Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.61 You Save: $4.39 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Murder in the Cathedral
Book Review: Poetic dramatization of Beckett's Martyrdom
Summary: 4 Stars
This short play is wonderfully absorbing. Written for the Canterbury festival T.S Eliot did a superb job of creating dramatic tension from a familiar historical event. Written in 2 acts with an interlude the play can be enjoyed in a single sitting and is filled with memorable language. Not much else to say.Book Review: Thought Provoking
Summary: 4 Stars
The classic play on the death of Beckett. Eliot does an exceptional job of building up the hero - only to leave you really wondering at the end. It is a great lesson that all actions have a justification in the eyes of the actor - and little is black and white.Book Review: Maybe not T.S, Eliot at his best?
Summary: 3 Stars
A more famous version and maybe better is Becket.
A verse play that fails by me...
I think what I miss by comparison is Henry II in this play.
The point in terms of history is that the power of the church
in English history will decline from here.
Henry II may have been in the wrong, but he never really
gave the command for his friend's death as history seems to have it("Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?").
The Medieval Church was at times as powerful as kings.
An Archbishop was second only to the Pope in that power
over the churches: he was literally a prince of God on earth.
So the crime of killing such an one was not a light one.
Was Thomas Becket a martyr?
Book Review: Should do research first
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was a little difficult to understand especially if you don't comprehend the way Shakespeare wrote his plays. You should really research the story of Thomas Becket before reading this also. The story starts off as a celebration of the returning of the Archibishop after being gone for seven years. As you read on it gets a little more interesting. If you like action or suspense there is plenty of it in the second half of this play. When two of the King's knights have a confrontation with the Archbishop Thomas Becket, the following day the knights return with orders to kill the Archbishop due to the disagreements he had with the king such as the disagreement of the coronation of the king's son, overall this was an okay book, though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.Book Review: Written by a dilettante.
Summary: 1 Stars
"Murder in the Cathedral" is more of a coffee house production than a dramatic classical play. Since I do not care for poetry, or Shakespeare, I knew I was jumping headfirst into a dead-end. Still, I did not expect to be bored out of my gored. T. S. Eliot was attempting to use the genre "poetic drama" to his benefit, but instead conjured up an illiterate form of speaking. I disliked the play 'A Man for All Seasons,' (involves the death of Thomas Moore) but at least that play can be coherently understood, and actually teaches something. I do not recommend.