In this Modern Library Chronicle, Kermode uses the context of the Elizabethan Era to link each of Shakespeare's plays to their probable years of creation. By portraying the bard's England in terms of its society, economy, and arts, Kermode provides an invaluable guide to understanding Shakespeare's works.

A treasury of Eliot's most important early poems combines poetic elements from diverse sources with bits of popular culture and common speech to recreate the chaos of Europe in the aftermath of World War I.