Books by Sylvia Plath

Book SynopsisThe complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath—essential reading for anyone who has been moved and fascinated by the poet's life and work.A genuine literary event.... Plath's journals contain marvels of discovery. —The New York Times Book Review Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet's personal and literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both her frequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons.

Read more less

Book SynopsisI felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.Sylvia Plath's groundbreaking semi-autobiographical novel offers an intimate, honest and often wrenching glimpse into mental illness.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAriel, first published in 1965, contains many of Sylvia Plath''s best-known poems, written in an extraordinary burst of creativity just before her death in 1963. Including poems such as ''Lady Lazarus'', ''Edge'', ''Daddy'' and ''Paralytic'', it was the first of four collections to be published by Faber & Faber. Ariel is the volume on which Sylvia Plath''s reputation as one of the most original, daring and gifted poets of the twentieth century rests.''Since she died my mother has been dissected, analysed, reinterpreted, reinvented, fictionalized, and in some cases completely fabricated. It comes down to this: her own words describe her best, her ever-changing moods defining the way she viewed her world and the manner in which she pinned down her subjects with a merciless eye.'' Frieda Hughes

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis comprehensive volume contains all Sylvia Plath''s mature poetry written from 1956 up to her death in 1963. The poems are drawn from the only collection Plath published while alive, The Colossus, as well as from posthumous collections Ariel, Crossing the Water and Winter Trees.The text is preceded by an introduction by Ted Hughes and followed by notes and comments on individual poems. There is also an appendix containing fifty poems from Sylvia Plath''s juvenilia.This collection was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.''For me, the most important literary event of 1981 has been the publication, eighteen years after her death, of Sylvia Plath''s Collected Poems, confirming her as one of the most powerful and lavishly gifted poets of our time.'' A. Alvarez in the Observer

Read more less

Book SynopsisI was supposed to be having the time of my life.When Esther Greenwood wins an internship on a New York fashion magazine in 1953, she is elated, believing she will finally realise her dream to become a writer. But in between the cocktail parties and piles of manuscripts, Esther''s life begins to slide out of control. She finds herself spiralling into depression and eventually a suicide attempt, as she grapples with difficult relationships and a society which refuses to take women''s aspirations seriously.The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath''s only novel, was originally published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The novel is partially based on Plath''s own life and descent into mental illness, and has become a modern classic. The Bell Jar has been celebrated for its darkly funny and razor sharp portrait of 1950s society and has sold millions of copies worldwide.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe poems in Winter Trees were written in the last nine months of Sylvia Plath's life, and form part of the group from which the Ariel poems were chosen. They reveal the poet at the height of her creative powers, exhibiting the startling imagery and dramatic play for which she became known. Published posthumously in 1971, this valuable collection finds its place alongside The Colossus and Ariel in the oeuvre of a singular talent.Nearly all the poems here have the familiar Plath daring, the same feel of bits of frightened, vibrant, indignant consciousness translated instantly into words and images that blend close, experienced horror and icy, sardonic control.' New StatesmanA book that anyone seriously interested in poetry now must have . . . Sylvia Plath's immense gift is evident throughout.' Guardian

Read more less

Book SynopsisI was supposed to be having the time of my life.When Esther Greenwood wins an internship on a New York fashion magazine in 1953, she is elated, believing she will finally realise her dream to become a writer. But in between the cocktail parties and piles of manuscripts, Esther''s life begins to slide out of control. She finds herself spiralling into serious depression as she grapples with difficult relationships and a society which refuses to take her aspirations seriously.The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath''s only novel, was originally published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The novel is partially based on Plath''s own life and descent into mental illness, and has become a modern classic.Trade Review"'In looking at the madness of the world and the world of madness [this book] forces us to consider the great question posed by all truly realistic fiction: what is reality and how can it be confronted?' New York Times Book Review"

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe poems in Sylvia Plath''s Ariel, including many of her best-known such as ''Lady Lazarus'', ''Daddy'', ''Edge'' and ''Paralytic'', were all written between the publication in 1960 of Plath''s first book, The Colossus, and her death in 1963.''If the poems are despairing, vengeful and destructive, they are at the same time tender, open to things, and also unusually clever, sardonic, hardminded . . . They are works of great artistic purity and, despite all the nihilism, great generosity . . . the book is a major literary event.'' A. Alvarez in the Observer

