The Waste Land

Published in 1922, T.S.Eliot's poem The Waste Land is a definitive text of modernism, and one of the towering cultural achievements of the twentieth century. Revolutionary, obscure and beautiful, it took the literary world by storm, and was enthusiastically received by legions of academics and students across the world. But why was it so important, and is it still so today? How did Eliot get away with borrowing so much material? How much of the poem is really his? Did he understand it himself? And why on earth did this brilliant man work for a bank? Join Charlie and Rupert as they try to answer some of these questions.