theory of A 7ision, )he *econd Co&ingv is a &agni$centstate&ent about the contrary forces at wor/ in history, and about the conict betweenthe &odern world and the ancient world )he %oe& &ay not ha!e the the&atic rele!anceof qeatss best wor/, and &ay not be a %oe& with which &any %eo%le can %ersonallyidentifyH but the aesthetic e%erience of its %assionate language is %owerful enough toensure its !alue and its i&%ortance in qeatss wor/ as a whole'a!"!#$ to %y6a#t!u45

Su""ary 

 )he s%ea/er, referring to the country that he has left, says that it is no country for old&envG it is full of youth and life, with the young lying in one anothers ar&s, birds singingin the trees, and $sh swi&&ing in the waters )here, all su&&er longv the world ringswith the sensual &usicv that &a/es the young neglect the old, who& the s%ea/erdescribes as Monu&ents of unageing intellectv

An old &an, the s%ea/er says, is a %altry thing,v &erely a tattered coat u%on a stic/,unless his soul can cla% its hands and singH and the only way for the soul to learn how tosing is to study &onu&ents of its own &agni$cencev )herefore, the s%ea/er has sailedthe seas and co&e J )o the holy city of 0y3antiu&v )he s%ea/er addresses the sagesstanding in Tods holy $re J As in the gold &osaic of a wall,v and as/s the& to be hissouls singing&astersv #e ho%es they will consu&e his heart away, for his heart

/nows not what it isvit is sic/ with desire J And fastened to a dying ani&al,v and thes%ea/er wishes to be gathered Into the arti$ce of eternityv

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the burning roof and tower, and Aga&e&non deadv )he s%ea/er wonders whether eda,caught u% by the swan and &astered by the brute blood of the air,v assu&ed his/nowledge as well as his %ower 0efore the indierent bea/ could let her dro%v

For"

eda and the *wanv is a sonnet, a traditional fourteenline %oe& in ia&bic %enta&eter )he structure of this sonnet is -etrarchan with a clear se%aration between the $rst eightlines :the octa!ev< and the $nal si :the sestetv<, the di!iding line being the &o&ent ofe?aculationthe shudder in the loinsv )he rhy&e sche&e of the sonnet is A0A0 CDCDE6TE6T

#o""entary 

i/e )he *econd Co&ing,v eda and the *wanv describes a &o&ent that re%resented achange of era in qeatss historical &odel of gyres, which he oers in A 7ision, his &ysticaltheory of the uni!erse 0ut where )he *econd Co&ingv re%resents :in qeatssconce%tion< the end of &odern history, eda and the *wanv re%resents so&ething li/e itsbeginningH as qeats understands it, the historyv of eda is that, ra%ed by the god xeus inthe for& of a swan, she laid eggs, which hatched into Clyte&nestra and #elen and the

wargods Castor and -olydeucesand thereby brought about the )ro?an .ar :)he bro/enwall, the burning roof and tower, J And Aga&e&non deadv< )he details of the story of the )ro?an .ar are Buite elaborateG briey, the Tree/ #elen, the &ost beautiful wo&an in theworld, was /idna%%ed by the )ro?ans, so the Tree/s besieged the city of )royH after thewar, Clyte&nestra, the wife of the Tree/ leader Aga&e&non, had her husband &urdered#ere, howe!er, it is i&%ortant to /now only the wars lasting i&%actG it brought about theend of the ancient &ythological era and the birth of &odern history

Also li/e )he *econd Co&ing,v eda and the *wanv is !aluable &ore for its %owerful ande!ocati!e languagewhich &anages to i&agine !i!idly such a bi3arre %heno&enon as agirls ra%e by a &assi!e swanthan for its %lace in qeatss occult history of the world Asan aesthetic e%erience, the sonnet is re&ar/ableH qeats co&bines words indicating%owerful action :sudden blow, beating, staggering, beating, shudder, &astered, burning,

&astered< with ad?ecti!es and descri%ti!e words that indicate edas wea/ness andhel%lessness :caressed, hel%less, terri$ed, !ague, loosening<, thus increasing the sensoryi&%act of the %oe&

The La7e Is"e o8 I##!s8ee5

Su""ary 

 )he %oet declares that he will arise and go to Innisfree, where he will build a s&all cabinof clay and wattles &adev )here, he will ha!e nine beanrows and a beehi!e, and li!ealone in the glade loud with the sound of bees :the beeloud gladev< #e says that he willha!e %eace there, for %eace dro%s fro& the !eils of &orning to where the cric/et singsvMidnight there is a gli&&er, and noon is a %ur%le glow, and e!ening is full of linnets

wings #e declares again that he will arise and go, for always, night and day, he hears thela/e water la%%ing with low sounds by the shorev .hile he stands in the city, on theroadway, or on the %a!e&ents grey,v he hears the sound within hi&self, in the dee%hearts corev

For"

)he a/e Isle of Innisfreev is written &ostly in hea&eter, with si stresses in each line,in a loosely ia&bic %attern )he last line of each fourline stan3a shortens the line totetra&eter, with only four stressesG And li!e alone in the beeloudglade.v Each of thethree stan3as has the sa&e A0A0 rhy&e sche&e 6or&ally, this %oe& is so&ewhatunusual for qeatsG he rarely wor/ed with hea&eter, and e!ery rhy&e in the %oe& is a fullrhy&eH there is no sign of the halfrhy&es qeats often %refers in his later wor/#o""entary 

)he a/e Isle of Innisfree,v %ublished in qeatss second boo/ of %oe&s,1894s The"ose, is one of his $rst great %oe&s, and one of his &ost enduring )he tranBuil, hy%notic

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hea&eters recreate the rhyth&ic %ulse of the tide )he si&%le i&agery of the Buiet lifethe s%ea/er longs to lead, as he enu&erates each of its Bualities, lulls the reader into hisidyllic fantasy, until the %enulti&ate line ?olts the s%ea/erand the readerbac/ into thereality of his drab urban eistenceG .hile I stand on the roadway, or on the %a!e&entsgreyv )he $nal lineI hear it in the dee% hearts corevis a crucial state&ent for qeats,not only in this %oe& but also in his career as a whole )he i&%lication that the truths of

the dee% hearts corev are essential to life is one that would %reoccu%y qeats for the restof his career as a %oetH the struggle to re&ain true to the dee% hearts core &ay bethought of as qeatss %ri&ary underta/ing as a %oet

T9 '9 ELIOT

 )ho&as *tearns Eliot, or )* Eliot as he is better /nown, was born in 1888in *t ouis #ewas the son of a %ro&inent industrialist who ca&e fro& a well connected 0oston fa&ilyEliot always felt the loss of his fa&ilys Uew England roots and see&ed to be so&ewhatasha&ed of his fathers business successH throughout his life he continually sought toreturn to the e%icenter of Anglo *aon culture, $rst by attending #ar!ard and then bye&igrating to England, where he li!ed fro& 191; until his death Eliot began graduatestudy in %hiloso%hy at #ar!ard and co&%leted his dissertation, although the outbrea/ of.orld .ar I %re!ented hi& fro& ta/ing his ea&inations and recei!ing the degree 0y

that ti&e, though, Eliot had already written )he o!e *ong of " Alfred -rufroc/,v and the.ar, which /e%t hi& in England, led hi& to decide to %ursue %oetry fullti&eEliot &et E3ra -ound in 191;, as well, and it was -ound who was his &ain &entor andeditor and who got his %oe&s %ublished and noticed During a 1921brea/ fro& his ?ob asa ban/ cler/ :to reco!er fro& a &ental brea/down<, Eliot $nished the wor/ that was tosecure hi& fa&e, The /aste &and. )his %oe&, hea!ily edited by -ound and %erha%s alsoby Eliots wife, +i!ien, addressed the frag&entation and alienation characteristic of&odern culture, &a/ing use of these frag&ents to create a new /ind of %oetry It was alsoaround this ti&e that Eliot began to write criticis&, %artly in an eort to e%lain his own&ethods In 1925, he went to wor/ for the %ublishing house 6aber 6aber Des%ite thedistraction of his wifes increasingly serious bouts of &ental illness, Eliot was fro& thisti&e until his death the %ree&inent literary $gure in the Englishs%ea/ing worldH indeed,he was so &onu&ental that younger %oets often went out of their way to a!oid hisloo&ing shadow, %ainsta/ingly a!oiding all si&ilarities of styleEliot beca&e interested in religion in the later 1927s and e!entually con!erted toAnglicanis& #is %oetry fro& this %oint onward shows a greater religious bent, although itne!er beco&es dog&atic the way his so&eti&es contro!ersial cultural criticis&does Four :uartets, his last &a?or %oetic wor/, co&bines a Christian sensibility with a%rofound uncertainty resulting fro& the wars de!astation of Euro%e Eliot died in 19P5 inondonA#a"ys!s

Eliot attributed a great deal of his early style to the 6rench *y&bolistsSi&baud,0audelaire, Mallar&@, and aforguewho& he $rst encountered in college, in a boo/ byArthur *y&ons called The Symbolist Mo!ement in &iterature. It is easy to understand why

a young as%iring %oet would want to i&itate these gla&orous bohe&ian $gures, but theirulti&ate eect on his %oetry is %erha%s less %rofound than he clai&ed .hile he too/ fro&the& their ability to infuse %oetry with high intellectualis& while &aintaining asensuousness of language, Eliot also de!elo%ed a great deal that was new and original#is early wor/s, li/e )he o!e *ong of " Alfred -rufroc/v andThe /aste &and, draw on awide range of cultural reference to de%ict a &odern world that is in ruins yet so&ehowbeautiful and dee%ly &eaningful Eliot uses techniBues li/e %astiche and ?uta%osition to&a/e his %oints without ha!ing to argue the& e%licitly As E3ra -ound once fa&ouslysaid, Eliot truly did &oderni3e hi&selfv In addition to showcasing a !ariety of %oeticinno!ations, Eliots early %oetry also de!elo%s a series of characters who $t the ty%e ofthe &odern &an as described by 6it3gerald, 6aul/ner, and others of Eliotsconte&%oraries )he title character of -rufroc/v is a %erfect ea&%leG solitary,neurasthenic, o!erly intellectual, and utterly inca%able of e%ressing hi&self to the

outside world

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As Eliot grew older, and %articularly after he con!erted to Christianity, his %oetrychanged )he later %oe&s e&%hasi3e de%th of analysis o!er breadth of allusionH theysi&ultaneously beco&e &ore ho%eful in toneG )hus, a wor/ such as Four:uartets e%lores &ore %hiloso%hical territory and oers %ro%ositions instead of nihilis& )he e%eriences of li!ing in England during .orld .ar II infor& the :uartets, whichaddress issues of ti&e, e%erience, &ortality, and art Sather than la&enting the ruin of

&odern culture and see/ing rede&%tion in the cultural %ast, as The /aste &and does, theBuartets oer ways around hu&an li&its through art and s%irituality )he %astiche of theearlier wor/s is re%laced by %hiloso%hy and logic, and the for&al e%eri&ents of his earlyyears are %ut aside in fa!or of a new language consciousness, which e&%hasi3es thesounds and other %hysical %ro%erties of words to create &usical, dra&atic, and othersubtle eects

#owe!er, while Eliots %oetry underwent signi$cance transfor&ations o!er the course ofhis career, his %oe&s also bear &any unifying as%ectsG all of Eliots %oetry is &ar/ed by aconscious desire to bring together the intellectual, the aesthetic, and the e&otional in away that both honors the %ast and ac/nowledges the %resent Eliot is always conscious ofhis own eorts, and he freBuently co&&ents on his %oetic endea!ors in the %oe&sthe&sel!es )his hu&ility, which often co&es across as &elancholy, &a/es Eliots so&e

of the &ost %ersonal, as well as the &ost intellectually satisfying, %oetry in the Englishlanguage

The Lo1e 'o#$ o8 J9 A"8ed Pu8o375

Su""ary 

 )his %oe&, the earliest of Eliots &a?or wor/s, was co&%leted in 1917 or1911 but not%ublished until 1915 It is an ea&ination of the tortured %syche of the %rototy%ical&odern &ano!ereducated, eloBuent, neurotic, and e&otionally stilted -rufroc/, the%oe&s s%ea/er, see&s to be addressing a %otential lo!er, with who& he would li/e toforce the &o&ent to its crisisv by so&ehow consu&&ating their relationshi% 0ut-rufroc/ /nows too &uch of life to darev an a%%roach to the wo&anG In his &ind he hears

the co&&ents others &a/e about his inadeBuacies, and he chides hi&self for%resu&ingv e&otional interaction could be %ossible at all )he %oe& &o!es fro& a seriesof fairly concrete :for Eliot< %hysical settingsa citysca%e :the fa&ous %atient etherisedu%on a tablev< and se!eral interiors :wo&ens ar&s in the la&%light, coee s%oons,$re%laces<to a series of !ague ocean i&ages con!eying -rufroc/s e&otional distancefro& the world as he co&es to recogni3e his secondrate status :I a& not -rince#a&let< -rufroc/v is %owerful for its range of intellectual reference and also for the!i!idness of character achie!edFor"

-rufroc/v is a !ariation on the dra&atic &onologue, a ty%e of %oe& %o%ular with Eliots%redecessors Dra&atic &onologues are si&ilar to soliloBuies in %lays )hree thingscharacteri3e the dra&atic &onologue, according to M# Abra&s 6irst, they are theutterances of a s%eci$c indi!idual :not the %oet< at a s%eci$c &o&ent in ti&e *econdly,the &onologue is s%eci$cally directed at a listener or listeners whose %resence is notdirectly referenced but is &erely suggested in the s%ea/ers words )hird, the %ri&aryfocus is the de!elo%&ent and re!elation of the s%ea/ers character Eliot &oderni3es thefor& by re&o!ing the i&%lied listeners and focusing on -rufroc/s interiority and isolation )he e%igra%h to this %oe&, fro& Dantes -nferno, describes -rufroc/s ideal listenerG onewho is as lost as the s%ea/er and will ne!er betray to the world the content of -rufroc/s%resent confessions In the world -rufroc/ describes, though, no such sy&%athetic $gureeists, and he &ust, therefore, be content with silent reection In its focus on characterand its dra&atic sensibility, -rufroc/v antici%ates Eliots later, dra&atic wor/s

 )he rhy&e sche&e of this %oe& is irregular but not rando& .hile sections of the %oe&&ay rese&ble free !erse, in reality, -rufroc/v is a carefully structured a&alga&ation of%oetic for&s )he bits and %ieces of rhy&e beco&e &uch &ore a%%arent when the %oe&is read aloud ne of the &ost %ro&inent for&al characteristics of this wor/ is the use ofrefrains -rufroc/s continual return to the wo&en QwhoR co&e and go J )al/ing of

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Michelangelov and his recurrent Buestionings :how should I %resu&ev< and %essi&istica%%raisals :)hat is not it, at allv< both reference an earlier %oetic tradition and hel% Eliotdescribe the consciousness of a &odern, neurotic indi!idual -rufroc/s obsessi!eness isaesthetic, but it is also a sign of co&%ulsi!eness and isolation Another i&%ortant for&alfeature is the use of frag&ents of sonnet for&, %articularly at the %oe&s conclusion )hethree threeline stan3as are rhy&ed as the conclusion of a -etrarchan sonnet would be,

but their %essi&istic, antiro&antic content, cou%led with the des%airing inter?ection, I donot thin/ they :the &er&aids< would sing to &e,v creates a contrast that co&&entsbitterly on the blea/ness of &odernity

#o""entary 

-rufroc/v dis%lays the two &ost i&%ortant characteristics of Eliots early %oetry 6irst, itis strongly inuenced by the 6rench *y&bolists, li/e Mallar&@, Si&baud, and 0audelaire,who& Eliot had been reading al&ost constantly while writing the %oe& 6ro& the*y&bolists, Eliot ta/es his sensuous language and eye for unner!ing or antiaestheticdetail that ne!ertheless contributes to the o!erall beauty of the %oe& :the yellow s&o/eand the hairco!ered ar&s of the wo&en are two good ea&%les of this< )he *y&bolists,too, %ri!ileged the sa&e /ind of indi!idual Eliot creates with -rufroc/G the &oody, urban,

isolatedyetsensiti!e thin/er #owe!er, whereas the *y&bolists would ha!e been &oreli/ely to &a/e their s%ea/er hi&self a %oet or artist, Eliot chooses to &a/e -rufroc/ anunac/nowledged %oet, a sort of artist for the co&&on &an

