The Cocktail Party
by T. S. Eliot
Published by Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1950
First Edition
T.S. Eliot's West End triumph - metaphysical drama disguised as drawing room comedy. This 1950 Harcourt, Brace & Company hardcover represents the first American edition of Eliot's most accessible yet most mysterious play. Following its Edinburgh Festival premiere in 1949, "The Cocktail Party" became Eliot's commercial breakthrough, running over a year in London and winning the Tony Award in New York.
The play's genius lies in its deception: what begins as Noel Coward-style banter among London sophisticates gradually reveals itself as Christian allegory about sin, sacrifice, and redemption. The mysterious psychiatrist Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly guides characters through spiritual crises they barely recognize, while the cocktail party itself becomes ritual and confession. Eliot's verse is so naturalistic that audiences might not realize they're hearing poetry, a technical achievement that influenced generations of verse dramatists.
A unique find, and we only have one.
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