Read more less

Book SynopsisOne of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels“A coming-of-age masterpiece. . . . Sylvia Plath has become one of the influential writers of her time.” —Boston GlobeSylvia Plath’s masterwork—an acclaimed and enduring novel about a young woman falling into the grip of mental illness and societal pressuresEsther Greenwood is a bright, beautiful, enormously talented young woman, but she''s slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that her neurosis becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.This edition features extra insights into the book and author.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAlongside a selection of photographs and Plath's own line-drawings, the editors masterfully contextualise what the pages disclose.This selection of early correspondence marks the key moments of Plath's adolescence, including childhood hobbies and high school boyfriends;

Read more less

Book Synopsis''I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.''It is sixty years since Ariel was first published. The poems were written in an extraordinary burst of creativity just before Sylvia Plath's death in 1963, and they went on to establish her reputation as one of the most original and gifted poets of the twentieth century.The critic Al Alvarez, reviewing the collection in the Observer, wrote: If the poems are despairing, vengeful and destructive, they are at the same time tender, open to things, and also unusually clever, sardonic, hardminded . . . They are works of great artistic purity and, despite all the nihilism, great generosity . . . the book is a major literary event.'The poet Emily Berry offers an introduction that gives readers, old and new, a way into the poems, and demonstrates Plath's profound and enduring influence down the generations.

Read more less

Book SynopsisI was supposed to be having the time of my life.When Esther Greenwood wins an internship on a New York fashion magazine in 1953, she is elated, believing she will finally realise her dream to become a writer.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWith this startling, exhilarating book of poems, which was first published in 1960, Sylvia Plath burst into literature with spectacular force. • [Her poems] have that exquisite, heart-breaking quality about them that has made Sylvia Plath our acknowledged Queen of Sorrows. --Joyce Carol Oates,The New York Times In such classics as The Beekeeper's Daughter, The Disquieting Muses, I Want, I Want, and Full Fathom Five, she writes about sows and skeletons, fathers and suicides, about the noisy imperatives of life and the chilly hunger for death. Graceful in their craftsmanship, wonderfully original in their imagery, and presenting layer after layer of meaning, the forty poems in The Colossus are early artifacts of genius that still possess the power to move, delight, and shock.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is sixty years since Ariel was first published. This heritage edition restores Berthold Wolpe's iconic jacket and reproduces the original distinctive typesetting in celebration of the enduring importance of a collection that contains many of Sylvia Plath's best-known poems.Written in an extraordinary burst of creativity just before her death in 1963, the poems are as expressive of joy as they are of desolation. The remarkable combination of artistry and intensity that was recognised on this volume's first publication established Plath as one of the most original and gifted poets of the twentieth century.If the poems are despairing, vengeful and destructive, they are at the same time tender, open to things, and also unusually clever, sardonic, hardminded. . . They are works of great artistic purity and, despite all the nihilism, great generosity. . . the book is a major literary event.' A. Alvarez, Observer

Read more less

Book SynopsisA timeless collection of stories for younger children.In the eponymous The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit, little Max Nix is on a quest to find the perfect suit he can go ice-fishing, cow-milking and town-walking in.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1960, The Colossus was the only volume of Sylvia Plath''s poetry published before her death in 1963. Showing a scholarly dedication to the craft, the poems in this collection are brimming with originality and the startling imagery that would later confirm her status as one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. ''On every page, a poet is serving notice that she has earned her credentials and knows her trade.'' Seamus Heaney ''She steers clear of feminine charm, deliciousness, gentility, supersensitivity and the act of being a poetess. She simply writes good poetry. And she does so with a seriousness that demands only that she be judged equally seriously . . . There is an admirable no-nonsense air about this; the language is bare but vivid and precise, with a concentration that implies a good deal of disturbance with proportionately little fuss.'' A. Alvarez in the ObserverTrade Review"'She steers clear of feminine charm, deliciousness, gentility, supersensitivity and the act of being poetess. She simply writers good poetry. And she does so with a seriousness that demands only that she be judged equally seriously... There is an admirable no-nonsense air about this; the language is bare but vivid and precise, with a concentration that implies a good deal of disturbance with proportionately little fuss.' A. Alvarez, Observer"