 )he second de$ning characteristic of this %oe& is its use of frag&entation and ?uta%osition Eliot sustained his interest in frag&entation and its a%%lications throughouthis career, and his use of the techniBue changes in i&%ortant ways across his body ofwor/G #ere, the sub?ects undergoing frag&entation :and reasse&bly< are &ental focusand certain sets of i&ageryH in The /aste &and, it is &odern culture that s%lintersH inthe Four :uartets we $nd the frag&ents of atte&%ted %hiloso%hical syste&s Eliots useof bits and %ieces of for&al structure suggests that frag&entation, although aniety%ro!o/ing, is ne!ertheless %roducti!eH had he chosen to write in free !erse, the %oe&would ha!e see&ed &uch &ore nihilistic )he /inds of i&agery Eliot uses also suggest

that so&ething new can be &ade fro& the ruinsG )he series of hy%othetical encounters atthe %oe&s center are iterated and discontinuous but ne!ertheless lead to a sort ofe%i%hany :albeit a dar/ one< rather than ?ust leading nowhere Eliot also introduces ani&age that will recur in his later %oetry, that of the sca!enger -rufroc/ thin/s that heshould ha!e been a %air of ragged claws J *cuttling across the oors of silent seasvCrabs are sca!engers, garbageeaters who li!e o refuse that &a/es its way to the seaoor Eliots discussions of his own %oetic techniBue :see es%ecially his essay )raditionand the Indi!idual )alentv< suggest that &a/ing so&ething beautiful out of the refuse of&odern life, as a crab sustains and nourishes itself on garbage, &ay, in fact, be thehighest for& of art At the !ery least, this notion sub!erts ro&antic ideals about artH atbest, it suggests that frag&ents &ay beco&e reintegrated, that art &ay be in so&e waythera%eutic for a bro/en &odern world In The /aste &and, crabs beco&e rats, and theo%ti&is& disa%%ears, but here Eliot see&s to assert only the li&itless %otential of

sca!enging-rufroc/v ends with the hero assigning hi&self a role in one of *ha/es%eares %laysG.hile he is no #a&let, he &ay yet be useful and i&%ortant as an attendant lord, onethat will do J )o swell a %rogress, start a scene or twov )his i&%lies that there is still acontinuity between *ha/es%eares world and ours, that Hamlet  is still rele!ant to us andthat we are still %art of a world that could %roduce so&ething li/e *ha/es%eares %laysI&%licit in this, of course, is the suggestion that Eliot, who has created an attendantlord,v &ay now go on to create another #a&let .hile -rufroc/v ends with a de!aluationof its hero, it ealts its creator r does it )he last line of the %oe& suggests otherwisethat when the world intrudes, when hu&an !oices wa/e us,v the drea& is shatteredG wedrownv .ith this single line, Eliot dis&antles the ro&antic notion that %oetic genius is allthat is needed to triu&%h o!er the destructi!e, i&%ersonal forces of the &odern world Inreality, Eliot the %oet is little better than his creationG #e diers fro& -rufroc/ only by

retaining a bit of hubris, which shows through fro& ti&e to ti&e Eliots %oetic creation,thus, &irrors -rufroc/s soliloBuyG 0oth are an e%ression of aesthetic ability and

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sensiti!ity that see&s to ha!e no %lace in the &odern world )his realistic, antiro&anticoutloo/ sets the stage for Eliots later wor/s, including The /aste &and.The Waste 'and  'e3t!o# I: The %u!a" o8 the Dead5

Su""ary 

 )he $rst section of The /aste &and ta/es its title fro& a line in the Anglican burial ser!ice

It is &ade u% of four !ignettes, each see&ingly fro& the %ers%ecti!e of a dierents%ea/er )he $rst is an autobiogra%hical sni%%et fro& the childhood of an aristocraticwo&an, in which she recalls sledding and clai&s that she is Ter&an, not Sussian :thiswould be i&%ortant if the wo&an is &eant to be a &e&ber of the recently defeatedAustrian i&%erial fa&ily< )he wo&an &ies a &editation on the seasons with re&ar/s onthe barren state of her current eistence :I read, &uch of the night, and go south in thewinterv< )he second section is a %ro%hetic, a%ocaly%tic in!itation to ?ourney into a desertwaste, where the s%ea/er will show the reader so&ething dierent fro& either J qourshadow at &orning striding behind you J r your shadow at e!ening rising to &eet youH JQ#eR will show you fear in a handful of dustv :E!elyn .augh too/ the title for one of hisbest/nown no!els fro& these lines< )he al&ost threatening %ro%hetic tone is &ied withchildhood re&iniscences about a hyacinth girlv and a nihilistic e%i%hany the s%ea/er hasafter an encounter with her )hese recollections are $ltered through Buotations fro&

.agners o%eratic !ersion of Tristan und -solde, an Arthurian tale of adultery and loss )he third e%isode in this section describes an i&aginati!e tarot reading, in which so&e ofthe cards Eliot includes in the reading are not %art of an actual tarot dec/ )he $nale%isode of the section is the &ost surreal )he s%ea/er wal/s through a ondon %o%ulatedby ghosts of the dead #e confronts a $gure with who& he once fought in a battle thatsee&s to conate the clashes of .orld .ar I with the -unic .ars between So&e andCarthage :both futile and ecessi!ely destructi!e wars< )he s%ea/er as/s the ghostly$gure, *tetson, about the fate of a cor%se %lanted in his garden )he e%isode concludeswith a fa&ous line fro& the %reface to 0audelaires Fleurs du Mal :an i&%ortant collectionof *y&bolist %oetry<, accusing the reader of sharing in the %oets sinsFor"

i/e -rufroc/,v this section of The /aste &and can be seen as a &odi$ed dra&atic

&onologue )he four s%ea/ers in this section are frantic in their need to s%ea/, to $nd anaudience, but they $nd the&sel!es surrounded by dead %eo%le and thwarted by outsidecircu&stances, li/e wars 0ecause the sections are so short and the situations soconfusing, the eect is not one of an o!erwhel&ing i&%ression of a single characterHinstead, the reader is left with the feeling of being tra%%ed in a crowd, unable to $nd afa&iliar faceAlso li/e -rufroc/,v The /aste &and e&%loys only %artial rhy&e sche&es and shortbursts of structure )hese are &eant to referencebut also rewor/ the literary %ast,achie!ing si&ultaneously a stabili3ing and a defa&iliari3ing eect )he world of The/aste &and has so&e %arallels to an earlier ti&e, but it cannot be a%%roached in thesa&e way )he inclusion of frag&ents in languages other than English further co&%licates&atters )he reader is not e%ected to be able to translate these i&&ediatelyH rather,they are re&inders of the cos&o%olitan nature of twentiethcentury Euro%e and of&an/inds fate after the )ower of 0abelG .e will ne!er be able to %erfectly co&%rehendone another#o""entary 

Uot only is The /aste &and Eliots greatest wor/, but it &ay bealong with "oyces ;lyssesthe greatest wor/ of all &odernist literature Most of the %oe& waswritten in 1921, and it $rst a%%eared in %rint in 1922 As the %oe&s dedication indicates,Eliot recei!ed a great deal of guidance fro& E3ra -ound, who encouraged hi& to cut largesections of the %lanned wor/ and to brea/ u% the rhy&e sche&e Secent scholarshi%suggests that Eliots wife, +i!ien, also had a signi$cant role in the %oe&s $nal for& Along wor/ di!ided into $!e sections, The /aste &and ta/es on the degraded &ess thatEliot considered &odern culture to constitute, %articularly after the $rst .orld .ar hadra!aged Euro%e A sign of the %essi&is& with which Eliot a%%roaches his sub?ect is the

%oe&s e%igra%h, ta/en fro& the Satyricon, in which the *ibyl :a wo&an with %ro%hetic%owers who ages but ne!er dies< loo/s at the future and %roclai&s that she only wants to

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

die )he *ibyls %redica&ent &irrors what Eliot sees as his ownG #e li!es in a culture thathas decayed and withered but will not e%ire, and he is forced to li!e with re&inders of itsfor&er glory )hus, the underlying %lot of The /aste &and,inas&uch as it can be said toha!e one, re!ol!es around Eliots reading of two etraordinarily inuential conte&%oraryculturalJanthro%ological tets, "essie .estons From "itual to "omance and *ir "a&es6ra3iers The #olden ough. 0oth of these wor/s focus on the %ersistence of ancient

fertility rituals in &odern thought and religionH of %articular interest to both authors is thestory of the 6isher ing, who has been wounded in the genitals and whose lac/ of %otencyis the cause of his country beco&ing a desiccated waste landv #eal the 6isher ing, thelegend says, and the land will regain its fertility According to .eston and 6ra3ier, healingthe 6isher ing has been the sub?ect of &ythic tales fro& ancient Egy%t to ArthurianEngland Eliot %ic/s u% on the $gure of the 6isher ing legends wasteland as ana%%ro%riate descri%tion of the state of &odern society )he i&%ortant dierence, ofcourse, is that in Eliots world there is no way to heal the 6isher ingH %erha%s there is no6isher ing at all )he legends i&%erfect integration into a &odern &editation highlightsthe lac/ of a unifying narrati!e :li/e religion or &ythology< in the &odern worldEliots %oe&, li/e the anthro%ological tets that ins%ired it, draws on a !ast range ofsources Eliot %ro!ided co%ious footnotes with the %ublication of The /aste &and in boo/for&H these are an ecellent source for trac/ing down the origins of a reference Many of

the references are fro& the 0ibleG at the ti&e of the %oe&s writing Eliot was ?ustbeginning to de!elo% an interest in Christianity that would reach its a%e in the Four:uartets. )he o!erall range of allusions in The /aste &and, though, suggests noo!erarching %aradig& but rather a grab bag of bro/en frag&ents that &ust so&ehow be%ieced together to for& a coherent whole .hile Eliot e&%loys a deliberately di>cult styleand see&s often to $nd the &ost obscure reference %ossible, he &eans to do &ore than ?ust frustrate his reader and dis%lay his own intelligenceG #e intends to %ro!ide a &i&eticaccount of life in the confusing world of the twentieth centuryThe /aste &and o%ens with a reference to Chaucers Canterbury Tales. In this case,though, A%ril is not the ha%%y &onth of %ilgri&ages and storytelling It is instead the ti&ewhen the land should be regenerating after a long winter Segeneration, though, is%ainful, for it brings bac/ re&inders of a &ore fertile and ha%%ier %ast In the &odernworld, winter, the ti&e of forgetfulness and nu&bness, is indeed %referable Marieschildhood recollections are also %ainfulG the si&%le world of cousins, sledding, and coeein the %ar/ has been re%laced by a co&%le set of e&otional and %olitical conseBuencesresulting fro& the war )he to%ic of &e&ory, %articularly when it in!ol!es re&e&beringthe dead, is of critical i&%ortance inThe /aste &and. Me&ory creates a confrontation ofthe %ast with the %resent, a ?uta%osition that %oints out ?ust how badly things ha!edecayed Marie reads for &ost of the nightG ostraci3ed by %olitics, she is unable to do&uch else )o read is also to re&e&ber a better %ast, which could %roduce a coherentliterary culture )he second e%isode contains a troubled religious %ro%osition )he s%ea/er describes atrue wasteland of stony rubbishvH in it, he says, &an can recogni3e only QaR hea% ofbro/en i&agesv qet the scene see&s to oer sal!ationG shade and a !ision of so&ethingnew and dierent )he !ision consists only of nothingnessa handful of dustwhich is so

%rofound as to be frighteningH yet truth also resides hereG Uo longer a religious%heno&enon achie!ed through Christ, truth is re%resented by a &ere !oid )he s%ea/erre&e&bers a fe&ale $gure fro& his %ast, with who& he has a%%arently had so&e sort ofro&antic in!ol!e&ent In contrast to the %resent setting in the desert, his &e&ories arelush, full of water and bloo&ing owers )he !ibrancy of the earlier scene, though, leadsthe s%ea/er to a re!elation of the nothingness he now oers to show the reader Again&e&ory ser!es to contrast the %ast with the %resent, but here it also ser!es to e%lodethe idea of coherence in either %lace In the e%isode fro& the %ast, the nothingnessv is&ore clearly a seual failure, a &o&ent of i&%otence Des%ite the o!erall fecundity and ?oy of the &o&ent, no reconciliation, and, therefore, no action, is %ossible )his in turnleads directly to the desert waste of the %resent In the $nal line of the e%isode attentionturns fro& the desert to the sea #ere, the sea is not a locus for the fear of nothingness,and neither is it the locus for a %hiloso%hical inter%retation of nothingnessH rather, it is the

site of true, essential nothingness itself )he line co&es fro& a section of Tristan und-solde where )ristan waits for Isolde to co&e heal hi& *he is su%%osedly co&ing by shi%

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but fails to arri!e )he ocean is truly e&%ty, de!oid of the %ossibility of healing orre!elation )he third e%isode e%lores Eliots fascination with transfor&ation )he tarot readerMada&e *osostris conducts the &ost outrageous for& of readingv %ossible, transfor&inga series of !ague sy&bols into %redictions, &any of which will co&e true in succeedingsections of the %oe& Eliot transfor&s the traditional tarot %ac/ to ser!e his %ur%oses

 )he drowned sailor &a/es reference to the ulti&ate wor/ of &agic and transfor&ation inEnglish literature, *ha/es%eares The Tem3est  :)hose are %earls that were his eyesv is aBuote fro& one of Ariels songs< )ransfor&ation in The Tem3est,though, is the result ofthe highest art of hu&an/ind #ere, transfor&ation is associated with fraud, !ulgarity,and chea% &ysticis& )hat Mada&e *osostris will %ro!e to be right in her %redictions ofdeath and transfor&ation is a direct co&&entary on the failed religious &ysticis& and%ro%hecy of the %receding desert section

 )he $nal e%isode of the $rst section allows Eliot $nally to establish the true wasteland ofthe %oe&, the &odern city Eliots ondon references 0audelaires -aris :nreal Cityv<,Dic/enss ondon :the brown fog of a winter dawnv< and Dantes hell :the owing crowdof the deadv< )he city is desolate and de%o%ulated, inhabited only by ghosts fro& the%ast *tetson, the a%%arition the s%ea/er recogni3es, is a fallen war co&rade )he s%ea/er

%esters hi& with a series of ghoulish Buestions about a cor%se buried in his gardenGagain, with the garden, we return to the the&e of regeneration and fertility )hisencounter can be read as a Buest for a &eaning behind the tre&endous slaughter of the$rst .orld .arH howe!er, it can also be read as an eercise in ulti&ate futilityG as we seein *tetsons failure to res%ond to the s%ea/ers inBuiries, the dead oer few answers )hegreat res%ecti!e weights of history, tradition, and the %oets dead %redecessors co&bineto create an o%%ressi!e burden

The Waste 'and  'e3t!o# II: A Ga4e o8 Chess5

Su""ary 

 )his section ta/es its title fro& two %lays by the early 1'thcentury %laywright )ho&asMiddleton, in one of which the &o!es in a ga&e of chess denote stages in a seduction

 )his section focuses on two o%%osing scenes, one of high society and one of the lowerclasses )he $rst half of the section %ortrays a wealthy, highly groo&ed wo&ansurrounded by eBuisite furnishings As she waits for a lo!er, her neurotic thoughtsbeco&e frantic, &eaningless cries #er day cul&inates with %lans for an ecursion and aga&e of chess )he second %art of this section shifts to a ondon barroo&, where twowo&en discuss a third wo&an 0etween the bartenders re%eated calls of #SSq --EA*E I)* )IMEv :the bar is closing for the night< one of the wo&en recounts acon!ersation with their friend il, whose husband has ?ust been discharged fro& the ar&y*he has chided il o!er her failure to get herself so&e false teeth, telling her that herhusband will see/ out the co&%any of other wo&en if she doesnt i&%ro!e hera%%earance il clai&s that the cause of her ra!aged loo/s is the &edication she too/ toinduce an abortionH ha!ing nearly died gi!ing birth to her $fth child, she had refused toha!e another, but her husband wont lea!e QherR alonev )he wo&en lea!e the bar to a

chorus of good night:s<v re&iniscent of %helias farewell s%eech in Hamlet.For"

 )he $rst %art of the section is largely in unrhy&ed ia&bic %enta&eter lines, or blan/!erse As the section %roceeds, the lines beco&e increasingly irregular in length and&eter, gi!ing the feeling of disintegration, of things falling a%art As the wo&an of the$rst half begins to gi!e !oice to her %aranoid thoughts, things do fall a%art, at leastfor&allyG .e read lines of dialogue, then a sni%%et fro& a nonsense song )he last fourlines of the $rst half rhy&e, although they are irregular in &eter, suggesting at least a%artial return to stability

