Over the past two months, I have been undergoing one of the more significant reading experiences of my life, the perusal of T. S. Eliot’s complete prose from the first twenty-one years of his writing career. Eliot died in 1965, so these pages constitute a major recognition, after fifty years, of his contribution. The general editor is Ronald Schuchard, and anyone familiar with his edition of Eliot’s Clark lectures of 1926 (The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry, 1993) will be unsurprised at the extraordinary fullness with which these two large volumes are annotated. The general editorial introduction to the volumes tells us that the notes are intended to “enhance and clarify” Eliot’s “highly referential prose.” The magnitude of this editorial task was enormous, since at the beginning of the present century more than 700 pieces of the prose were uncollected, nor were there any critical editions of works published in his lifetime, the Clark lectures being the exception. In response to anyone who might question the need for such a comprehensive project, the editors quote Eliot himself on the importance of reading everything a major author has written: “To understand Baudelaire you must read the whole of Baudelaire.” On the safe assumption that 100 years after “Prufrock” appeared, Eliot qualifies as a major author, we may profitably address ourselves to these early volumes of prose.
Prithard, William H. "The Prose Eliot." The Hudson Review. Accessed on May 18, 2105, http://hudsonreview.com/2015/05/the-prose-eliot/#.VVpNW1VVikq
I've never read the entire works of an author though I've often thought about it. I think if I do it'd have to be Dickens. But I'm not convinced it would help truly understand him any more than serious reading of his major works would.
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