Read more less

Book SynopsisCrossing the Water and Winter Trees contain the poems written during the exceptionally creative period of the last years of Sylvia Plath's life. Published posthumously in 1971, they add a startling counterpoint to Ariel, the volume that made her reputation. Readers will recognise some of her most celebrated poems Childless Woman', Mirror', Insomniac' while discovering those still overlooked, including her radio play Three Women. These two extraordinary volumes find their place alongside The Colossus and Ariel in the oeuvre of a singular talent.''Nearly all the poems here have the familiar Plath daring, the same feel of bits of frightened, vibrant, indignant consciousness translated instantly into words and images that blend close, experienced horror and icy, sardonic control.'' Alan Brownjohn, New Statesman

Read more less

Book SynopsisA novel, that was originally published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. It is partially based on the author's own life and descent into mental illness. It presents a portrait of the 1950s society.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSylvia Plath was one of the defining voices of the twentieth century, and one of the most appealing: few other poets have introduced as many new readers to poetry.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFaber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. Lips the colour of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like guilt, and guilt, and guilt': these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom.But what is the ninth kingdom?' she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. It is the kingdom of the frozen will,' comes the reply. There is no going back.'Sylvia Plath's strange, dark tale of independence over infanticide, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

Read more less

Book SynopsisEvery day from nine to five I sit at my desk facing the door of the office and type up other people's dreamsAn office assistant in a hospital pursues a secret vocation. A girl endures a series of initiation ceremonies to join her high school sorority. A married woman seeks relief from the dull realities of daily life. From her mid-teens Sylvia Plath wrote stories, twenty-four of which are collected here, along with works of journalism and extracts from her journal. All the pieces presented here are revealing . . . It ought to round out one's knowledge of the writer, and, perhaps, offer some surprises. Luckily it does both.' Margaret Atwood, New York TimesA beautiful, delicate, commanding poet.' Lena DunhamShe embodied a seismic shift in consciousness which enabled us to feel and think as we do today, and of which she was a supremely vulnerable and willing casualty. She changed our world.' Margaret Drabble, Guardian

Read more less

Book SynopsisSylvia Plath (1932-1963) was one of the writers who defined the course of twentieth-century poetry. Alongside a selection of photographs and Plath's own drawings, they masterfully contextualise what the pages disclose.This later correspondence witnesses Plath and Hughes becoming major, influential contemporary writers, as it happened.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis“The Letters of Sylvia Plath underscores Plath’s jaw-dropping output, her rapid growth from merely talented to singular voice. . . . The result is a comprehensive portrait of the artist as a young woman, ardently — unnervingly — committed to literature and relationships.” —Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star-TribuneThe first volume in the definitive, complete collection of the letters of Sylvia Plath—most never before seen.One of the most beloved poets of the modern age, Sylvia Plath continues to inspire and fascinate the literary world. While her renown as one of the twentieth century’s most influential poets is beyond dispute, Plath was also one of its most captivating correspondents. The Letters of Sylvia Plath is the breathtaking compendium of this prolific writer’s correspondence with more than 120 people, including family, friends, contemporaries, and colleagues.The Letters of Sylvia Plath includes her correspondence from her years at Smith, her summer editorial internship in New York City, her time at Cambridge, her experiences touring Europe, and the early days of her marriage to Ted Hughes in 1956.Most of the letters are previously unseen, including sixteen letters written by Plath to Hughes when they were apart after their honeymoon. This magnificent compendium also includes twenty-seven of Plath’s own elegant line drawings taken from the letters she sent to her friends and family, as well as twenty-two previously unpublished photographs.This remarkable, collected edition of Plath’s letters is a work of immense scholarship and care, presenting a comprehensive and historically accurate text of the known and extant letters that she wrote. Intimate and revealing, this masterful compilation offers fans and scholars generous and unprecedented insight into the life of one of our most significant poets.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe electrifying diaries that are essential reading for anyone moved and fascinated by the life and work of one of America''s most acclaimed poets. Sylvia Plath began keeping a diary as a young child. By the time she was at Smith College, when this book begins, she had settled into a nearly daily routine with her journal, which was also a sourcebook for her writing. Plath once called her journal her “Sargasso,” her repository of imagination, “a litany of dreams, directives, and imperatives,” and in fact these pages contain the germs of most of her work. Plath’s ambitions as a writer were urgent and ultimately all-consuming, requiring of her a heat, a fantastic chaos, even a violence that burned straight through her. The intensity of this struggle is rendered in her journal with an unsparing clarity, revealing both the frequent desperation of her situation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSylvia Plath is one of the defining voices in twentieth-century poetry. This classic selection of her work, made by her former husband Ted Hughes, provides the perfect introduction to this most influential of poets. The poems are taken from Sylvia Plath''s four collections Ariel, The Colossus, Crossing the Water and Winter Trees, and include many of her most celebrated works, such as ''Daddy'', ''Lady Lazarus'' and ''Wuthering Heights''.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSylvia Plath was one of the most gifted and innovative poets of the twentieth century, yet serious study of her work has often been hampered by a fierce preoccupation with her life and death. Tim Kendall seeks to redress the balance in his detailed and dispassionate examination of her poetry. Taking a roughly chronological structure, he traces the unique nature of Plath''s poetic gift, finding - with reference to Letters Home, The Bell Jar, The Journals and the stories and autobiographical reminiscences - an essential unity in her inspiration, tracing the evolution of recurring themes and at the same time exhibiting her accelerated development from the formal restraint of The Colossus through to the ground-breaking techniques of Ariel. He shows that Plath was a poet constantly remaking herself, experimenting with different styles, forms and subject matter.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe response of one writer to the work of another can be doubly illuminating. In this series, a poet selects and introduces another poet whom they have particularly admired. Ted Hughes''s classic selection of Sylvia Plath''s poetry provides the perfect introduction to a major body of work in twentieth-century poetry. Hughes draws upon the collections Ariel, The Colossus, Crossing the Water and Winter Trees, and from Sylvia Plath''s Pulitzer Prize-winning Collected Poems.