 )he second half of the section is a dialogue interru%ted by the bar&ans refrain Satherthan following an organi3ed structure of rhy&e and &eter, this section constitutes a loose

series of %hrases connected by I said:s<v and she said:s<v )his is %erha%s the &ost%oetically e%eri&ental section of the entire %oe& Eliot is writing in a lowerclass!ernacular here that resists %oetic treat&ent )his section refutes the %re!alent clai&

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that ia&bic %enta&eter &irrors nor&al English s%eech %atternsG ine length and stressesare consistently irregular qet the section sounds li/e %oetryG the re%eated use of I saidvand the grounding %ro!ided by the bar&ans chorus allow the wo&ans s%eech to owelegantly, des%ite her rough %hrasing and the coarse content of her story

#o""entary 

 )he two wo&en of this section of the %oe& re%resent the two sides of &odern seualityGwhile one side of this seuality is a dry, barren interchange inse%arable fro& neurosis andselfdestruction, the other side of this seuality is a ra&%ant fecundity associated with alac/ of culture and ra%id aging )he $rst wo&an is associated by allusion with Cleo%atra,Dido, and e!en eatss a&ia, by !irtue of the lushness of language surrounding her:although Eliot would ne!er ha!e ac/nowledged eats as an inuence< *he is afrustrated, o!erly e&otional but not terribly intellectual $gure, oddly sinister, surroundedby strange synthetic %erfu&esv and s&o/ing candles *he can be seen as a counter%artto the title character of Eliots earlier o!e *ong of " Alfred -rufroc/,v with who& sheshares both a %hysical setting and a %rofound sense of isolation #er association withDido and Cleo%atra, two wo&en who co&&itted suicide out of frustrated lo!e, suggestsher funda&ental irrationality nli/e the two Bueens of &yth, howe!er, this wo&an will

ne!er beco&e a cultural touchstone #er des%air is %athetic, rather than &o!ing, as shede&ands that her lo!er stay with her and tell her his thoughts )he lo!er, who see&s tobe associated with the narrator of this %art of the %oe&, can thin/ only of drowning:again, in a reference to The Tem3est < and rats a&ong dead &ens bones )he wo&an ise%licitly co&%ared to -hilo&ela, a character out of !ids Metamor3hoses who is ra%edby her brotherinlaw the /ing, who then cuts her tongue out to /ee% her Buiet *he&anages to tell her sister, who hel%s her a!enge herself by &urdering the /ings son andfeeding hi& to the /ing )he sisters are then changed into birds, -hilo&ela into anightingale )his co&%arison suggests so&ething essentially disa%%ointing about thewo&an, that she is unable to co&&unicate her interior self to the world )he wo&an andher surroundings, although aesthetically %leasing, are ulti&ately sterile and &eaningless,as suggested by the nonsense song that she sings :which &anages to debase e!en*ha/es%eare<

 )he second scene in this section further di&inishes the %ossibility that se can bringregenerationeither cultural or %ersonal )his section is re&ar/ably free of the culturalallusions that do&inate the rest of the %oe&H instead, it relies on !ernacular s%eech to&a/e its %oint Uotice that Eliot is using a 0ritish !ernacularG 0y this %oint he had &o!edto England %er&anently and had beco&e a con$r&ed Anglo%hile Although Eliot is able to%roduce startlingly beautiful %oetry fro& the rough s%eech of the wo&en in the bar, hene!ertheless %resents their con!ersation as further reason for %essi&is& )heir friend ilhas done e!erything the right way&arried, su%%orted her soldier husband, bornechildrenyet she is being %unished by her body Interestingly, this section ends with aline echoing %helias suicide s%eech in Hamlet H this lin/s il to the wo&an in the $rstsection of the %oe&, who has also been co&%ared to fa&ous fe&ale suicides )heco&%arison between the two is not &eant to suggest eBuality between the& or to%ro%ose that the $rst wo&ans eaggerated sense of high culture is in any way eBui!alent

to the second wo&ans lac/ of itH rather, Eliot &eans to suggest that neither wo&ansfor& of seuality is regenerati!eThe Waste 'and  'e3t!o# III: The F!e 'e4o#5

Su""ary 

 )he title of this, the longest section of The /aste &and, is ta/en fro& a ser&on gi!en by0uddha in which he encourages his followers to gi!e u% earthly %assion :sy&boli3ed by$re< and see/ freedo& fro& earthly things A turn away fro& the earthly does indeed ta/e%lace in this section, as a series of increasingly debased seual encounters concludeswith a ri!ersong and a religious incantation )he section o%ens with a desolate ri!ersidesceneG Sats and garbage surround the s%ea/er, who is $shing and &using on the /ing&y brothers wrec/v )he ri!ersong begins in this section, with the refrain fro&*%ensers %rothalamionG *weet )ha&es, run softly till I end &y songv A sni%%et fro& a!ulgar soldiers ballad follows, then a reference bac/ to -hilo&ela :see the %re!ioussection< )he s%ea/er is then %ro%ositioned by Mr Eugenides, the oneeyed &erchant of

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

Mada&e *osostriss tarot %ac/ Eugenides in!ites the s%ea/er to go with hi& to a hotel/nown as a &eeting %lace for ho&oseual trysts

 )he s%ea/er then %roclai&s hi&self to be )iresias, a $gure fro& classical &ythology whohas both &ale and fe&ale features :ld &an with wrin/led fe&ale breastsv< and is blindbut can seev into the future )iresiasJthe s%ea/er obser!es a young ty%ist, at ho&e for

tea, who awaits her lo!er, a dull and slightly arrogant cler/ )he wo&an allows the cler/to ha!e his way with her, and he lea!es !ictorious )iresias, who has foresuered all,vwatches the whole thing After her lo!ers de%arture, the ty%ist thin/s only that shes gladthe encounter is done and o!er

A brief interlude begins the ri!ersong in earnest 6irst, a $sher&ans bar is described,then a beautiful church interior, then the )ha&es itself )hese are a&ong the few&o&ents of tranBuility in the %oe&, and they see& to re%resent so&e sort of si&%leralternati!e )he )ha&esdaughters, borrowed fro& *%ensers %oe&, chi&e in with anonsense chorus :.eialala leia J .allala leialalav< )he scene shifts again, to kueenEli3abeth I in an a&orous encounter with the Earl of eicester )he Bueen see&s un&o!edby her lo!ers declarations, and she thin/s only of her %eo%le hu&ble %eo%le who e%ectJ Uothingv )he section then co&es to an abru%t end with a few lines fro& *t

Augustines Confessions and a !ague reference to the 0uddhas 6ire *er&on :burningv<For"

 )his section of The /aste &and is notable for its inclusion of %o%ular %oetic for&s,%articularly &usical ones )he &ore %lotdri!en sections are in Eliots usual assort&ent of!arious line lengths, rhy&ed at rando& )he 6ire *er&on,v howe!er, also includes bits of &any &usical %ieces, including *%ensers wedding song :which beco&es the song of the )ha&esdaughters<, a soldiers ballad, a nightingales chir%s, a song fro& li!erTolds&iths The 7icar of /ake<eld, and a &andolin tune :which has no words but isechoed in a clatter and a chatter fro& withinv< )he use of such lowv for&s cuts bothways hereG In one sense, it %ro!ides a critical co&&entary on the e%isodes described, thechea% seual encounters sha%ed by %o%ular culture :the gra&o%hone, the &ens hotel<0ut Eliot also uses these bits and %ieces to create high art, and so&e of the frag&ents heuses :the lines fro& *%enser in %articular< are the&sel!es ta/en fro& &ore ealted for&sIn the case of the %rothalamion, in fact, Eliot is %lacing hi&self within a traditionstretching bac/ to ancient Treece :classically, %rothala&ionv is a generic ter& for a%oe&li/e song written for a wedding< Again this %ro!ides an ironic contrast to thedebased goingson but also %ro!ides another for& of connection and co&&entaryAnother such reference, generating both ironic distance and %roi&ate %arallels, is theinclusion of Eli3abeth IG )he liaison between Eli3abeth and eicester is traditionallyro&antici3ed, and, thus, the reference see&s to clash with the otherwise sordid nature ofthis section #owe!er, Eliot de%icts Eli3abethand *%enser, for that &atteras a &erefrag&ent, stri%%ed of noble connotations and &ade to re%resent ?ust one &ore %iece ofcultural rubbish Again, this is not &eant to be a de&ocrati3ing &o!e but a nihilistic oneGSo&ance is dead#o""entary 

 )he o%ening two stan3as of this section describe the ulti&ate .aste andv as Eliot seesit )he wasteland is cold, dry, and barren, co!ered in garbage nli/e the desert, which atleast burns with heat, this %lace is static, sa!e for a few scurrying rats E!en the ri!er,nor&ally a sy&bol of renewal, has been reduced to a dull canalv )he ugliness stands ini&%licit contrast to the *weet )ha&esv of *%ensers ti&e )he &ost signi$cant i&age inthese lines, though, is the rat i/e the crabs in %rufrock, rats are sca!engers, ta/ing whatthey can fro& the refuse of higherorder creatures )he rat could be said to %ro!ide a&odel for Eliots %oetic %rocessG i/e the rat, Eliot ta/es what he can fro& earlier, grandergenerations and uses the bits and %ieces to sustain :%oetic< life *o&ehow this is%referable to the &ore coherent but !ulgar eistence of the conte&%orary world, herere%resented by the sound of horns and &otors in the distance, inti&ating a seual liaison

 )he actual seual encounters that ta/e %lace in this section of the %oe& are in$nitelyunfruitful Eugenides %ro%oses a ho&oseual tryst, which by its !ery nature thwartsfertility )he i&%ossibility of regeneration by such &eans is sy&boli3ed by the currants in

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his %oc/etthe desiccated, deadened !ersion of what were once %lu&%, fertile fruits )hety%ist and her lo!er are eBually barren in their way, e!en though re%roduction is at leasttheoretically %ossible for the two i!ing in so i&%o!erished a &anner that she does note!en own a bed, the ty%ist is certainly not interested in a fa&ily Eli3abeth and eicesterare %erha%s the &ost interesting of the three cou%les, howe!er 6or %olitical reasons,Eli3abeth was reBuired to re%resent herself as constantly a!ailable for &arriage :to

royalty fro& countries with who& England &ay ha!e wanted an alliance<H out of this needca&e the &yth of the +irgin kueenv )his can be read as the o%%osite of the 6isher inglegendG )o %rotect the !itality of the land, Eli3abeth had to co&%ro&ise her own seualityHwhereas in the 6isher ing story, the renewal of the land co&es with the renewal of the6isher ings seual %otency #er tryst with eicester, therefore, is a consu&&ation that issi&ultaneously denied, an e!ent that ne!er ha%%ened )he twisted logic underlyingEli3abeths %ublic seuality, or lac/ thereof, &irrors and distorts the 6isher ing %lot andfurther Buestions the %ossibility for renewal, es%ecially through seuality, in the &odernworld

 )iresias, thus, beco&es an i&%ortant &odel for &odern eistence Ueither &an norwo&an, and blind yet able to see with ulti&ate clarity, he is an indi!idual who does notho%e or act #e has, li/e -rufroc/, seen it all,v but, unli/e -rufroc/, he sees no %ossibility

for action .hereas -rufroc/ is %araly3ed by his neuroses, )iresias is held &otionless byennui and %rag&atis& #e is not Buite able to esca%e earthly things, though, for he isforced to sit and watch the sordid deeds of &ortalsH li/e the *ibyl in the %oe&s e%igra%h,he would li/e to die but cannot )he brief interlude following the ty%ists tryst &ay oeran alternati!e to esca%e, by describing a war&, e!eryday scene of wor/ andco&%anionshi%H howe!er, the interlude is brief, and Eliot once again tosses us into aworld of se and strife )iresias disa%%ears, to be re%laced by *t Augustine at the end ofthe section Eliot clai&s in his footnote to ha!e deliberately conated Augustine and the0uddha, as the re%resentati!es of Eastern and .estern asceticis& 0oth see&, in thelines Eliot Buotes, to be unable to transcend the world on their ownG Augustine &ust callon Tod to %luc/ Qhi&R out,v while 0uddha can only re%eat the word burning,v unable tobrea/ free of its &onotonous fascination )he %oe&s net section, which will relate thestory of a death without resurrection, e%oses the absurdity of these two $gures faith in

eternal higher %owers )hat this section ends with only the single word burning,visolated on the %age, re!eals the futility of all of &ans struggles

The Waste 'and  'e3t!o# I;: Death <y &ate5

Su""ary 

 )he shortest section of the %oe&, Death by .aterv describes a &an, -hlebas the-hoenician, who has died, a%%arently by drowning In death he has forgotten his worldlycares as the creatures of the sea ha!e %ic/ed his body a%art )he narrator as/s his readerto consider -hlebas and recall his or her own &ortality

For"

.hile this section a%%ears on the %age as a tenline stan3a, in reading, it co&%resses intoeightG four %airs of rhy&ing cou%lets 0oth !isually and audibly, this is one of the &ostfor&ally organi3ed sections of the %oe& It is &eant to recall other highly organi3ed for&sthat often ha!e %hiloso%hical or religious i&%ort, li/e a%horis&s and %arables )healliteration and the deliberately archaic language :o you,v a fortnight deadv< alsocontribute to the serious, didactic feel of this section

#o""entary 

 )he &a?or %oint of this short section is to rebut ideas of renewal and regeneration-hlebas ?ust diesH thats it i/e *tetsons cor%se in the $rst section, -hlebass body yieldsnothing &ore than %roducts of decay #owe!er, the sections &eaning is far fro& atHindeed, its ironic layering is twofold 6irst, this section ful$lls one of the %ro%hecies ofMada&e *osostris in the %oe&s $rst sectionG 6ear death by water,v she says, after%ulling the card of the Drowned *ailor *econd, this section, in its language and for&,&i&ics other literary for&s :%arables, biblical stories, etc< that are nor&ally rich in

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

&eaning )hese two features suggest that so&ething of great signi$cance lies here Inreality, though, the only lesson that -hlebas oers is that the %hysical reality of death anddecay triu&%hs o!er all -hlebas is not resurrected or trans$gured Eliot furthere&%hasi3es -hlebass driedu% antiBuity and irrele!ance by %lacing this section in thedistant %ast :by &a/ing -hlebas a -hoenician<

The Waste 'and  'e3t!o# ;: &hat the Thu#de 'a!d5Su""ary 

 )he $nal section of The /aste &and is dra&atic in both its i&agery and its e!ents )he$rst half of the section builds to an a%ocaly%tic cli&a, as suering %eo%le beco&ehooded hordes swar&ingv and the unrealv cities of "erusale&, Athens, Aleandria,+ienna, and ondon are destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again A decaying cha%el isdescribed, which suggests the cha%el in the legend of the #oly Trail Ato% the cha%el, acoc/ crows, and the rains co&e, relie!ing the drought and bringing life bac/ to the landCuriously, no heroic $gure has a%%eared to clai& the TrailH the renewal has co&esee&ingly at rando&, gratuitously

 )he scene then shifts to the Tanges, half a world away fro& Euro%e, where thunder

ru&bles Eliot draws on the traditional inter%retation of what the thunder says,v as ta/enfro& the %anishads :#indu fables< According to these fables, the thunder gi!es,vsy&%athi3es,v and controlsv through its s%eechvH Eliot launches into a &editation oneach of these as%ects of the thunders %ower )he &editations see& to bring about so&esort of reconciliation, as a 6isher ingty%e $gure is shown sitting on the shore %re%aringto %ut his lands in order, a sign of his i&&inent death or at least abdication )he %oe&ends with a series of dis%arate frag&ents fro& a childrens song, fro& Dante, and fro&Eli3abethan dra&a, leading u% to a $nal chant of *hantih shantih shantihvthetraditional ending to an %anishad Eliot, in his notes to the %oe&, translates this chantas the %eace which %asseth understanding,v the e%ression of ulti&ate resignation

For"

 "ust as the third section of the %oe& e%lores %o%ular for&s, such as &usic, the $nal

section of The /aste &and &o!es away fro& &ore ty%ical %oetic for&s to e%eri&entwith structures nor&ally associated with religion and %hiloso%hy )he %ro%osition and&editation structure of the last %art of this section loo/s forward to the &ore%hiloso%hically oriented Four :uartets,Eliots last &a?or wor/ )he reasoned, structurednature of the $nal stan3as co&es as a relief after the obsessi!ely re%etiti!e language andalliteration :If there were water J And no roc/ J If there were roc/ J And also waterv< ofthe a%ocaly%tic o%ening )he readers relief at the shift in style &irrors the %hysical reliefbrought by the rain &idway through the section 0oth for&ally and the&atically, then,this $nal cha%ter follows a %attern of obsession and resignation Its %atterning reects thes%ea/ers oer at the end to $t you,v to transfor& e%erience into %oetry :$tv is anarchaic ter& for sections of a %oe& or %layH here, $tv is used as a !erb, &eaning torender into a $t,v to &a/e into %oetry<

