Briefly noted: For a limited time (for the next 23 days, to be precise), you can hear Jeremy Irons reading “The Naming of Cats,” a poem from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939). The poem will certainly sound familiar to anyone who has ever seen Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Cats.
As a bonus, if you revisit this post in our archive, you can hear Eliot, himself, reading poems from the very same collection. And this other Open Culture post features Eliot’s own cover design for Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. What angle haven’t we covered?
The clip above comes courtesy of BBC Radio 4.
Related Content:
T.S. Eliot Reads Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats & Other Classic Poems (75 Minutes, 1955)
T.S. Eliot Illustrates His Letters and Draws a Cover for Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
Listen to T.S. Eliot Recite His Late Masterpiece, the Four Quartets
1,000 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free
Tried unsuccessfully 4 times to download. What a disappointment.
No go 5th time of trying!
7th and last time of trying. What a pity.
I don’t know how, but it played for me. Thank you!
This is great! It didn’t play for me at first but I refreshed the page & it did :)
Where & How did you download? I have tried every button connect blue area and all I get are commercials or terms of use age.At least the terms were relavent.
Wow this really touched my soul. Thank you may jesus be with you all.:)
<3 Joe <3
^^^^ forgot to say that I love cats :)they are a gift from jesus to the world amen god bless BANG BANG BANG!!!!! 1HUNNA SOSA
Injoy The Hollow Men with music – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQFeZr34icA