This volume introduces you to the life and works of this eminent and prolific writer. By exploring some of his major novels, short stories and poems, the writers aim to show the relevance of Eliot in the 21st century and help you to develop your own responses to the works. The authors text explores how to approach the novels, short stories and poems and offer contemporary critical approaches to Eliot and his work. They offer ideas about the activity of writing and the activity of reading and the connections between the two. Eliot's influence, both in his lifetime and in the 21st century is also explored.