#o""entary  )he initial i&agery associated with the a%ocaly%se at this sections o%ening is ta/en fro&the cruci$ion of Christ *igni$cantly, though, Christ is not resurrected hereG we are told,#e who was li!ing is now deadv )he rest of the $rst %art, while &a/ing reference toconte&%orary e!ents in Eastern Euro%e and other &ore traditional a%ocaly%se narrati!es,continues to draw on 0iblical i&agery and sy&bolis& associated with the Buest for the#oly Trail )he re%etiti!e language and harsh i&agery of this section suggest that theend is %erha%s near, that not only will there be no renewal but that there will be nosur!i!al either Cities are destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed, &irroring the cyclical downfallof culturesG "erusale&, Treece, Egy%t, and Austriaa&ong the &a?or e&%ires of the %asttwo &illenniaall see their ca%itals fall )here is so&ething ne!ertheless insubstantialabout this loo&ing disasterG it see&s unreal,v as the ghost$lled ondon did earlier in the%oe& It is as if such a %rofound end would be ina%%ro%riate for such a %atheticci!ili3ation Sather, we e%ect the end to be acco&%anied by a sense of boredo& andsurrender

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Selease co&es not fro& any heroic act but fro& the rando& call of a far&yard bird )hesy&bolis& surrounding the Trail &yth is still etant but it is e&%ty, de!oid of %eo%le Uoone co&es to the ruined cha%el, yet it eists regardless of who !isits it )his is a horriblysad situationG )he sy&bols that ha!e %re!iously held %rofound &eaning still eist, yetthey are unused and unusable A ash of lighta Buic/ gli&%se of truth and !itality,%erha%sreleases the rain and lets the %oe& end

 )he &editations u%on the %anishads gi!e Eliot a chance to test the %otential of the&odern world As/ing, what ha!e we gi!env he $nds that the only ti&e %eo%le gi!e is inthe seual act and that this gift is ulti&ately e!anescent and destructi!eG #e associates itwith s%ider webs and solicitors reading wills "ust as the %oe&s s%ea/er fails to $nd signsof gi!ing, so too does he search in !ain for acts of sy&%athythe second characteristic of what the thunder saysvG #e recalls indi!iduals so caught u% in his or her own fateeachthin/ing only of the /ey to his or her own %risonas to be obli!ious to anything butethereal ru&orsv of others )he third idea e%ressed in the thunders s%eechthat ofcontrolholds the &ost %otential, although it i&%lies a series of do&ineeringrelationshi%s and surrenders of the self that, ulti&ately, are ne!er reali3ed

6inally Eliot turns to the 6isher ing hi&self, still on the shore $shing )he %ossibility of

regeneration for the arid %lainv of society has been long ago discarded Instead, the /ingwill do his best to %ut in order what re&ains of his /ingdo&, and he will then surrender,although he still fails to understand the true signi$cance of the co&ing !oid :as i&%liedby the %hrase %eace which %asseth understandingv< )he burst of allusions at the endcan be read as either a $nal atte&%t at coherence or as a $nal dissolution into a world offrag&ents and rubbish )he /ing oers so&e consolationG )hese frag&ents I ha!e shoredagainst &y ruins,v he says, suggesting that it will be %ossible to continue on des%ite thefailed rede&%tion It will still be %ossible for hi&, and for Eliot, to $t you,v to create art inthe face of &adness It is i&%ortant that the last words of the %oe& are in a non.esternlanguageG Although the &eaning of the words the&sel!es co&&unicates resignation:%eace which %asseth understandingv<, they in!o/e an alternati!e set of %aradig&s tothose of the .estern worldH they oer a gli&%se into a culture and a !alue syste& new tousand, thus, oer so&e ho%e for an alternati!e to our own dead world

DYLAN THO(A'

Dy"a# (a"a!s Tho4as :2' ctober 191; = 9 Uo!e&ber 1954< was a .elsh %oet andwriter whose wor/s include the %oe&s (Do not go gentle into that good night( and (Anddeath shall ha!e no do&inion(, the (%lay for !oices(, ;nder Milk /ood, and stories andradio broadcasts such as  A Child's Christmas in /ales and %ortrait of the Artist as a 5oungog #e beca&e %o%ular in his lifeti&e, and re&ained so after his death, %artly becauseof his larger than life character and his re%utation for drin/ing to ecessQ2R

 )ho&as was born in *wansea, .ales in 191; An undistinguished student, he left schoolat 1P, beco&ing a ?ournalist for a short ti&e Although &any of his wor/s a%%eared in%rint while he was still a teenager, it was the %ublication of (ight brea/s where no sunshines(, in 194;, that caught the attention of the literary world .hile li!ing in ondon,

 )ho&as &et Caitlin Macna&ara, who& he &arried in 194' )heir relationshi% was de$nedby alcoholis& and was &utually destructi!e In the early %art of his &arriage, )ho&asand his fa&ily li!ed handto&outh, settling in the .elsh $shing !illage of augharne

Although )ho&as was a%%reciated as a %o%ular %oet in his lifeti&e, he found earning ali!ing as a writer di>cult, which resulted in hi& aug&enting his inco&e with reading toursand broadcasts #is radio recordings for the 00C during the latter half of the 19;7sbrought hi& a le!el of celebrity In the 1957s, )ho&as tra!elled to A&erica, where hisreadings brought hi& a le!el of fa&e, though his erratic beha!iour and drin/ingworsened #is ti&e in A&erica ce&ented )ho&as legend, where he recorded to !inylwor/s such as A Child's Christmas in /ales During his fourth tri% to Uew qor/ in 1954, )ho&as beca&e gra!ely ill and fell into a co&a fro& which he did not reco!er )ho&asdied on 9 Uo!e&ber 1954 and his body was returned to .ales where he was buried at the

!illage churchyard in augharne

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

Although writing eclusi!ely in the English language, )ho&as has been ac/nowledged asone of the &ost i&%ortant .elsh %oets of the 27th century Uoted for his original,rhyth&ic and ingenious use of words and i&agery, )ho&as %osition as one of the great&odern %oets has been &uch discussed, though this has not tarnished his %o%ularitya&ongst the general %ublic, who found his wor/ accessible

Under ilk Wood  is a 195; radio dra&a by .elsh %oet Dylan )ho&as, ada%ted later asa stage %lay A $l& !ersion, ;nder Milk /ood directed byAndrew *inclair, was released in19'2

An o&niscient narrator in!ites the audience to listen to the drea&s and inner&ostthoughts of the inhabitants of a $ctional s&all .elsh $shing !illage lareggub :(buggerall( bac/wards<

 )hey include Mrs g&ore-ritchard, relentlessly nagging her two dead husbandsH Ca%tainCat, reli!ing his seafaring ti&esH the two Mrs Dai 0readsH rgan Morgan, obsessed withhis &usicH and -olly Tarter, %ining for her dead lo!er ater, the town awa/ens and, awarenow of how their feelings aect whate!er they do, we watch the& go about their dailybusiness

P"ot

 )he %lay o%ens at night, when the citi3ens of lareggub are aslee% )he narrator :6irst+oiceJ*econd +oice< infor&s the audience that they are witnessing the towns%eo%lesdrea&s

Ca%tain Cat, the blind sea ca%tain, is tor&ented in his drea&s by his drowned seafellows,who long to li!e again and en?oy the %leasures of the world Mog Edwards and Myfanwy-rice drea& of each otherH Mr .aldo drea&s of his childhood and his failed &arriagesHMrs g&ore-ritchard drea&s of her deceased husbands Al&ost all of the characters inthe %lay are introduced as the audience witnesses a &o&ent of their drea&s

Morning begins )he !oice of a guide introduces the town, discussing the facts oflareggub )he Se!erend Eli "en/ins deli!ers a &orning ser&on on his lo!e for the !illageily *&alls wa/es and be&oans her %itiful eistence Mr and Mrs -ugh obser!e theirneighborsH the characters introduce the&sel!es as they act in their &orning Mrs Cherrywen &errily rehashes her husbands drun/en antics 0utcher 0eynon teases his wifeduring brea/fast Ca%tain Cat watches as .illy Uilly the %ost&an goes about his &orningrounds, deli!ering to Mrs g&ore-ritchard, Mrs -ugh, Mog Edwards and Mr .aldo :(Itsanother %aternity su&&ons(<

At Mrs rganMorgans general sho%, wo&en gossi% about the towns%eo%le .illy Uillyand his wife stea& o%en a lo!e letter fro& Mog Edwards to Myfanwy -riceH he e%ressesfear that he &ay be in the %oor house if his business does not i&%ro!e Mrs Dai 0read )wo swindles Mrs Dai 0read ne with a %hony fortune in her crystal ball -olly Tarterscrubs oors and sings about her %ast %ara&ours Children %lay in the schoolyardHTwennie urges the boys to (/iss her where she says or gi!e her a %enny( Tossa&er0eynon and *inbad *ailors %ri!ately desire each other

During dinner, Mr -ugh i&agines %oisoning Mrs -ugh Mrs rganMorgan shares thedays gossi% with her husband, but his only interest is the organ )he audience sees agli&%se of ord CutTlasss insanity in his (/itchen full of ti&e( Ca%tain Cat drea&s of hislost lo!er, Sosie -robert, but wee%s as he re&e&bers that she will not be with hi& againUogood 0oyo $shes in the bay, drea&ing of Mrs Dai 0read )wo and geishas

n lareggub #ill, Mae Sose Cottage s%ends a la3y afternoon wishing for lo!e Se!erend "en/ins wor/s on the .hite 0oo/ of lareggub, which is a history of the entire town and itsciti3ens n the far&, tah .at/ins struggles with his cattle, aided by 0essie 0ighead AsMrs g&ore-ritchard beco&es aslee%, her husbands return to her Mae Sose Cottageswears that she will sin until she e%lodes

As night begins, Se!erend "en/ins recites another %oe& Cherry wen heads to the

*ailors Ar&s, where *inbad still longs for Tossa&er 0eynon )he town %re%ares for thee!ening, to slee% or otherwise Mr .aldo sings drun/enly at the *ailors Ar&s Ca%tain Cat

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

sees his drowned shi%&atesand Sosieas he begins to slee% rganMorgan &ista/esCherry wen for "ohann *ebastian 0ach on his way to the cha%el Mog and Myfanwy writeto each other before slee%ing Mr .aldo &eets -olly Tarter in a forest Uight begins andthe citi3ens of lareggub return to their drea&s again

GEORGE OR&ELL

0orn Eric 0lair in India in 1974, Teorge rwell was educated as a scholarshi% student at%restigious boarding schools in England 0ecause of his bac/groundhe fa&ouslydescribed his fa&ily as loweru%%er&iddle classvhe ne!er Buite $t in, and felto%%ressed and outraged by the dictatorial control that the schools he attended eercisedo!er their students li!es After graduating fro& Eton, rwell decided to forego college inorder to wor/ as a 0ritish I&%erial -olice&an in 0ur&a #e hated his duties in 0ur&a,where he was reBuired to enforce the strict laws of a %olitical regi&e he des%ised #isfailing health, which troubled hi& throughout his life, caused hi& to return to England oncon!alescent lea!e nce bac/ in England, he Buit the I&%erial -olice and dedicatedhi&self to beco&ing a writer

Ins%ired by "ac/ ondons 1974 boo/ The %eo3le of the Abyss,which detailed ondonse%erience in the slu&s of ondon, rwell bought ragged clothes fro& a secondhand

store and went to li!e a&ong the !ery %oor in ondon After ree&erging, he %ublished aboo/ about this e%erience, entitled o*n and 0ut in %aris and &ondon. #e later li!eda&ong destitute coal &iners in northern England, an e%erience that caused hi& to gi!eu% on ca%italis& in fa!or of de&ocratic socialis& In 194P, he tra!eled to *%ain to re%orton the *%anish Ci!il .ar, where he witnessed $rsthand the night&arish atrocitiesco&&itted by fascist %olitical regi&es )he rise to %ower of dictators such as Adolf #itlerin Ter&any and "ose%h *talin in the *o!iet nion ins%ired rwells &ounting hatred oftotalitarianis& and %olitical authority rwell de!oted his energy to writing no!els thatwere %olitically charged, $rst with Animal Farm in 19;5, then with =>?@ in 19;9=>?@ is one of rwells bestcrafted no!els, and it re&ains one of the &ost %owerfulwarnings e!er issued against the dangers of a totalitarian society In *%ain, Ter&any, andthe *o!iet nion, rwell had witnessed the danger of absolute %olitical authority in anage of ad!anced technology #e illustrated that %eril harshly in =>?@. i/e Aldous#uleys ra!e +e* /orld :1942<,=>?@ is one of the &ost fa&ous no!els of the negati!euto%ian, or dysto%ian, genre nli/e a uto%ian no!el, in which the writer ai&s to %ortraythe %erfect hu&an society, a no!el of negati!e uto%ia does the eact o%%ositeG it showsthe worst hu&an society i&aginable, in an eort to con!ince readers to a!oid any %aththat &ight lead toward such societal degradation In 19;9, at the dawn of the nuclear ageand before the tele!ision had beco&e a $ture in the fa&ily ho&e, rwells !ision of a%ostato&ic dictatorshi% in which e!ery indi!idual would be &onitored ceaselessly by&eans of the telescreen see&ed terrifyingly %ossible )hat rwell %ostulated such asociety a &ere thirty$!e years into the future co&%ounded this fearf course, the world that rwell en!isioned in =>?@ did not &ateriali3e Sather than beingo!erwhel&ed by totalitarianis&, de&ocracy ulti&ately won out in the Cold .ar, as seenin the fall of the 0erlin .all and the disintegration of the *o!iet nion in the early 1997s

 qet =>?@ re&ains an i&%ortant no!el, in %art for the alar& it sounds against the abusi!enature of authoritarian go!ern&ents, but e!en &ore so for its %enetrating analysis of the%sychology of %ower and the ways that &ani%ulations of language and history can beused as &echanis&s of control

+,/=

P"ot O1e1!e)

.inston *&ith is a lowran/ing &e&ber of the ruling -arty in ondon, in the nation ofceania E!erywhere .inston goes, e!en his own ho&e, the -arty watches hi& throughtelescreensH e!erywhere he loo/s he sees the face of the -artys see&ingly o&niscientleader, a $gure /nown only as 0ig 0rother )he -arty controls e!erything in ceania, e!enthe %eo%les history and language Currently, the -arty is forcing the i&%le&entation of

an in!ented language called Uews%ea/, which atte&%ts to %re!ent %olitical rebellion byeli&inating all words related to it E!en thin/ing rebellious thoughts is illegal *uchthoughtcri&e is, in fact, the worst of all cri&es

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As the no!el o%ens, .inston feels frustrated by the o%%ression and rigid control of the-arty, which %rohibits free thought, se, and any e%ression of indi!iduality .instondisli/es the %arty and has illegally %urchased a diary in which to write his cri&inalthoughts #e has also beco&e $ated on a %owerful -arty &e&ber na&ed 0rien, who&.inston belie!es is a secret &e&ber of the 0rotherhoodthe &ysterious, legendarygrou% that wor/s to o!erthrow the -arty

.inston wor/s in the Ministry of )ruth, where he alters historical records to $t the needsof the -arty #e notices a cowor/er, a beautiful dar/haired girl, staring at hi&, andworries that she is an infor&ant who will turn hi& in for his thoughtcri&e #e is troubledby the -artys control of historyG the -arty clai&s that ceania has always been allied withEastasia in a war against Eurasia, but .inston see&s to recall a ti&e when this was nottrue )he -arty also clai&s that E&&anuel Toldstein, the alleged leader of the0rotherhood, is the &ost dangerous &an ali!e, but this does not see& %lausible to.inston .inston s%ends his e!enings wandering through the %oorest neighborhoods inondon, where the %roletarians, or %roles, li!e sBualid li!es, relati!ely free of -arty&onitoring

ne day, .inston recei!es a note fro& the dar/haired girl that reads I lo!e youv *he

tells hi& her na&e, "ulia, and they begin a co!ert aair, always on the loo/out for signs of -arty &onitoring E!entually they rent a roo& abo!e the secondhand store in the %roledistrict where .inston bought the diary )his relationshi% lasts for so&e ti&e .inston issure that they will be caught and %unished sooner or later :the fatalistic .inston /nowsthat he has been doo&ed since he wrote his $rst diary entry<, while "ulia is &ore%rag&atic and o%ti&istic As .instons aair with "ulia %rogresses, his hatred for the -artygrows &ore and &ore intense At last, he recei!es the &essage that he has been waitingforG 0rien wants to see hi&

