Selected Essays - T. S. Eliot - Preface - Tradition and the Individual Talent

Sep 20, 2026

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A collection of T. S. Eliot’s critical and poetic essays, organized into major sections covering literary tradition, dramatic poetry, and the evolution of English and European writing. The opening essay argues for the “historical sense,” describing how individuality in poetry emerges through dialogue with the dead rather than mere imitation. Subsequent contents extend this approach across criticism, Elizabethan dramatists, Dante, the metaphysical poets, and later literary figures, emphasizing intellectual continuity and artistic craftsmanship.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages452

Reading Time11 h 36 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

Acknowledgments

Tradition and the Individual Talent

Contents Overview

# T.S.EliotSelected Essays ff the same Author By POEMS r909-I925 A SH-WEDNESDAY SWEENEY AGONISTES JOURNEY OF THE MAGI A SONG FOR SIMEON ANIMULA MARINA TRIUMPHAL MA.RCH ¥ SELECTED ESSAYS FOR LANCELOT ANDREWES THE USE OF POETRY AFTER STRANGE GOD S DANTE ¥ THE ROCK SELECTED ESSAYS BYT.S.ELIOT LONDON FABER·AND.FABER LIMITED24 RUSSELL SQUARE FIRST PUBLISHED IN MCMXXXIIBY FABER AND FABER LIMITED24 RUSSELL SQUARE LONDONW.C.ISECOND EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGEDOCTOBER MCMXXXIV PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BYR.MACLEHOSE AND cOMPANY LIMITEDTHE UNIVERSITY PRESS GLASGOwALL"RIGHTS RESERVED HARRIET SHAW WEAVER IN GRATITUDE,AND IN RECOGNITIONOF HER SERVICESTO ENGLISH LETTERS PREFACE yacknowledgments are due to Messrs.Methuen&Co.Ltd.(for the parts of The Sacred Wood re-,printed);to The Hogarth Press(Homage to JohnDryden);to The Haslewood Press(for A Dialogue onDramatic Poetry);to Messrs.Constable &Co.Ltd.(forSeneca in Elizabethan Translation,originally printed asIntroduction to the Tudor Translations Series edition ofthe Terine Tragedies);to the Shakespeare Association(Shakespeare and the Senecan Tradition);to Mr.Walter de laMare and the Royal Society ot Literature(Arnold andPater);to The Blackamore Press(Baudelaire);to the Eng-lsh Association(Charles Whibley).Also to The Egoist,iheAthenaeum,The Times Literary Supplement,Art and Letters,The Forum,The Bookman(N.Y.),The Hound and Horn,Theology,and The Criterion,in which most of thesepapers originally appeared. My thanks are also due to Mr.B.L.Richmond,with-out whose suggestions and encouragement the essays onElizabethan dramatists would not have been written;andto Mr.F.V.Morley for his assistance in selecting the essaysandin reading the proofs,and for his pertinacity inharryingme to do what work I have myself done in preparation ofthis volume. T.S.E. London:April I932. CONTENTS I TRADITION AND THE INDIVIDUAL TALENT(I9I7) I3 THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM(I923)23 II ‘RHETO RIC’AND PoETIC DRAMA(I9I9)37A DIALOGUE ON DRAMATIC PoETRY(I928)43EURIPIDES AND PROFESSOR MURRAY(I9I8)59SENECA IN ELIZABETHAN TRANSLATION(I927)65 III FoUR ELIZABETHAN DRAMATISTS(I924)IO9CHRISTOPHE虫MARLOWE(I9I8)II8 SHAKESPEARE AND THE STOICISM OF SENECA(I927)I26 HAMLBT(I9I9) I4I BEN JoNSON(I9I9) I47 THOMAS MIDDLETON(I927) I6I THOMAS HEYwooD(I93I) I7I CYRII ToURNEUR(I93I) I82 JoHN rORD(I932) I93 PHILIP MASSINGER(I920) 205 JoHN MARSTOn(I934) 22 CONTENTS IV DANTE(I929) 237THE METAPHYSICAL PoETS(I92I)28IANDREW MARVELL(I92I)292JoHN DRYDEN(I922)305WILLIAM BLAKE(I920)3I7SwINBURNE As PoET(I920)323VILANCELOT ANDREWES(I926)33IJoHN BRAMHALL(I927)344THOUGHTS AFTER LAM BETH(I93I)353VIIBAUDELAIRE(I930)38IARNOLD AND PATER(I930)393FRANCIS HERBERT BRADLEY(I926)406MARIE LLOYD(1923)4I8WILKIE CoLLINS AND DICKENS(I927)422THE HUMANISM OF IRVING BABBITT(I927)43.3SECOND TFOUGHTS ABOUT HUMANISM(I929)443CHARLES WHIBLEY(I93I)454 V # TRADITION AND THEINDIVIDUAL TALENT I n English writing we seldom speak of tradition,thoughwe occasionally apply its name in deploring its absence.We cannot refer to ‘the tradition'or to'a tradition';atmost,we employ the adjective in saying that the poetry ofSo-and-so is traditional'or even ‘too traditonal'.Seldom,perhaps,does the word appear except in a phrase of cen-sure.If otherwise,it is vaguely approbative,with the im-plication,as to the work approved,of some pleasing archae-ological reconstruction.You can hardly make the wordagreeable to English ears without this comfortable refer-ence to the reassuring science of archaeology. Certainly the word is not likely to appear in our appre-ciations ofliving or dead writers.Every nation,every race,has not only its own creative,but its own critical turn ofmind;and is even more oblivious of the shortcomings andlimitations of its critical habits than of those of its creativegenus.We know,or think we know,from the enormousnrass of critical writing that has appeared

FAQs

What central idea does “Tradition and the Individual Talent” present?

It argues that tradition is not simply inherited repetition; it must be obtained through “great labour” and includes a historical sense that shapes how poetry can remain genuinely individual while engaging with past writers.

How is the book’s content organized according to the table of contents?

The contents list multiple essays arranged in numbered groupings (I–V/VI), moving from criticism and dramatic poetry to studies of specific authors and literary movements.

Which topic areas are covered across the selected essays?

Literary criticism, dramatic poetry, and detailed discussions of major writers and periods, including English and European authors such as Dante and Elizabethan dramatists.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Eden