The Age of Anxiety by W. H. Auden

The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (1947; first UK edition, 1948) is a long poem in six parts by W. H. Auden, written mostly in a modern version of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. The poem deals, in eclogue form, with man's quest to find substance and identity in a shifting and increasingly industrialized world. Set in a wartime bar in New York City, Auden uses four characters – Quant, Malin, Rosetta, and Emble – to explore and develop his themes. The poem won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1948. It inspired a symphony by composer Leonard Bernstein, The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra), which in turn was used for both a 1950 ballet by Jerome Robbins and a 2014 ballet by Liam Scarlett. A critical edition of the poem, edited by Alan Jacobs, was published by Princeton University Press in 2011. "The Age of Anxiety" is also the title of the first chapter of The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts (1951). In 2019, musician Pete Townshend's first novel was published. Its title is The Age of Anxiety.

The 1626th greatest fiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - The New York Public Library's Books of the Century (New York Public Library)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
The Age of Anxiety, a Baroque Eclogue Hardcover 9074409 $41.74 $15.00
The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (W.H. Auden: Critical Editions) by W. H. Auden (2011-02-27) Hardcover 6785310 $26.52 $27.37
The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue Hardcover 4134820 $860.48 $8.00
The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (W.H. Auden: Critical Editions) Hardcover 147606 $14.98 $11.01 2011
The Age of Anxiety Hardcover 7895429 $1,485.99 1994
The age of anxiety,: A baroque eclogue Hardcover 19697846 $36.10