.inston and "ulia tra!el to 0riens luurious a%art&ent As a &e&ber of the %owerfulInner -arty :.inston belongs to the uter -arty<, 0rien leads a life of luury that.inston can only i&agine 0rien con$r&s to .inston and "ulia that, li/e the&, he hatesthe -arty, and says that he wor/s against it as a &e&ber of the 0rotherhood #e

indoctrinates .inston and "ulia into the 0rotherhood, and gi!es .inston a co%y ofE&&anuel Toldsteins boo/, the &anifesto of the 0rotherhood .inston reads the boo/an a&alga& of se!eral for&s of classbased twentiethcentury social theoryto "ulia inthe roo& abo!e the store *uddenly, soldiers barge in and sei3e the& Mr Charrington,the %ro%rietor of the store, is re!ealed as ha!ing been a &e&ber of the )hought -olice allalong

 )orn away fro& "ulia and ta/en to a %lace called the Ministry of o!e, .inston $nds that0rien, too, is a -arty s%y who si&%ly %retended to be a &e&ber of the 0rotherhood inorder to tra% .inston into co&&itting an o%en act of rebellion against the -arty 0riens%ends &onths torturing and brainwashing .inston, who struggles to resist At last,0rien sends hi& to the dreaded Soo& 171, the $nal destination for anyone whoo%%oses the -arty #ere, 0rien tells .inston that he will be forced to confront his worst

fear )hroughout the no!el, .inston has had recurring night&ares about ratsH 0rien nowstra%s a cage full of rats onto .instons head and %re%ares to allow the rats to eat hisface .inston sna%s, %leading with 0rien to do it to "ulia, not to hi&

Ti!ing u% "ulia is what 0rien wanted fro& .inston all along #is s%irit bro/en, .inston isreleased to the outside world #e &eets "ulia but no longer feels anything for her #e hasacce%ted the -arty entirely and has learned to lo!e 0ig 0rother

ANI(AL FAR(

Co#tet

Teorge rwell was the %en na&e of Eric 0lair, a 0ritish %olitical no!elist and essayistwhose %ointed criticis&s of %olitical o%%ression %ro%elled hi& into %ro&inence toward the

&iddle of the twentieth century 0orn in 1974 to 0ritish colonists in 0engal, India, rwellrecei!ed his education at a series of %ri!ate schools, including Eton, an elite school inEngland #is %ainful e%eriences with snobbishness and social elitis& at Eton, as well as

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his inti&ate fa&iliarity with the reality of 0ritish i&%erialis& in India, &ade hi& dee%lysus%icious of the entrenched class syste& in English society As a young &an, rwellbeca&e a socialist, s%ea/ing o%enly against the ecesses of go!ern&ents east and westand $ghting briey for the socialist cause during the *%anish Ci!il .ar, which lasted fro&194P to 1949

nli/e &any 0ritish socialists in the 1947s and 19;7s, rwell was not ena&ored of the*o!iet nion and its %olicies, nor did he consider the *o!iet nion a %ositi!ere%resentation of the %ossibilities of socialist society #e could not turn a blind eye to thecruelties and hy%ocrisies of *o!iet Co&&unist -arty, which had o!erturned these&ifeudal syste& of the tsars only to re%lace it with the dictatorial reign of "ose%h *talinrwell beca&e a shar% critic of both ca%italis& and co&&unis&, and is re&e&beredchiey as an ad!ocate of freedo& and a co&&itted o%%onent of co&&unist o%%ression#is two greatest antitotalitarian no!els Animal Farm and =>?@for& the basis of hisre%utation rwell died in 1957, only a year after co&%leting =>?@, which &any considerhis &aster%ieceA dysto%ian no!el, =>?@ attac/s the idea of totalitarian co&&unis& :a %olitical syste& inwhich one ruling %arty %lans and controls the collecti!e social action of a state< by%ainting a terrifying %icture of a world in which %ersonal freedo& is noneistent Animal

Farm, written in 19;5, deals with si&ilar the&es but in a shorter and so&ewhat si&%lerfor&at A fairy storyv in the style of Aeso%s fables, it uses ani&als on an English far& totell the history of *o!iet co&&unis& Certain ani&als are based directly on Co&&unist-arty leadersG the %igs Ua%oleon and *nowball, for ea&%le, are $gurations of "ose%h*talin and eon )rots/y, res%ecti!ely rwell uses the for& of the fable for a nu&ber ofaesthetic and %olitical reasons )o better understand these, it is hel%ful to /now at leastthe rudi&ents of *o!iet history under Co&&unist -arty rule, beginning with the ctoberSe!olution of 191'

In 6ebruary 191', )sar Uicholas II, the &onarch of Sussia, abdicated and the socialistAleander erens/y beca&e %re&ier At the end of ctober :Uo!e&ber ' on currentcalendars<, erens/y was ousted, and +ladi&ir enin, the architect of the SussianSe!olution, beca&e chief co&&issar Al&ost i&&ediately, as wars raged on !irtually

e!ery Sussian front, enins chief allies began ?oc/eying for %ower in the newly for&edstateH the &ost inuential included "ose%h *talin, eon )rots/y, Tregory xino!ie!, and e!a&ene! )rots/y and *talin e&erged as the &ost li/ely heirs to enins !ast %ower )rots/y was a %o%ular and charis&atic leader, fa&ous for his i&%assioned s%eeches, whilethe taciturn *talin %referred to consolidate his %ower behind the scenes After eninsdeath in 192;, *talin orchestrated an alliance against )rots/y that included hi&self,xino!ie!, and a&ine! In the following years, *talin succeeded in beco&ing theunBuestioned dictator of the *o!iet nion and had )rots/y e%elled $rst fro& Moscow,then fro& the Co&&unist -arty, and $nally fro& Sussia altogether in 194P )rots/y ed toMeico, where he was assassinated on *talins orders in 19;7

In 194;, *talins ally *erge iro! was assassinated in eningrad, %ro&%ting *talin toco&&ence his infa&ous %urges of the Co&&unist -arty #olding show trialsvtrials

whose outco&es he and his allies had already decided*talin had his o%%onents o>ciallydenounced as %artici%ants in )rots/yist or anti*talinist cons%iracies and therefore asene&ies of the %eo%le,v an a%%ellation that guaranteed their i&&ediate eecution Asthe *o!iet go!ern&ents econo&ic %lanning faltered and failed, Sussia suered under asurge of !iolence, fear, and star!ation *talin used his for&er o%%onent as a tool to%lacate the wretched %o%ulace )rots/y beca&e a co&&on national ene&y and thus asource of negati!e unity #e was a frightening s%ecter used to con?ure horrifyinge!entualities, in co&%arison with which the current &isery %aled Additionally, byassociating his ene&ies with )rots/ys na&e, *talin could ensure their i&&ediate andauto&atic eli&ination fro& the Co&&unist -arty

 )hese and &any other de!elo%&ents in *o!iet history before 19;5 ha!e direct %arallelsin Animal Farm1 Ua%oleon ousts *nowball fro& the far& and, after the wind&ill colla%ses,

uses *nowball in his %urges ?ust as *talin used )rots/y *i&ilarly, Ua%oleon beco&es adictator, while *nowball is ne!er heard fro& again rwell was ins%ired to write AnimalFarm in %art by his e%eriences in a )rots/yist grou% during the *%anish Ci!il .ar, and

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*nowball certainly recei!es a &ore sy&%athetic %ortrayal than Ua%oleon 0utthough Animal Farm was written as an attac/ on a s%eci$c go!ern&ent, its generalthe&es of o%%ression, suering, and in?ustice ha!e far broader a%%licationH &odernreaders ha!e co&e to see rwells boo/ as a %owerful attac/ on any %olitical, rhetorical,or &ilitary %ower that see/s to control hu&an beings un?ustlyHistori$al #onte(t 

Sussian society in the early twentieth century was bi%olarG a tiny &inority controlled &ostof the countrys wealth, while the !ast &a?ority of the countrys inhabitants werei&%o!erished and o%%ressed %easants Co&&unis& arose in Sussia when the nationswor/ers and %easants, assisted by a class of concerned intellectuals /nown as theintelligentsia, rebelled against and o!erwhel&ed the wealthy and %owerful class ofca%italists and aristocrats )hey ho%ed to establish a socialist uto%ia based on the%rinci%les of the Ter&an econo&ic and %olitical %hiloso%her arl Mar

In as )a3ital Ca3italB, Mar ad!anced an econo&ically deter&inistic inter%retation ofhu&an history, arguing that society would naturally e!ol!efro& a &onarchy andaristocracy, to ca%italis&, and then on to co&&unis&, a syste& under which all %ro%ertywould be held in co&&on )he dignity of the %oor wor/ers o%%ressed by ca%italis& would

be restored, and all %eo%le would li!e as eBuals Mar followed this sober and scholarlywor/ with The Communist Manifesto, an i&%assioned call to action that urged, .or/ersof the world, uniteVv

In the Sussia of 191', it a%%eared that Mars drea&s were to beco&e reality After a%olitically co&%licated ci!il war, )sar Uicholas II, the &onarch of Sussia, was forced toabdicate the throne that his fa&ily had held for three centuries +ladi&ir Ilych enin, aSussian intellectual re!olutionary, sei3ed %ower in the na&e of the Co&&unist -arty )henew regi&e too/ land and industry fro& %ri!ate control and %ut the& under go!ern&entsu%er!ision )his centrali3ation of econo&ic syste&s constituted the $rst ste%s inrestoring Sussia to the %ros%erity it had /nown before .orld .ar I and in &oderni3ing thenations %ri&iti!e infrastructure, including bringing electricity to the countryside Afterenin died in 192;, "ose%h *talin and eon )rots/y ?oc/eyed for control of the newly

for&ed *o!iet nion *talin, a crafty and &ani%ulati!e %olitician, soon banished )rots/y,an idealistic %ro%onent of international co&&unis& *talin then began to consolidate his%ower with brutal intensity, /illing or i&%risoning his %ercei!ed %olitical ene&ies ando!erseeing the %urge of a%%roi&ately twenty &illion *o!iet citi3ens

P"ot O1e1!e)

ld Ma?or, a %ri3ewinning boar, gathers the ani&als of the Manor 6ar& for a &eeting inthe big barn #e tells the& of a drea& he has had in which all ani&als li!e together withno hu&an beings to o%%ress or control the& #e tells the ani&als that they &ust wor/toward such a %aradise and teaches the& a song called 0easts of England,v in which hisdrea& !ision is lyrically described )he ani&als greet Ma?ors !ision with greatenthusias& .hen he dies only three nights after the &eeting, three younger %igs

*nowball, Ua%oleon, and *Buealerfor&ulate his &ain %rinci%les into a %hiloso%hy calledAni&alis& ate one night, the ani&als &anage to defeat the far&er Mr "ones in a battle,running hi& o the land )hey rena&e the %ro%erty Ani&al 6ar& and dedicatethe&sel!es to achie!ing Ma?ors drea& )he carthorse 0oer de!otes hi&self to thecause with %articular 3eal, co&&itting his great strength to the %ros%erity of the far& andado%ting as a %ersonal &ai& the a>r&ation I will wor/ harderv

At $rst, Ani&al 6ar& %ros%ers *nowball wor/s at teaching the ani&als to read, andUa%oleon ta/es a grou% of young %u%%ies to educate the& in the %rinci%les of Ani&alis&.hen Mr "ones rea%%ears to ta/e bac/ his far&, the ani&als defeat hi& again, in whatco&es to be /nown as the 0attle of the Cowshed, and ta/e the far&ers abandoned gunas a to/en of their !ictory As ti&e %asses, howe!er, Ua%oleon and *nowball increasinglyBuibble o!er the future of the far&, and they begin to struggle with each other for %ower

and inuence a&ong the other ani&als *nowball concocts a sche&e to build anelectricitygenerating wind&ill, but Ua%oleon solidly o%%oses the %lan At the &eeting to!ote on whether to ta/e u% the %ro?ect, *nowball gi!es a %assionate s%eech Although

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Ua%oleon gi!es only a brief retort, he then &a/es a strange noise, and nine attac/ dogsthe %u%%ies that Ua%oleon had con$scated in order to educatevburst into the barn andchase *nowball fro& the far& Ua%oleon assu&es leadershi% of Ani&al 6ar& and declaresthat there will be no &ore &eetings 6ro& that %oint on, he asserts, the %igs alone will&a/e all of the decisionsfor the good of e!ery ani&al

Ua%oleon now Buic/ly changes his &ind about the wind&ill, and the ani&als, es%ecially0oer, de!ote their eorts to co&%leting it ne day, after a stor&, the ani&als $nd thewind&ill to%%led )he hu&an far&ers in the area declare s&ugly that the ani&als &adethe walls too thin, but Ua%oleon clai&s that *nowball returned to the far& to sabotagethe wind&ill #e stages a great %urge, during which !arious ani&als who ha!e allegedly%artici%ated in *nowballs great cons%iracy&eaning any ani&al who o%%osesUa%oleons uncontested leadershi%&eet instant death at the teeth of the attac/ dogs.ith his leadershi% unBuestioned :0oer has ta/en u% a second &ai&, Ua%oleon isalways rightv<, Ua%oleon begins e%anding his %owers, rewriting history to &a/e *nowballa !illain Ua%oleon also begins to act &ore and &ore li/e a hu&an beingslee%ing in abed, drin/ing whis/y, and engaging in trade with neighboring far&ers )he originalAni&alist %rinci%les strictly forbade such acti!ities, but *Buealer, Ua%oleons%ro%agandist, ?usti$es e!ery action to the other ani&als, con!incing the& that Ua%oleon

is a great leader and is &a/ing things better for e!eryonedes%ite the fact that theco&&on ani&als are cold, hungry, and o!erwor/ed

Mr 6rederic/, a neighboring far&er, cheats Ua%oleon in the %urchase of so&e ti&ber andthen attac/s the far& and dyna&ites the wind&ill, which had been rebuilt at greate%ense After the de&olition of the wind&ill, a %itched battle ensues, during which 0oerrecei!es &a?or wounds )he ani&als rout the far&ers, but 0oers in?uries wea/en hi&.hen he later falls while wor/ing on the wind&ill, he senses that his ti&e has nearlyco&e ne day, 0oer is nowhere to be found According to *Buealer, 0oer has died in%eace after ha!ing been ta/en to the hos%ital, %raising the Sebellion with his last breathIn actuality, Ua%oleon has sold his &ost loyal and longsuering wor/er to a glue &a/er inorder to get &oney for whis/y

 qears %ass on Ani&al 6ar&, and the %igs beco&e &ore and &ore li/e hu&an beingswal/ing u%right, carrying whi%s, and wearing clothes E!entually, the se!en %rinci%les ofAni&alis&, /nown as the *e!en Co&&and&ents and inscribed on the side of the barn,beco&e reduced to a single %rinci%le reading all ani&als are eBual, but so&e ani&alsare &ore eBual than othersv Ua%oleon entertains a hu&an far&er na&ed Mr -il/ingtonat a dinner and declares his intent to ally hi&self with the hu&an far&ers against thelaboring classes of both the hu&an and ani&al co&&unities #e also changes the na&eof Ani&al 6ar& bac/ to the Manor 6ar&, clai&ing that this title is the correctv oneoo/ing in at the %arty of elites through the far&house window, the co&&on ani&als canno longer tell which are the %igs and which are the hu&an beings

E9 (9 FOR'TER

Edward Morgan 6orster was born into a co&fortable ondon fa&ily in 18'9 #is father, anarchitect, died when 6orster was !ery young, lea!ing the boy to be raised by his &otherand greataunt 6orster %ro!ed to be a bright student, and he went on to attendCa&bridge ni!ersity, graduating in 1971 #e s%ent &uch of the net decade tra!elingand li!ing abroad, di!iding his ti&e between wor/ing as a ?ournalist and writing shortstories and no!els

