THE WASTE LAND & FOUR QUARTETS

The great Paul Scofield's reading of THE FOUR QUARTETS is every bit as professional as one would expect. He takes his time, lingering over the majestic cadences of Eliot's verse to allow the impact of every image to hit home. However, it's in his delivery of THE WASTE LAND that Scofield really shows his understanding. This poem is dense with learning, shifting from monologue to dialogue and in and out of several languages, but Scofield, speaking at times barely above a whisper, provides a thread through Eliot's complexity, making a challenging poem more accessible, and more pleasurable. Scofield somehow manages to evoke the twisting despair of Eliot's poem in ways that make it enjoyable to listen to. G.T.B. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 05/ JAN 06]