Try free for 30 days

  • Four Quartets

  • By: T. S. Eliot
  • Narrated by: Ted Hughes
  • Length: 58 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title).
Stream or download thousands of included titles.
Access to exclusive deals and discounts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
Four Quartets cover art

Four Quartets

By: T. S. Eliot
Narrated by: Ted Hughes
Try for $0.00

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $9.99

Buy Now for $9.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

With its intricate structure and imagery, Four Quartets is the culminating achievement of T. S. Eliot's career. Its greatness is done full justice in this rendition by the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. Containing some of the most melodic passages in modern poetry, Four Quartets blends the religious, the philosophical and the personal themes that preoccupied T. S. Eliot. The four parts, 'Burnt Norton',' East Coker', 'The Dry Salvages' and 'Little Gidding', are interconnected by both theme and symbol. A poem of war, of Christianity, of literature and of history, Four Quartets speaks for a whole generation and is an enduring masterpiece.

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1888. He came to England in 1914 and published his first book of poems in 1917. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Eliot died in 1965.

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published by Faber and Faber and was followed by many volumes of poetry and prose for adults and children, including Moortown Diary (1979). He received the Whitbread Book of the Year for both Tales from Ovid (1997) and Birthday Letters (1998). He was Poet Laureate from 1984, and in 1998 he was appointed to the Order of Merit.

©1943 T. S. Eliot (P)1997 Faber Audio

Critic Reviews

"Released from writing and research, I've been rereading old favourites, including T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. Revisiting that sequence of poems - written just before and during the second world war - has made me want to dig through the piles of boxes and higgledy-piggledy books and retrieve my old, battered copy of 'The Waste Land', Eliot's 1922 masterpiece. I first read it years ago, as an awkward teenager, and loved it all - although, with hindsight, I understood painfully little. Elegiac, prophetic, mystical, a distillation of cultures and thoughts, it's as much a dramatic monologue, a play even, as a poem. Perfect for curling up on a sofa with a glass of wine and a flickering fire." (Kate Mosse, Guardian)

What listeners say about Four Quartets

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely brilliant and beautiful

Truly one of the great works of English literature- and, dare I add, philosophy. Magnificently performed by Ted Hughs

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.