Many of 6orsters obser!ations and e%eriences fro& this ti&e $gure in his $ction, &ostnotably A "oom *ith a 7ie* :1978<, which chronicles the e%eriences of a grou% ofEnglish %eo%le !acationing in Italy )wo years after A "oom *ith a 7ie*,the no!el Ho*ards2nd :1917<, in which 6orster critici3ed the class di!isions and %re?udices of EdwardianEngland, solidi$ed his re%utation as a social critic and a &aster of incisi!ely obser!ational$ctionong before 6orster $rst !isited India, he had already gained a !i!id %icture of its %eo%leand %laces fro& a young Indian Musli& na&ed *yed Soss Masood, who& 6orster begantutoring in England starting in 197P 6orster and Masood beca&e !ery close, and Masood

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introduced 6orster to se!eral of his Indian friends Echoes of the friendshi% between thetwo can be seen in the characters of 6ielding and A3i3 in A %assage to -ndia. 0y the ti&e6orster $rst !isited India, in 1912, the English&an was well %re%ared for his tra!elsthroughout the country

At the ti&e of 6orsters !isit, the 0ritish go!ern&ent had been o>cially ruling India since

1858, after the failed *e%oy Sebellion in 185', in which Indians atte&%ted to regain rulefro& the 0ritish East India Co&%any )he East India Co&%any, a %ri!ately owned tradingconcern, had been gaining $nancial and %olitical %ower in India since the se!enteenthcentury 0y the ti&e of 6orsters !isit, 0ritains control o!er India was co&%leteG Englishgo!ernors headed each %ro!ince and were res%onsible to -arlia&ent )hough Englandhad %ro&ised the Indian %eo%le a role in go!ern&ent in echange for their aid during.orld .ar I, India did not win inde%endence until three decades later, in 19;9

6orster s%ent ti&e with both English&en and Indians during his !isit, and he Buic/ly foundhe %referred the co&%any of the latter #e was troubled by the racial o%%ression anddee% cultural &isunderstandings that di!ided the Indian %eo%le and the 0ritish colonists,or, as they are called in A %assage to -ndia, AngloIndians )he %re!ailing attitude a&ongthe 0ritish in India was that the colonists were assu&ing the white &ans burdenv

no!elist Sudyard i%lings %hraseof go!erning the country, because the Indians couldnot handle the res%onsibility the&sel!es 6orster, a ho&oseual li!ing in a society and eralargely unsy&%athetic to his lifestyle, had long e%erienced %re?udice and&isunderstanding $rsthand It is no sur%rise, then, that 6orster felt sy&%athetic towardthe Indian side of the colonial argu&ent Indeed, 6orster beca&e a lifelong ad!ocate fortolerance and understanding a&ong %eo%le of dierent social classes, races, andbac/grounds6orster began writing A %assage to -ndia in 1914, ?ust after his $rst !isit to India )heno!el was not re!ised and co&%leted, howe!er, until well after his second stay in India, in1921, when he ser!ed as secretary to the Mahara?ah of Dewas *tate *enior -ublished in192;, A %assage to -ndia ea&ines the racial &isunderstandings and cultural hy%ocrisiesthat characteri3ed the co&%le interactions between Indians and the English toward theend of the 0ritish occu%ation of India

6orsters style is &ar/ed by his sy&%athy for his characters, his ability to see &ore thanone side of an argu&ent or story, and his fondness for si&%le, sy&bolic tales that neatlyenca%sulate largescale %roble&s and conditions )hese tendencies are all e!ident in A%assage to -ndia, which was i&&ediately acclai&ed as 6orsters &aster%iece u%on its%ublication It is a traditional social and %olitical no!el, unconcerned with the technicalinno!ation of so&e of 6orsters &odernist conte&%oraries such as Tertrude *tein or )*Eliot A %assage to -ndia is concerned, howe!er, with re%resenting the chaos of &odernhu&an e%erience through %atterns of i&agery and for& In this regard, 6orsters no!el issi&ilar to &odernist wor/s of the sa&e ti&e %eriod, such as "a&es "oyces ;lysses :1922<and +irginia .oolfs Mrs. allo*ay :1925< A %assage to -ndia was the last in a string of 6orsters no!els in which his craft i&%ro!ed&ar/edly with each new wor/ After the no!els %ublication, howe!er, 6orster ne!er againattained the le!el of craft or the de%th of obser!ation that characteri3ed his early wor/ In

his later life, he contented hi&self %ri&arily with writing critical essays and lectures, &ostnotably As3ects of the +o!el :192'< In 19;P, 6orster acce%ted a fellowshi% at Ca&bridge,where he re&ained until his death in 19'7 

A PA''AGE TO INDIA )wo englishwo&en, the young Miss Adela kuested and the elderly Mrs Moore, tra!el toIndia Adela e%ects to beco&e engaged to Mrs Moores son, Sonny, a 0ritish &agistratein the Indian city of Chandra%ore Adela and Mrs Moore each ho%e to see the real Indiaduring their !isit, rather than cultural institutions i&%orted by the 0ritish

At the sa&e ti&e, A3i3, a young Musli& doctor in India, is increasingly frustrated by the%oor treat&ent he recei!es at the hands of the English A3i3 is es%ecially annoyed with

Ma?or Callendar, the ci!il surgeon, who has a tendency to su&&on A3i3 for fri!olousreasons in the &iddle of dinner A3i3 and two of his educated friends, #a&idullah and

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Mah&oud Ali, hold a li!ely con!ersation about whether or not an Indian can be friendswith an English&an in India )hat night, Mrs Moore and A3i3 ha%%en to run into eachother while e%loring a local &osBue, and the two beco&e friendly A3i3 is &o!ed andsur%rised that an English %erson would treat hi& li/e a friend

Mr )urton, the collector who go!erns Chandra%ore, hosts a %arty so that Adela and Mrs

Moore &ay ha!e the o%%ortunity to &eet so&e of the &ore %ro&inent and wealthyIndians in the city At the e!ent, which %ro!es to be rather aw/ward, Adela &eets Cyril6ielding, the %rinci%al of the go!ern&ent college in Chandra%ore 6ielding, i&%ressed withAdelas o%en friendliness to the Indians, in!ites her and Mrs Moore to tea with hi& andthe #indu %rofessor Todbole At Adelas reBuest, 6ielding in!ites A3i3 to tea as well

At the tea, A3i3 and 6ielding i&&ediately beco&e friendly, and the afternoon iso!erwhel&ingly %leasant until Sonny #easlo% arri!es and rudely interru%ts the %artyater that e!ening, Adela tells Sonny that she has decided not to &arry hi& 0ut thatnight, the two are in a car accident together, and the ecite&ent of the e!ent causesAdela to change her &ind about the &arriage

Uot long afterward, A3i3 organi3es an e%edition to the nearby Marabar Ca!es for thosewho attended 6ieldings tea 6ielding and -rofessor Todbole &iss the train to Marabar, soA3i3 continues on alone with the two ladies, Adela and Mrs Moore Inside one of theca!es, Mrs Moore is unner!ed by the enclosed s%ace, which is crowded with A3i3sretinue, and by the uncanny echo that see&s to translate e!ery sound she &a/es into thenoise bou&v

A3i3, Adela, and a guide go on to the higher ca!es while Mrs Moore waits below Adela,suddenly reali3ing that she does not lo!e Sonny, as/s A3i3 whether he has &ore than onewifea Buestion he considers oensi!e A3i3 stor&s o into a ca!e, and when he returns,Adela is gone A3i3 scolds the guide for losing Adela, and the guide runs away A3i3 $ndsAdelas bro/en $eldglasses and heads down the hill 0ac/ at the %icnic site, A3i3 $nds6ielding waiting for hi& A3i3 is unconcerned to learn that Adela has hastily ta/en a carbac/ to Chandra%ore, as he is o!er?oyed to see 6ielding 0ac/ in Chandra%ore, howe!er,A3i3 is une%ectedly arrested #e is charged with atte&%ting to ra%e Adela kuested while

she was in the ca!es, a charge based on a clai& Adela herself has &ade

6ielding, belie!ing A3i3 to be innocent, angers all of 0ritish India by ?oining the Indians inA3i3s defense In the wee/s before the trial, the racial tensions between the Indians andthe English are u% considerably Mrs Moore is distracted and &iserable because of her&e&ory of the echo in the ca!e and because of her i&%atience with the u%co&ing trialAdela is e&otional and illH she too see&s to suer fro& an echo in her &ind Sonny is fedu% with Mrs Moores lac/ of su%%ort for Adela, and it is agreed that Mrs Moore will returnto England earlier than %lanned Mrs Moore dies on the !oyage bac/ to England, but notbefore she reali3es that there is no real Indiavbut rather a co&%le &ultitude ofdierent Indias

At A3i3s trial, Adela, under oath, is Buestioned about what ha%%ened in the ca!es

*hoc/ingly, she declares that she has &ade a &ista/eG A3i3 is not the %erson or thing thatattac/ed her in the ca!e A3i3 is set free, and 6ielding escorts Adela to the To!ern&entCollege, where she s%ends the net se!eral wee/s 6ielding begins to res%ect Adela,recogni3ing her bra!ery in standing against her %eers to %ronounce A3i3 innocent Sonnybrea/s o his engage&ent to Adela, and she returns to England

A3i3, howe!er, is angry that 6ielding would befriend Adela after she nearly ruined A3i3slife, and the friendshi% between the two &en suers as a conseBuence )hen 6ieldingsails for a !isit to England A3i3 declares that he is done with the English and that heintends to &o!e to a %lace where he will not ha!e to encounter the&

 )wo years later, A3i3 has beco&e the chief doctor to the Sa?ah of Mau, a #indu regionse!eral hundred &iles fro& Chandra%ore #e has heard that 6ielding &arried Adela

shortly after returning to England A3i3 now !irulently hates all English %eo%le ne day,wal/ing through an old te&%le with his three children, he encounters 6ielding and hisbrotherinlaw A3i3 is sur%rised to learn that the brotherinlaws na&e is Sal%h MooreH it

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turns out that 6ielding &arried not Adela kuested, but *tella Moore, Mrs Mooresdaughter fro& her second &arriage

A3i3 befriends Sal%h After he accidentally runs his rowboat into 6ieldings, A3i3 renews hisfriendshi% with 6ielding as well )he two &en go for a $nal ride together before 6ieldinglea!es, during which A3i3 tells 6ielding that once the English are out of India, the two will

be able to be friends 6ielding as/s why they cannot be friends now, when they both wantto be, but the s/y and the earth see& to say Uo, not yet Uo, not therev

HO&ARD>' END

After #elen *chlegels brief ro&ance with -aul .ilco ends badly, the cultured, idealistic*chlegel fa&ily thin/s it they will ha!e nothing further to do with the &aterialistic,co&&erceobsessed .ilcoes )he *chlegels continue with their intellectual li!es At a%erfor&ance of 0eetho!ens 6ifth *y&%hony, they &eet an i&%o!erished insurance cler/na&ed eonard 0ast, who regards the& with general sus%icion when #elen accidentallysteals his u&brella )he *chlegels are shoc/ed when the .ilcoes &o!e fro& theircountry estate of #owards End to a ondon at o%%osite their ho&e on .ic/ha& -lace inondon 0ut -aul has left to win his fortune in Uigeria, and #elen is !acationing with hercousin 6rieda in Ter&any, so there is little danger of an un%leasant scene Margaret,#elens older sister and the head of the fa&ily, e!en befriends Mrs .ilcoH they goChrist&as sho%%ing together, and Margaret throws a luncheon for the ethereal, selessMrs .ilco

.hen Mrs .ilco dies not long afterward, she lea!es a handwritten note behind as/ingthat #owards End be gi!en to Margaret 0ut her %rag&atic husband, #enry, a %ro&inentbusiness&an, and her greedy son Charles, a struggling business&an, refuse to act on the&atter and ne!er &ention it to Margaret ne night, Margaret and #elen run into #enry,and they discuss the case of eonard 0astH #enry warns the& that eonards insuranceco&%any is doo&ed to failure, and they ad!ise hi& to $nd a new ?ob 0ut %oor eonard,who associates the *chlegels with all things cultural and ro&antiche reads constantly,ho%ing to better hi&selfresents this intrusion into his business life and accuses the& oftrying to %ro$t fro& his /nowledge of the insurance industry

Margaret and #enry de!elo% a halting, gradual friendshi% .hen the lease e%ires at.ic/ha& -lace, the *chlegels begin loo/ing for another house :their landlord wants tofollow the general trend and re%lace their house with a &ore %ro$table a%art&entbuilding< #enry oers to rent the& a house he owns in ondon, and when he shows it toMargaret, he suddenly %ro%oses to her *he is sur%rised by her ha%%iness, and afterconsidering the %ro%osal, she acce%ts

*hortly before Margaret and #enry are scheduled to be &arried, #enrys daughter E!ie&arries a &an na&ed -ercy CahillH the wedding is held at a .ilco estate near .alesAfter the %arty, which Margaret $nds Buite un%leasant, #elen arri!es in a dishe!eledstate, with the 0asts in tow *he declares indignantly that eonard has left his oldco&%any, found a new ?ob, and been su&&arily $redH he is now without an inco&e #elen

angrily bla&es #enry for his illconsidered ad!ice Margaret as/s #enry to gi!e eonard a ?ob, but when he sees "ac/y 0ast, he reali3es that he had an aair with her 17 years ago,when she was a %rostitute in Cy%rus Margaret forgi!es hi& for the indiscretionit wasbefore they e!en &etbut she writes to #elen that there will be no ?ob for eonard

#elen and the 0asts ha!e retired to a hotel in town, and after "ac/y goes to slee%, #elenand eonard stay u% discussing #elens %hiloso%hical obser!ations about life AfterMargarets note arri!es, a feeling of tragedy descends on their con!ersation, and they&a/e lo!ean unwelco&e de!elo%&ent for both of the&G eonard is wrac/ed with guilt,and #elen beco&es %regnant *he lea!es for Ter&any the following &orning, and bothshe and eonard recede fro& Margarets life Margaret and #enry are &arried, and %lan tobuild a new ho&e in *usse

After so&e ti&e %asses, howe!er, Margaret begins to worry about her sister, and with#enrys hel%, she arranges a sche&e to sur%rise her at #owards End, where #elen isgoing to collect so&e boo/s :)he *chlegels belongings are being stored at #owards

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End< #ere, Margaret sees #elens ad!anced %regnancy, and is $lled with lo!e andtenderness for her sister #elen as/s to s%end the night with Margaret at #owards End,but #enry refuses to let a (fallen wo&an( slee% in his ho&e .hen Margaret %oints outthat #enry hi&self has co&&itted a worse seual indiscretion than #elen, #enry isoutraged, and Margaret resol!es to lea!e hi&, returning to Ter&any with #elen

In the &eanti&e, eonard decides to confess to Margaret what ha%%ened, and he tra!elsto #owards End the &orning after Margaret and #elen slee% there .hen he arri!es, he isbeaten by Charles .ilco with the at of a sword, and a boo/case falls on hi& eonardhas a heart attac/ and dies After the inBuest, Charles is charged with &anslaughter andsentenced to three years in %rison #enry is shattered, and co&es to Margaret for hel%#enry, Margaret, and #elen &o!e into #owards End, where #elen and #enry learn to befriends and where #elens son is born 6ourteen &onths later, they are still li!ing thereha%%ily

GRAHA( GREENE

#enry Traha& Treene was born on ctober 2, 197; in 0er/ha&sted, England #e had adi>cult childhood, and he atte&%ted suicide on a nu&ber of occasions #is thera%istsuggested that he loo/ to writing as a way to deal with his troubled e&otions At 0alliolCollege, ford, he studied &odern history, wor/ed as the editor for a ca&%us news%a%erand li!ed a so&ewhat dissolute lifestyle After graduation he went to wor/ at The+ottingham Journal, and &et his future wife, +i!ien Dayrell0rowning *he would beinstru&ental in his con!ersion to Catholicis&, which too/ %lace in 6ebruary of 192PAlthough it is said that initially he only con!erted in order to win the aection of +i!ien,he e!entually beca&e !ery dee%ly and seriously interested in his ado%ted religionAfter %ublishingThe Man /ithin,which was a critical and co&&ercial success, he beganwriting full ti&e 0ut his net no!els, The +ame of Action and"umour at +ight &et withfailureStamboul Trainwas a co&&ercial success and later beca&e a $l& Treene tried hishand at screenwriting, his &ost well /nown foray into that &ediu& being the screen%layfor the rson .elles $l&, The Third Man, which won $rst %ri3e at the Cannes 6il& 6esti!alin 19;9 During the 1947s, he also wrote $l& re!iews, beco&ing one of the &ost highly

estee&ed $l& critics of his day #is tra!els in Meico in 1948 and his shoc/ at thereligious %ersecution he witnessed there %ro!ided the &aterial for The &a*less"oads :1949< and The %o*er and the #lory  :1949< )he latter no!el was a great criticalsuccess, winning )he #awthorn Den award, while earning the fury of the +atican Catholicbisho%s and cardinals who read the boo/ thought it focused too &uch of its attention onthe wretchedness of hu&an beings and %ainted too negati!e a %icture of the %riesthood )he ad!ent of .orld .ar II led to his wife e!acuating with his two children toCrowborough and ford, and his ta/ing a %osition with the Ministry of Infor&ation andthe Air Said -recautions *Buad In 1949 he %ublished The Con<dential Agent  and he alsowrote childrens stories, which were %ublished after the war ended #is no!el The Heart of the Matter  is based on his e%eriences in *ierra eone during the war, where he went towor/ for the *ecret Intelligence *er!ice in 19;1 #e returned to ondon in 19;4, andwor/ed for Counter Intelligence and left the *er!ice in 19;;

