Murder in the Cathedral
T.S. Eliot
Hardcover
(Harcourt, Brace and company, Jan. 1, 1935)
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1935. First U.S. Edition. Octavo, 86 pp. . Black cloth, gilt spine imprinting, jacket. Fine, sparkling book in a very good jacket showing edgewear and some age darkening, notably at spine. Gallup A29f. Eliot's play, the story of Thomas a Becket, in which a man of God stands as a spiritual beacon against the darkness of a despotic temporal power, was actually banned in Romania under the Ceausescu régime. Generally well regarded - for a play by a poet - it reflects Eliot's philosophical bent while respectfully dallying with dramatic forms of much earlier eras, and in so doing makes the choice of an overused historical vehicle more palatable. Handsome copy. L6