Books with title THE COCKTAIL PARTYTHE COCKTAIL PARTY BY ELIOT, T.

The Cocktail Party is a play by British playwright T. S. Eliot that first premiered in Edinburgh in 1949 and on Broadway one year later. Focusing on a troubled married couple that settles their problems and moves on with their life with the help of a mysterious stranger who attends a cocktail party with them, it explores themes that are common in many of Eliot’s works. These include the isolation of the human condition, and the power of Christian sacrifice to further the life of the community as a whole. Although it starts out seeming to be a satire of traditional British drawing room comedies, over the course of the play it takes on the tone of a darker philosophical study of human relations.—supersummary.com.

'Obviously something more than a successful play, it is the practical demonstration of a patently conceived theory of dramatic form, and as such of high historical interest.' Times Literary Supplement'Eliot has attempted here something very daring and well worth doing. He has taken the ordinary West End drawing room comedy convention - understatement, upper-class accents and all - and used it as a vehicle for utterly serious ideas.' Observer

Eliot's most popular play published in his lifetime. The Cocktail Party was written while Eliot was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1948. It was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949. In 1950 the play had successful runs in London and New York theaters (the Broadway production received the 1950 Tony Award for Best Play.) It focuses on a troubled married couple who, through the intervention of a mysterious stranger, settle their problems and move on with their lives. [wiki] [BHB]

Near Fine; Signed by Author; Dust Jacket - Very Good; London: Faber & Faber Ltd., 1950. First Edition, and first state, with "you shall see here again" at page 29, line1. Signed by Eliot on the title page, without further inscription. Gallup A55a. With the first-state erratum, as called for, at top of page 29. Octavo, cloth, jacket, 168 pp. + "appendix". Book shows only a bit of sunning at top and bottom edges, is otherwise near fine; please see all scans. Jacket has several very small closed slits, slight roughening at spine ends, several small spots of soiling on front panel. See scans. Not price-clipped, still showing the 10s. 6d. Net price. A relatively scarce "flat" signature - i.e., no inscription accompanies it, that being something Eliot did not turn out in great numbers, as many authors today do. This copy was signed by Eliot for a Washington University (St. Louis) student in June of 1953; Eliot presented a lecture to the students and faculty of the institution at that time, and signed this copy afterward, without inscription. Letter of provenance to that effect is laid in. Signed copies of the first state (with the typographical error mentioned above) appear to be quite scarce. The Cocktail Party - designated as a comedy by Eliot, and indeed as a witty verse-play it does tickle - includes an at-first-nameless stranger ("An Unidentified Guest") who assists a married couple in the preservation of their troubled relationship; this guest - later identified - was played in the recorded version by Sir Alec Guinness, and - yes - the Unidentified Guest is.a shrink. A psychiatrist, here, means for Eliot a modern intellect at peace who saves those of ordinary genes in a way that a priest would once have done. Eliot has been accused of being someone who might have been a great playwright had he not been so upper-crusty, so Christian, and so Brit. Didn't seem to adversely affect his poetry much, though. A generally well regarded play, produced for a while on sta

Obviously something more than a successful play, it is the practical demonstration of a patently conceived theory of dramatic form, and as such of high historical interest.' Times Literary Supplement'Eliot has attempted here something very daring and well worth doing. He has taken the ordinary West End drawing room comedy convention - understatement, upper-class accents and all - and used it as a vehicle for utterly serious ideas.' Observer

Eliot, T.S. The Cocktail Party. London, Faber and Faber, 1971. 12,5 cm x 18,8 cm. 184 pages. Original Softcover. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Some minor foxing. [Faber Paper Covered Editions] Thomas Stearns Eliot OM (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965) was a British, American-born essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and one of the twentieth century's major poets. He immigrated to England in 1914 at age 25, settling, working and marrying there. He was eventually naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39, renouncing his American citizenship. Eliot attracted widespread attention for his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), which is seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement. It was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including The Waste Land (1922), The Hollow Men (1925), Ash Wednesday (1930), and Four Quartets (1945). He is also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry. (Wikipedia).