While T S Eliot’s status as a canonical modernist poet is secure, his legacy remains the subject of much critical debate. Gott examines Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922) in conjunction with Gustave Flaubert’s La Tentation de Saint Antoine (1874). He provides a highly original reading of both texts and argues that a stylistic affinity exists between the two works, which derives from the authors’ shared fascination for the ascetic saint.

"'Gott argues persuasively for a kinship of sensibility between Gustave Flaubert and T S Eliot. He locates the shared presence in their writings of what he calls "ascetic modernism". The perfectionist novelist and the poet agonized by redemptive possibilities meet and blend in these pages; the result is a book that is fascinating and original.'"