Painted Shadow: The Life of Vivienne Eliot, First Wife of T. S. Eliot - Softcover

"Fascinating and controversial." -The Washington Post

"Fascinating and hugely successful" -Sunday Times (London)

"A detailed, in-depth look at an extraordinary and complex marriage." -The Houston Chronicle

"This work makes a definite contribution to our understanding of Eliot." -Library Journal

"Superbly well-researched and extremely distressing. . . . A moving, powerful, and sympathetic biography of a talented, frail woman who deserves to rescued from the obscurity to which she was condemned." -The Spectator (UK)

"If you want to know how 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' came to be penned, this homey little volume provides as good an interpretation of sexual dynamics as any. Highly recommended to all literature lovers." -The Tampa Tribune

"Brilliant, deeply researched, utterly compelling. . . . [A] magnificent study." -The Guardian (UK)

"Knowledgeable. . . Fair and subtle." -The Daily Telegraph (UK)

" A nuanced portrait of an independent spirit coming unhinged. . . . A chronicle of a fine mind-highly unstable but not necessarily insane." -Publishers Weekly

"Unsettling. . . . Gives us some intriguing ways of looking at Eliot and his work." -San Jose Mercury News

"[Seymour-Jones's] portrait of Vivienne is fair, sympathetic, and well-supported, making her a far more real and vivid figure than in most studies of Eliot." -Chicago Tribune

"Gripping . . . immaculately researched. . . . Sensational." -The Observer (UK)

The first biography of Vivienne Eliot, the first wife of poet T. S. Eliot, offers a remarkable portrait of a neurotic, lonely, and distraught woman who was abandoned by her husband and confined to a mental asylum but whose tormented marriage became the source and subject of some of Eliot's most acclaimed works, including The Waste Land. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.