 )hroughout his life, Treene often !isited %laces of conict, including +ietna&, enya,-oland, Cuba and #aiti, and &ined the& for &aterial for his no!els #is no!el The :uiet American :1955< is about A&erican in!ol!e&ent in Indochina, 0ur Man -n Ha!ana :1958<is based on his tra!els in Cuba, The Comedian :19PP< deals with a re%ressi!e regi&e in#aiti, The Honorary Consul :19'4< is set in -araguay and The Human Factor  :19'8< in*outh Africa #is interest in Central A&erican %olitics led to his beco&ing acBuainted with$gures such as 6idel Castro and Manuel Uoriega, and he beca&e a critic of the nited*tates and of Sonald Seagan in %articular Traha& Treene died in *wit3erland in 1991The Po)e a#d the G"oy: P"ot O1e1!e)

At the beginning of the no!el, the %riest is waiting for a boat that will ta/e hi& out of theca%ital city #e is on the run fro& the %olice because religion has been outlawed in hisstate and he is the last re&aining clergy&an .hile tal/ing to a &an na&ed Mr )ench, he

is su&&oned to a dying wo&ans house and &isses his boat #e hides out in a barn onthe estate of a %lantation owner, befriending the owners daughter 6orced to &o!e on, he

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heads to a !illage in which he used to li!e and wor/ as %astor )here he &eets Maria, awo&an with who& he has had a brief aair, and 0rigida, his illegiti&ate daughter #es%ends the night in the town and wa/es before dawn to say &ass for the !illagers )helieutenanta sworn ene&y of all r eligionarri!es at the end of &ass, leading a grou% of%olice&en in search of the %riest, and the %riest goes out to the town sBuare to face hisene&y Uo one in the !illage turns hi& in, howe!er, and the lieutenant does not reali3e

that he has foun d the &an he is loo/ing for Instead, the lieutenant ta/es a hostage,who& he says he will eecute if he $nds that the !illagers ha!e been lying to hi& aboutthe whereabouts of the wanted &an

 )he %riest heads to the town of Car&en, and on the way he &eets a &an /nown si&%lyas the &esti3o nin!ited, the &esti3o acco&%anies the %riest on his ?ourney, and it !erysoon beco&es clear that he is an untrustworthy $gure, and &ost li/ely interes ted infollowing the %riest so that he can turn hi& in and collect the reward &oney )he %riest$nally ad&its that he is, indeed, a %riest 0ut the &esti3o, who has beco&e fe!erish bythe second day of their ?ourney together, does not ha!e the strength t o follow the %riestwhen he !eers o course )he %riest /nows that if he enters Car&en he will surely beca%tured, and he lets the &esti3o ride on towards the town by hi&self

 )he %riest then bac/trac/s to the ca%ital city #e is in disguise, wearing a drill suit, and hetries to %rocure a bottle of wine so he can say &ass #e &eets a beggar who ta/es hi& toa hotel and introduces hi& to a &an who says he can su%%ly hi& with th e wine )he &anarri!es and sells the %riest a bottle of wine and a bottle of brandy 0ut, ta/ing ad!antageof the %riests oer to share a drin/ with hi&, the &an %roceeds to drin/ the entire bottleof wine, thwarting the %riests %lan )he %riest then lea!es the hotel but is caught with thebottle of brandy by a state o>cial After a lengthy chase through the streets of the town,during which the %riest unsuccessfully atte&%ts to ta/e refuge at the house of -adre "ose,he is caught and ta/en to ? ail In ?ail he s%ea/s with the %risoners, ad&itting to the& thathe is a %riest A %ious wo&an, in ?ail for ha!ing religious articles in her ho&e, argues withthe %riest )he net day, the %riest is ordered to clean out the cells and, while doing so,&eets the &esti3o again 0ut the &esti3o decides not to turn the %riest in to theauthorities )he %riest has another facetoface encounter with the lieutenant, but again

goes unrecogni3ed, and is allowed to go free

 )he %riest s%ends a night at the abandoned estate of the 6ellows and then &o!es on toan abandoned !illage #e &eets an Indian wo&an whose son has been shot and /illed bythe gringo, an A&erican outlaw who is also on the run fro& %olice #e acco&%anie s thewo&an to a burial ground and then lea!es her there 6atigued, and al&ost co&%letelydrained of the will to li!e, the %riest staggers on, e!entually co&ing u%on a &an na&edMr ehr who infor&s hi& that he is out of danger, ha!ing crossed the bor der into aneighboring state where religion is not outlawed

After s%ending a few days at the ho&e of Mr ehr, the %riest %re%ares to lea!e for asCasas 0ut before he can de%art, the &esti3o arri!es, infor&ing hi& that the gringo hasbeen &ortally wounded by the %olice and is as/ing for so&eone to co&e and hear his

confession )he %riest, aware that he is wal/ing into a tra%, $nally agrees to acco&%anythe &esti3o bac/ across the border )here he &eets the gringo, who refuses to re%ent forhis sins and then dies )hen, as e%ected, the lieutenant arri!es and ta /es the %riest intocustody )he two &en ha!e a long con!ersation about their beliefs and then, when thestor& front clears, the lieutenant ta/es the %riest bac/ to the ca%ital city for his trial

n the night before the %riest is to be eecuted, the lieutenant goes to the ho&e of -adre "ose to see if he will co&e and hear the confession of the ca%tured %riest -adre "oserefuses and the lieutenant returns to the %olice station with a bottle of bra ndy for the%riest )hat night, the %riest tries to re%ent for his sins, but $nds he cannot #e wa/es u%the net &orning afraid of the i&%ending eecution

 )he net day, Mr )ench watches the eecution fro& the window of the ?efes o>ce aterthat night the boy hears about what ha%%ened to the %riest and reali3es that the &an is a

&artyr and a hero #e drea&s about hi& that night, and wa/es u% to the sound of

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/noc/ing at the door %ening the door, he $nds a &an see/ing shelter, and when theboy learns that the &an is a %riest, he swings the door wide o%en to let hi& in

&ILLIA( GOLDING

.illia& Tolding was born on *e%te&ber 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England Although he triedto write a no!el as early as age twel!e, his %arents urged hi& to study the naturalsciences Tolding followed his %arents wishes until his second year at ford, when hechanged his focus to English literature After graduating fro& ford, he wor/ed briey asa theater actor and director, wrote %oetry, and then beca&e a schoolteacher In 19;7, ayear after England entered .orld .ar II, Tolding ?oined the Soyal Ua!y, where he ser!edin co&&and of a roc/etlauncher and %artici%ated in the in!asion of Uor&andy

Toldings e%erience in .orld .ar II had a %rofound eect on his !iew of hu&anity andthe e!ils of which it was ca%able After the war, Tolding resu&ed teaching and started towrite no!els #is $rst and greatest success ca&e with &ord of the Flies :195;<, whichulti&ately beca&e a bestseller in both 0ritain and the nited *tates after &ore thantwenty %ublishers re?ected it )he no!els sales enabled Tolding to retire fro& teachingand de!ote hi&self fully to writing Tolding wrote se!eral &ore no!els, notably %incherMartin :195P<, and a %lay,The rass uttery  :1958< Although he ne!er &atched the%o%ular and critical success he en?oyed with &ord of the Flies, he re&ained a res%ectedand distinguished author for the rest of his life and was awarded the Uobel -ri3e foriterature in 1984 Tolding died in 1994, one of the &ost acclai&ed writers of the secondhalf of the twentieth century&ord of the Flies tells the story of a grou% of English schoolboys &arooned on a tro%icalisland after their %lane is shot down during a war )hough the no!el is $ctional, itse%loration of the idea of hu&an e!il is at least %artly based on Toldings e%erience withthe reallife !iolence and brutality of .orld .ar II 6ree fro& the rules and structures ofci!ili3ation and society, the boys on the island in &ord of the Flies descend into sa!ageryAs the boys s%linter into factions, so&e beha!e %eacefully and wor/ together to &aintainorder and achie!e co&&on goals, while others rebel and see/ only anarchy and !iolenceIn his %ortrayal of the s&all world of the island, Tolding %aints a broader %ortrait of the

funda&ental hu&an struggle between the ci!ili3ing instinctthe i&%ulse to obey rules,beha!e &orally, and act lawfullyand the sa!age instinctthe i&%ulse to see/ brute%ower o!er others, act sel$shly, scorn &oral rules, and indulge in !iolenceTolding e&%loys a relati!ely straightforward writing style in &ord of the Flies,one thata!oids highly %oetic language, lengthy descri%tion, and %hiloso%hical interludes Much ofthe no!el is allegorical, &eaning that the characters and ob?ects in the no!el are infusedwith sy&bolic signi$cance that con!eys the no!els central the&es and ideas In%ortraying the !arious ways in which the boys on the island ada%t to their newsurroundings and react to their new freedo&, Tolding e%lores the broad s%ectru& ofways in which hu&ans res%ond to stress, change, and tensionSeaders and critics ha!e inter%reted &ord of the Flies in widely !arying ways o!er theyears since its %ublication During the 1957s and 19P7s, &any readings of the no!elclai&ed that &ord of the Flies dra&ati3es the history of ci!ili3ation *o&e belie!ed that

the no!el e%lores funda&ental religious issues, such as original sin and the nature ofgood and e!il thers a%%roached &ord of the Flies through the theories of the%sychoanalyst *ig&und 6reud, who taught that the hu&an &ind was the site of aconstant battle a&ong dierent i&%ulsesthe id :instinctual needs and desires<, the ego:the conscious, rational &ind<, and the su%erego :the sense of conscience and &orality<*till others &aintained that Tolding wrote the no!el as a criticis& of the %olitical andsocial institutions of the .est lti&ately, there is so&e !alidity to each of these dierentreadings and inter%retations of &ord of the Flies Although Toldings story is con$ned tothe &icrocos& of a grou% of boys, it resounds with i&%lications far beyond the bounds ofthe s&all island and e%lores %roble&s and Buestions uni!ersal to the hu&an e%erienceLod o8 the F"!es: P"ot O1e1!e)

In the &idst of a raging war, a %lane e!acuating a grou% of schoolboys fro& 0ritain is shot

down o!er a deserted tro%ical island )wo of the boys, Sal%h and -iggy, disco!er a conchshell on the beach, and -iggy reali3es it could be used as a horn to su&&on the other

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boys nce asse&bled, the boys set about electing a leader and de!ising a way to berescued )hey choose Sal%h as their leader, and Sal%h a%%oints another boy, "ac/, to bein charge of the boys who will hunt food for the entire grou%

Sal%h, "ac/, and another boy, *i&on, set o on an e%edition to e%lore the island .henthey return, Sal%h declares that they &ust light a signal $re to attract the attention of

%assing shi%s )he boys succeed in igniting so&e dead wood by focusing sunlight throughthe lenses of -iggys eyeglasses #owe!er, the boys %ay &ore attention to %laying than to&onitoring the $re, and the a&es Buic/ly engulf the forest A large swath of dead woodburns out of control, and one of the youngest boys in the grou% disa%%ears, %resu&ablyha!ing burned to death

At $rst, the boys en?oy their life without grownu%s and s%end &uch of their ti&es%lashing in the water and %laying ga&es Sal%h, howe!er, co&%lains that they should be&aintaining the signal $re and building huts for shelter )he hunters fail in their atte&%tto catch a wild %ig, but their leader, "ac/, beco&es increasingly %reoccu%ied with the actof hunting

.hen a shi% %asses by on the hori3on one day, Sal%h and -iggy notice, to their horror,that the signal $rewhich had been the hunters res%onsibility to &aintainhas burnedout 6urious, Sal%h accosts "ac/, but the hunter has ?ust returned with his $rst /ill, and allthe hunters see& gri%%ed with a strange fren3y, reenacting the chase in a /ind of wilddance -iggy critici3es "ac/, who hits -iggy across the face Sal%h blows the conch shelland re%ri&ands the boys in a s%eech intended to restore order At the &eeting, it Buic/lybeco&es clear that so&e of the boys ha!e started to beco&e afraid )he littlest boys,/nown as littluns,v ha!e been troubled by night&ares fro& the beginning, and &ore and&ore boys now belie!e that there is so&e sort of beast or &onster lur/ing on the island )he older boys try to con!ince the others at the &eeting to thin/ rationally, as/ing wheresuch a &onster could %ossibly hide during the dayti&e ne of the littluns suggests that ithides in the seaa %ro%osition that terri$es the entire grou%

Uot long after the &eeting, so&e &ilitary %lanes engage in a battle high abo!e the island )he boys, aslee% below, do not notice the ashing lights and e%losions in the clouds A

%arachutist drifts to earth on the signal$re &ountain, dead *a& and Eric, the twinsres%onsible for watching the $re at night, are aslee% and do not see the %arachutist land.hen the twins wa/e u%, they see the enor&ous silhouette of his %arachute and hear thestrange a%%ing noises it &a/es )hin/ing the island beast is at hand, they rush bac/ tothe ca&% in terror and re%ort that the beast has attac/ed the&

 )he boys organi3e a hunting e%edition to search for the &onster "ac/ and Sal%h, whoare increasingly at odds, tra!el u% the &ountain )hey see the silhouette of the %arachutefro& a distance and thin/ that it loo/s li/e a huge, defor&ed a%e )he grou% holds a&eeting at which "ac/ and Sal%h tell the others of the sighting "ac/ says that Sal%h is acoward and that he should be re&o!ed fro& o>ce, but the other boys refuse to !oteSal%h out of %ower "ac/ angrily runs away down the beach, calling all the hunters to ?oinhi& Sal%h rallies the re&aining boys to build a new signal $re, this ti&e on the beach

rather than on the &ountain )hey obey, but before they ha!e $nished the tas/, &ost ofthe& ha!e sli%%ed away to ?oin "ac/

 "ac/ declares hi&self the leader of the new tribe of hunters and organi3es a hunt and a!iolent, ritual slaughter of a sow to sole&ni3e the occasion )he hunters then deca%itatethe sow and %lace its head on a shar%ened sta/e in the ?ungle as an oering to the beastater, encountering the bloody, yco!ered head, *i&on has a terrible !ision, duringwhich it see&s to hi& that the head is s%ea/ing )he !oice, which he i&agines asbelonging to the ord of the 6lies, says that *i&on will ne!er esca%e hi&, for he eistswithin all &en *i&on faints .hen he wa/es u%, he goes to the &ountain, where he seesthe dead %arachutist nderstanding then that the beast does not eist eternally butrather within each indi!idual boy, *i&on tra!els to the beach to tell the others what hehas seen 0ut the others are in the &idst of a chaotic re!elrye!en Sal%h and -iggy ha!e

 ?oined "ac/s feastand when they see *i&ons shadowy $gure e&erge fro& the ?ungle,they fall u%on hi& and /ill hi& with their bare hands and teeth

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

 )he following &orning, Sal%h and -iggy discuss what they ha!e done "ac/s huntersattac/ the& and their few followers and steal -iggys glasses in the %rocess Sal%hsgrou% tra!els to "ac/s stronghold in an atte&%t to &a/e "ac/ see reason, but "ac/ orders*a& and Eric tied u% and $ghts with Sal%h In the ensuing battle, one boy, Soger, rolls aboulder down the &ountain, /illing -iggy and shattering the conch shell Sal%h barely&anages to esca%e a torrent of s%ears

