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Bottom of the pile
6
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
2/100Critics
10/100Scholars
Author:
Mary Trevelyan, Erica Wagner
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date:
March 21, 2023
In 1938 T. S. Eliot struck up a friendship with Mary Trevelyan. Over the years, their friendship deepened, and she came to believe it might grow into something more. Twice she proposed marriage, but Eliot always led her to understand that any such commitment would be impossible for him. Then the revelation of his long attachment to Emily Hale--and the sudden shock of his marriage to his secretary, Valerie Fletcher--caused a rupture between Trevelyan and the poet that could not be overcome.
What The Reviewers Say
Erica Wagner shows herself to be a forensically astute reader of the memoir and letters that Trevelyan left behind.
Funny, sad, puzzling.
While Eliot scholars will be intrigued by Trevelyan’s perspective on him, accounts of Trevelyan’s leadership at the Student Movement House hostel for international students in London and involvement with the YMCA during WWII prove more captivating than her quotidian exchanges with the poet. Though readers may come for Eliot, it’s Trevelyan who will win them over..
Much of Trevelyan’s diary describes meals eaten together, church services attended, vacations taken, and so on, which makes for dull reading. Wagner’s commentary helps but doesn’t fully alleviate the monotony. Eliot devotees will appreciate this peek into his personal life even though, admirably, Wagner doesn’t sugarcoat his bigotry.
