The Poems of T.S. Eliot Read by Jeremy Irons

by T. S. Eliot, Jeremy Irons (Read by)

Overview

Jeremy Irons is doing a special event at 92nd Street Y to celebrate 75th anniversary of the publication of the "Four Quartets".

Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Jeremy Irons' perceptive reading illuminates the poetry of T. S. Eliot in all its complexity. Major poems range from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", through the post-war desolation of "The Waste Land" and the spiritual struggle of "Ash-Wednesday", to the enduring charm of "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats". The Spectator praised Jeremy Irons's interpretation as 'so accessible, reading Eliot as if finding his words for the first time, grappling with them, relishing them, using them to express feelings that we all share as we struggle to accept, to recognize or relinquish'. Dame Eileen Atkins also appears alongside Jeremy Irons in the reading of "The Waste Land".

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780571342709
Publisher:	Faber and Faber
Publication date:	04/10/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.90(d)

Editorial Reviews

Like other great readers of Eliot (among them John Gielgud and Alec Guinness), Irons combines the velvet with emotionally alert variations in pace…[He] voices an Eliot who craves, desires and suffers more openly than in the sober accents of Gielgud and Guinness…A high point is when Eileen Atkins joins Irons in the best "Waste Land" reading ever in terms of interpretation and play of voices. Listen especially to the repartee of a man and a woman caged together in a hellish union. Their emotional duo and the naturalness that Irons brings to Eliot make this set of CDs a special gift.

The New York Times Book Review - Lyndall Gordon

★ 03/26/2018
Academy Award–winning actor Irons, whose voice credits include the memorable role of Scar in Disney’s The Lion King, brings considerable talent to reading this collection of Eliot’s poetry. Irons expertly matches the wide range of emotional tones presented in the poems, from a jovial lilt for the short, satiric jab on modernity in the poem “Cousin Nancy,” to a sincere solemnity for the modern touchstone “The Waste Land.” He fully embraces the whimsy found in “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” His recitations of such classics as “The Rum Tum Tugger,” “Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer,” and “Gus: The Theater Cat” are delightful; his rhythms, characterizations, and playful intonations fit perfectly with the material. The result is a potent vocal interpretation of the classic works of one of the 20th century’s most celebrated poets. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Audio

For such a major poet, Eliot left a fairly sparse body of work, and all his mature poems are here. And while many consider him to be a fairly austere modernist, these readings by Jeremy Irons bring out the human passion (and sometimes the intellectual passion) that lurks in the poems. "The Journey of the Magi" is particularly fine, and the notoriously difficult "The Wasteland" (with able assistance from Eileen Atkins on the female voices) reveals some of its structural mysteries. Much of the material here was also recorded by Eliot and, while the poet's interpretations are always valuable, Irons is by far the better, and more accessible, reader. His versions are simply more human, as beautifully crafted as the poems themselves. D.M.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2018 - AudioFile