Sal%h hides for the rest of the night and the following day, while the others hunt hi& li/ean ani&al "ac/ has the other boys ignite the forest in order to s&o/e Sal%h out of hishiding %lace Sal%h stays in the forest, where he disco!ers and destroys the sows head,but e!entually, he is forced out onto the beach, where he /nows the other boys will soonarri!e to /ill hi& Sal%h colla%ses in ehaustion, but when he loo/s u%, he sees a 0ritishna!al o>cer standing o!er hi& )he o>cers shi% noticed the $re raging in the ?ungle )heother boys reach the beach and sto% in their trac/s at the sight of the o>cer A&a3ed atthe s%ectacle of this grou% of bloodthirsty, sa!age children, the o>cer as/s Sal%h toe%lain Sal%h is o!erwhel&ed by the /nowledge that he is safe but, thin/ing about whathas ha%%ened on the island, he begins to wee% )he other boys begin to sob as well )heo>cer turns his bac/ so that the boys &ay regain their co&%osure

 J9R9R9 TOLKIEN Joh# Ro#a"d Reue" To"7!e#, C0E :JKt z l/ i nJHQaR 4 "anuary 1892 = 2 *e%te&ber 19'4< wasan English writer, %oet, %hilologist, and uni!ersity %rofessor, best /nown as the author ofthe classic high fantasy wor/s The Hobbit , The &ord of the "ings, and The Silmarillion

#e ser!ed as the Sawlinson and 0osworth -rofessor of Anglo*aon at -e&bro/e College,ford, fro& 1925 to 19;5 and Merton -rofessor of English anguage anditerature at Merton College, ford fro& 19;5 to 1959Q1R #e was at one ti&e a closefriend of C * ewisthey were both &e&bers of the infor&al literary discussion grou%/nown as the In/lings )ol/ien was a%%ointed a Co&&ander of the rder of the 0ritishE&%ire by kueen Eli3abeth II on 28 March 19'2

After his death, )ol/iens son Christo%her %ublished a series of wor/s based on his fathers

etensi!e notes and un%ublished &anuscri%ts, includingThe Silmarillion )hese, togetherwith The Hobbit  and The &ord of the "ings for& a connected body of tales, %oe&s,$ctional histories, in!ented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy worldcalled Arda, and Middleearth QbR within it 0etween 1951 and 1955, )ol/ien a%%lied theter&legendarium to the larger %art of these writingsQ2R

.hile &any other authors had %ublished wor/s of fantasy before )ol/ien,Q4R the greatsuccess of The Hobbit  and The &ord of the "ings led directly to a %o%ular resurgence ofthe genre )his has caused )ol/ien to be %o%ularly identi$ed as the (father( of &odernfantasy literatureQ;RQ5Ror, &ore %recisely, of high fantasyQPR In 2778, The Times ran/edhi& sith on a list of ()he 57 greatest 0ritish writers since 19;5(Q'R Forbes ran/ed hi& the5th to%earning dead celebrity in 2779

Pu<"!3at!o#s?ed!t@

Beo&ulf) The onsters and the #riti$s* edit  +

As well as his $ction, )ol/ien was also a leading author of acade&ic literary criticis& #isse&inal 194P lecture, later %ublished as an article, re!olutioni3ed the treat&ent of theAnglo*aon e%iceo*ulf  by literary critics )he essay re&ains highly inuential in thestudy of ld English literature to this day eo*ulf  is one of the &ost signi$cant inuencesu%on )ol/iens later $ction, with &a?or details of both The Hobbit  and The &ord of the"ings being ada%ted fro& the %oe& )he %iece re!eals &any of the as%ectsof eo*ulf  which )ol/ien found &ost ins%iring, &ost %ro&inently the role of &onsters inliterature, %articularly that of the dragon which a%%ears in the $nal third of the %oe&G

As for the %oe&, one dragon, howe!er hot, does not &a/e a su&&er, or a hostH and a&an &ight well echange for one good dragon what he would not sell for a wildernessAnd dragons, real dragons, essential both to the &achinery and the ideas of a %oe& ortale, are actually rareQ1;4R

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#hildren,s -ooks and other short &orks

In addition to his &ytho%oeic co&%ositions, )ol/ien en?oyed in!enting fantasy stories toentertain his childrenQ1;;R #e wrote annual Christ&as letters fro& 6ather Christ&as forthe&, building u% a series of short stories :later co&%iled and %ublished as The FatherChristmas &etters< ther stories included Mr. liss and "o!erandom :for children<,and &eaf by +iggle :%art of Tree and &eaf <,The Ad!entures of Tom ombadil, 0n FairyStories, Smith of /ootton MaDor  and Farmer #iles of Ham "o!erandom and Smith of/ootton MaDor , li/e The Hobbit , borrowed ideas fro& hislegendarium

The Ho--it 

 )ol/ien ne!er e%ected his stories to beco&e %o%ular, but by sheer accident a boo/called The Hobbit , which he had written so&e years before for his own children, ca&e in194P to the attention of *usan Dagnall, an e&%loyee of the ondon %ublishing $r&Teorge Allen nwin, who %ersuaded )ol/ien to sub&it it for %ublication Q85R #owe!er, theboo/ attracted adult readers as well as children, and it beca&e %o%ular enough for the%ublishers to as/ )ol/ien to %roduce a seBuel

The 'ord of the Rings

 )he reBuest for a seBuel %ro&%ted )ol/ien to begin what would beco&e his &ost fa&ouswor/G the e%ic no!el The &ord of the "ings :originally %ublished in three !olu&es 195;=1955< )ol/ien s%ent &ore than ten years writing the %ri&ary narrati!e and a%%endicesfor The &ord of the "ings, during which ti&e he recei!ed the constant su%%ort of theIn/lings, in %articular his closest friend ewis, the author of The Chronicles of +arnia0oth The Hobbit  andThe &ord of the "ings are set against the bac/ground of TheSilmarillion, but in a ti&e long after it

 )ol/ien at $rst intended The &ord of the "ings to be a childrens tale in the style of TheHobbit , but it Buic/ly grew dar/er and &ore serious in the writingQ1;5R )hough a directseBuel to The Hobbit , it addressed an older audience, drawing on the i&&ense bac/story of 0eleriand that )ol/ien had constructed in %re!ious years, and which e!entuallysaw %osthu&ous %ublication in The Silmarillion and other !olu&es )ol/iens inuenceweighs hea!ily on the fantasy genre that grew u% after the success of The &ord of the

"ings

The &ord of the "ings beca&e i&&ensely %o%ular in the 19P7s and has re&ained so e!ersince, ran/ing as one of the &ost %o%ular wor/s of $ction of the 27th century, ?udged byboth sales and reader sur!eysQ1;PR In the 2774 (0ig Sead( sur!ey conducted by the00C, The &ord of the "ings was found to be the s (0estlo!ed Uo!el(Q1;'RAustralians!oted The &ord of the "ings (My 6a!ourite 0oo/( in a 277; sur!ey conducted bythe Australian A0CQ1;8R In a 1999 %oll of A&a3onco& custo&ers, The &ord of the"ings was ?udged to be their fa!ourite (boo/ of the &illenniu&(Q1;9R In 2772 )ol/ien was!oted the 92nd (greatest 0riton( in a %oll conducted by the 00C, and in 277; he was!oted 45th in the *A0C4s Treat *outh Africans, the only %erson to a%%ear in both lists#is %o%ularity is not li&ited to the Englishs%ea/ing worldG in a 277; %oll ins%ired by thes (0ig Sead( sur!ey, about 257,777 Ter&ans foundThe &ord of the "ings to be their

fa!ourite wor/ of literatureQ157R

Posthu4ous pu<"!3at!o#s

The Sil"arillion

 )ol/ien wrote a brief (*/etch of the Mythology( which included the tales of 0eren and{thien and of ){rin, and that s/etch e!entually e!ol!ed into the :uenta Silmarillion, ane%ic history that )ol/ien started three ti&es but ne!er %ublished )ol/ien des%eratelyho%ed to %ublish it along with The &ord of the "ings, but %ublishers :both Allen nwin and Collins< got cold feet Moreo!er, %rinting costs were !ery high in 1957s 0ritain,reBuiring The &ord of the "ings to be %ublished in three !olu&esQ151R  )he story of thiscontinuous redrafting is told in the %osthu&ous series The History of Middleearth, editedby )ol/iens son, Christo%her )ol/ien 6ro& around 194P, )ol/ien began to etend thisfra&ewor/ to include the tale of The Fall of +Emenor , which was ins%ired by the legendof Atlantis

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 )ol/ien had a%%ointed his son Christo%her to be his literary eecutor, and he :withassistance fro& Tuy Ta!riel ay, later a well/nown fantasy author in his own right<organi3ed so&e of this &aterial into a single coherent !olu&e, %ublished as TheSilmarillion in 19'' It recei!ed the ocus Award for 0est 6antasy no!el in 19'8 Q152R

Un.nished Tales and The History of iddle/earth

In 1987 Christo%her )ol/ien %ublished a collection of &ore frag&entary &aterial, underthe title ;n<nished Tales of +Emenor and Middleearth In subseBuent years :1984=199P<he %ublished a large a&ount of the re&aining un%ublished &aterials, together with notesand etensi!e co&&entary, in a series of twel!e !olu&es calledThe History of Middleearth )hey contain un$nished, abandoned, alternati!e, and outright contradictoryaccounts, since they were always a wor/ in %rogress for )ol/ien and he only rarely settledon a de$niti!e !ersion for any of the stories )here is not co&%lete consistencybetween The &ord of the "ings and The Hobbit , the two &ost closely related wor/s,because )ol/ien ne!er fully integrated all their traditions into each other #e co&&entedin 19P5, while editing The Hobbit  for a third edition, that he would ha!e %referred toco&%letely rewrite the boo/ because of the style of its %roseQ154R

r0 Bliss

ne of )ol/iens least/nown short wor/s is the childrens storyboo/ Mr. liss, %ublished in1982 It tells the story of Mr 0liss and his $rst ride in his new &otorcar Many ad!enturesfollowG encounters with bears, angry neighbours, irate sho%/ee%ers, and assortedcollisions )he story was ins%ired by )ol/iens own !ehicular &isha%s with his $rst car,%urchased in 1942 )he bears were based on toy bears owned by )ol/iens sons )ol/ienwas both author and illustrator of the boo/ #e sub&itted it to his %ublishers as a bal& toreaders who were hungry for &ore fro& hi& after the success of The Hobbit  )he la!ishin/ and coloured%encil illustrations would ha!e &ade %roduction costs %rohibiti!elye%ensi!e )ol/ien agreed to redraw the %ictures in a si&%ler style, but then found he didnot ha!e ti&e to do so )he boo/ was %ublished in 1982 as a facsi&ile of )ol/iensdi>culttoread illustrated &anuscri%t, with a ty%eset transcri%tion on each facing %age

The #hildren of H1rin

More recently, in 277', the collection was co&%leted with the %ublication of The Childrenof HErin by #ar%erCollins :in the and Canada< and #oughton Miin :in the *< )heno!el tells the story of ){rin )ura&bar and his sister Uienor, children of #{rin )halion )he&aterial was co&%iled by Christo%her )ol/ien fro& The Silmarillion, ;n<nished Tales, TheHistory of Middleearth, and un%ublished &anuscri%ts

The 'egend of Sigurd and 2udr1n

In 6ebruary 2779, %ublishers /eekly  announced that #oughton Miin #arcourt hadacBuired the A&erican rights to )ol/iens un%ublished wor/ The &egend of Sigurd and#udrEnQ15;R )he wor/, which was released worldwide on 5 May 2779 by #oughton Miin#arcourt and #ar%erCollins, retells the legend of *igurd and the fall of the Uiungs fro&Ter&anic &ythology It is a narrati!e %oe& co&%osed in alliterati!e !erse and is&odelled after the ld Uorse %oetry of the Elder Edda Christo%her )ol/ien su%%liedco%ious notes and co&&entary u%on his fathers wor/

According to Christo%her )ol/ien, it is no longer %ossible to trace the eact date of thewor/s co&%osition n the basis of circu&stantial e!idence, he suggests that it datesfro& the 1947s In his foreword he wrote, (#e scarcely e!er :to &y /nowledge< referred tothe& 6or &y %art, I cannot recall any con!ersation with hi& on the sub?ect until !erynear the end of his life, when he s%o/e of the& to &e, and tried unsuccessfully to $ndthe&(Q155R In a 19P' letter to . # Auden, )ol/ien wrote, ()han/ you for your wonderfuleort in translating and reorgani3ing The Song of the Sibyl In return again I ho%e to sendyou, if I can lay &y hands on it :I ho%e it isnt lost<, a thing I did &any years ago whentrying to learn the art of writing alliterati!e %oetryG an atte&%t to unify the lays about the+|lsungs fro& the Elder Edda, written in the old eightline fornyrpislag stan3a(Q15PR

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY 

The Fall of %rthur 

In A%ril 2714, #oughton Miin #arcourt released The Fall of Arthur , a %oe& which )ol/ienhad co&%osed during the early 1947s )he %oe& is alliterati!e, etending to close to1,777 !erses i&itating the ld English eo*ulf  &etre in Modern English )hough ins%iredby high &edie!al Arthurian $ction, the historical setting of the %oe& is during the Dar/Ages, both in for& :usingTer&anic !erse< and in content, showing Arthur as a Migration%eriod 0ritish &ilitary leader $ghting the *aon in!asion, while it a!oids the high&edie!al as%ects Arthurian cycle :such as the Trail, and the courtly setting<H the %oe&begins with a 0ritish (counterin!asion( to the *aon lands : Arthur east*ard in arms 3ur3osed<Q15'R

(a#us3!pt "o3at!o#s

0efore his death )ol/ien negotiated the sale of the &anuscri%ts, drafts, %roofs and other&aterials related to his then%ublished wor/s = including The &ord of the "ings, TheHobbit  and Farmer #iles of Ham = to the De%art&ent of *%ecial Collections and ni!ersityArchi!es at MarBuette ni!ersitys "ohn - Saynor, *", ibrary in Milwau/ee, .isconsinQ158R After his death his estate donated the %a%ers containing )ol/iens Silmarillion &ythology and his acade&ic wor/ to ford ni!ersitys 0odleian

ibrary

Q159R

In 2779, a %artial draft of  &anguage and Human +ature, which )ol/ien had begun cowriting with C* ewis but had ne!er co&%leted, was disco!ered at the 0odleian ibraryQ1P7R

'A(UEL %ECKET

*a&uel 0ec/ett was born in Dublin in 197P #e befriended the fa&ous Irish no!elist "a&es "oyce, and his $rst %ublished wor/ was an essay on "oyce In 1951 and 1954, 0ec/ettwrote his &ost fa&ous no!els, the trilogy Molloy,Malone ies, and The ;nnameable./aiting for #odot,0ec/etts $rst %lay, was written originally in 6rench in 19;8 :0ec/ettsubseBuently translated the %lay into English hi&self< It %re&iered at a tiny theater in-aris in 1954 )his %lay began 0ec/etts association with the Theate o8 the A<sud,

which inuenced later %laywrights li/e #arold -inter and )o& *to%%ard )he &ost fa&ous of 0ec/etts subseBuent %lays include 2ndgame :1958< and )ra33's&ast Ta3e :1959< #e also wrote se!eral e!en &ore e%eri&ental %lays,li/e reath :19P9<, a thirtysecond %lay 0ec/ett was awarded the Uobel -ri3e in 19P9 anddied in 1989 in -aris

&AITING FOR GODOT: *u&&ary

 )wo &en, +ladi&ir and Estragon, &eet near a tree )hey con!erse on !arious to%ics andre!eal that they are waiting there for a &an na&ed Todot .hile they wait, two other&en enter -o33o is on his way to the &ar/et to sell his sla!e, uc/y #e %auses for a whileto con!erse with +ladi&ir and Estragon uc/y entertains the& by dancing and thin/ing,and -o33o and uc/y lea!e

After -o33o and uc/y lea!e, a boy enters and tells +ladi&ir that he is a &essenger fro&Todot #e tells +ladi&ir that Todot will not be co&ing tonight, but that he will surelyco&e to&orrow +ladi&ir as/s hi& so&e Buestions about Todot and the boy de%artsAfter his de%arture, +ladi&ir and Estragon decide to lea!e, but they do not &o!e as thecurtain falls

 )he net night, +ladi&ir and Estragon again &eet near the tree to wait for Todot uc/yand -o33o enter again, but this ti&e -o33o is blind and uc/y is du&b -o33o does notre&e&ber &eeting the two &en the night before )hey lea!e and +ladi&ir and Estragoncontinue to wait

*hortly after, the boy enters and once again tells +ladi&ir that Todot will not be co&ing#e insists that he did not s%ea/ to +ladi&ir yesterday After he lea!es, Estragon and

+ladi&ir decide to lea!e, but again they do not &o!e as the curtain falls, ending the %lay

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LITERATURE OF 20th CENTURY