Review: The Cocktail Party

The Cocktail Party by T.S. Eliot

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There were some wonderful lines in this play, but overall I didn't think it was as impressive a piece of writing as Murder in the Cathedral.

The premise is quite interesting: at the start of the play a party is beginning and we come to find out that the hostess, who invited everyone, isn't there. There is an unidentified guest on hand however. The second act adds to the layers of unexpected actions and connections. The third act is just weird. One of the reviews on Goodreads suggested that you skip the 3rd act. I think that is a bit harsh, but I understand the reaction. Eliot makes various intriguing observations about the human condition in this modern morality play.

"It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous. Resign yourself to be the fool you are."
"Two people who know they do not understand each other, breeding children whom they do not understand and who will never understand them."

This is a play worth reading, possibly even re-reading, but it is not Eliot's best.
This book counts toward the What's in a Name Challenge in the category of "a party or celebration".

What is Modernism?

As part of Modern March I wanted to get a handle on what it means for a work to be "modern." The article at The Literature Network was quite helpful, though it has a lot of pop-ups.  The wikipedia article on Modernist Literature was also helpful.

• The art and literature of the early 20th century
• A response to the horror and upheaval of the "great war," and the world war that followed it
• A period of literary and artistic introspection
• A conscious rejection of the traditions of the past that strove to reflect a new reality
• A reaction to the restrictions of Victorian society and the excesses of Victorian art
• A movement that included the authentic voices of women and minorities
• A sparse style of language with a focus on images
• A period of experimentation with form and a desire to make work that was new

Among the big names of the period are T.S. Elliot, James Joyce, E. M. Forster, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, and Virginia Woolf.

Murder in the Cathedral

T. S. Eliot was an American by birth and a British subject by choice. He is considered to be one of the great poets of the 20th century and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. 

Murder in the Cathedral, for which there is an excellent summary on Wikipedia, is a verse play depicting the death of Thomas Becket. Henry II of England (he was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine) had appointed Becket Archbishop of Canterbury, but the two men did not see things the same way after that and Becket was seen as a threat to the King and was murdered on his behalf in 1170.

The play presents a variety of arguments and counter-arguments about the rightness, or wrongness, of Becket's murder. The first argument comes from the chorus (the women of Canterbury) who are speaking for the people who are trying to go about their lives as best they can and fear being caught in the drama between King and Church. This bit makes me think of the hobbits in Lord of the Rings:

"Archbishop, secure and assured of your fate, unaffrayed among the shades, do you realise what you ask, do you realise what it means to the small folk drawn into the pattern of fate, the small fold who live among small things, the strain on the brain of the small folk who stand to the doom of the house, the doom of their lord, the doom of the world?" (part I) 

I think what really makes this play powerful is the way that it keeps turning in on its own arguments to bring a different perspective to the forefront. Then, at the end when you think you know who the bad guy was, several players step up from behind the footlights and make their arguments which turns the whole thing around yet again.

Classics Club Readathon

I have never done a readathon, and am not totally clear on the rules, but as I understand it the idea is to read for 24-hours which sounds excellent. This readathon begins at 8am EST with a kick-off post on the Classics Club blog and we will be reading for 24 hours after that!

I had everything set up for this project: groceries for crockpot Taco Soup purchased, my husband expecting to be at the office that day, and and a stack of classics from my list ready to begin. Then my husband's work project got sorted out and we were invited to a private tasting at a local brewery that evening and I am going to have to choose between beer and books on Saturday.

I think I will join in the readathon during the day, and will go to the beer event in the evening. That still gives me a solid 9 hours of reading time.

I am about 75 pages into The Woman in White, so I will be reading that and I want to re-read Murder in the Cathedral so I can finish the blog post I started about it in November. If I need a break from Wilkie Collins, I may set it aside and pick up on of the children's classics on my list (The Phantom Tollbooth or Alice in Wonderland perhaps).