"The finest poem of this generation"
"A pompous parade of erudition"
"The greatest poem in contemporary literature"
"The thing is a mad medley... so much waste paper."
It's the poem that caused a critical storm and divided opinion when it was first published, but what's it all about? And why, a hundred years on, is it still regarded as one of the greatest poems of the twentieth century?
Experience modern poetry's first masterpiece in a special reading by actors accompanied by musicians playing extracts of the Beethoven String Quartets which Eliot was particularly inspired by as he wrote the poem.
After the performance there will be a discussion and Q and A with Mark Ford, Professor of English Literature at University College London and editor of the Library of America edition of the work of T.S. Eliot.
This performance is licenced by Faber & Faber on behalf of the Eliot estate.
