T. S. Eliot, Prufrock and Other Observations

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It is often said

Prufrock and Other Observations

stands as a testimony to T. S. Eliot’s first poetical achievements. However, in light of the 1996 posthumous publication of

Inventions of the March Hare

the unedited notebook of his juvenile poems – it is crucial to redress the proposition by arguing that

Prufrock

contains not the earliest poems, but certainly the most representative of Eliot’s early years. The title of the collection is, in this regard, self-explanatory: it hints at “Prufrock” as the emblematic modernist antihero and the poem which made the fortune of a young doctoral student of philosophy who signed himself as T. S. Eliot. Published in 1915, the first two items of the collection,

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “Portrait of a Lady”, created…

1977 words

Citation: Lupi, Andrea. "Prufrock and Other Observations". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 June 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2530, accessed 09 November 2024.]

2530 Prufrock and Other Observations 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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