Read more less

Book SynopsisUpon the publication of her posthumous volume of poetry Ariel in 1965, Sylvia Plath became a household name. Readers may be surprised to learn that the draft of Ariel left behind by Plath when she died in 1963 is different from the volume of poetry eventually published to worldwide acclaim.This facsimile edition restores, for the first time, the selection and arrangement of the poems Sylvia Plath left at the point of her death. In addition to the facsimile pages of Sylvia Plath''s manuscript, this edition also includes in facsimile the complete working drafts of the title poem ''Ariel'' in order to offer a sense of Plath''s creative process, as well as notes the author made for the BBC about some of the manuscript''s poems, including ''Daddy'' and ''Lady Lazarus''In her insightful foreword to this volume, Frieda Hughes, Sylvia Plath''s daughter, explains the reasons for the differences between the previously published edition of Ariel as edited by her fTrade Review"'It is impossible not to welcome this lovingly produced volume; its facsimile pages add an extra dimension to the vividness and vigour of Plath's unique poetic voice.' Erica Wagner 'We are forced by this new Ariel to stop and reacquaint ourselves with the unassailable force that is Plath the poet.' Scotland on Sunday"

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Journals of Sylvia Plath offers an intimate portrait of the author of the extraordinary poems for which Plath is so widely loved, but it is also characterized by a prose of vigorous immediacy which places it alongside The Bell Jar as a work of literature. These exact and complete transcriptions of the journals kept by Plath for the last twelve years of her life - covering her marriage to Ted Hughes and her struggle with depression - are a key source for the poems which make up her collections Ariel and The Colossus.''Everything that passes before her eyes travels down from brain to pen with shattering clarity - 1950s New England, pre-co-ed Cambridge, pre-mass tourism Benidorm, where she and Hughes honeymooned, the birth of her son Nicholas in Devon in 1962. These and other passages are so graphic that you look up from the page surprised to find yourself back in the here and now . . . The struggle of self with self makes the Journals compelling and unique.'' John Carey, Sunday Times

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom Pulitzer Prize-winning Sylvia Plath, this is the perfect bedtime read, written for her own children, exquisitely illustrated by Cindy Wume in picture book form for the first time.A Tank Bed's got cranksAnd wheels and cogsAnd levers to pullIf you're stuck in bogs.Or a Jet-Propelled Bed For visiting Mars With mosquito nets For the shooting stars. Beds come in all shapes and sizes, and need not be boring beds at all . . . There are submarine beds, for nosing through water like a sardine, beds for fishing, and jet-propelled beds that take you all the way to the stars. The perfect bedtime read, playful and comforting, the poem demonstrates Plath''s eye for imagery and arresting language and is exquisitely illustrated in full colour throughout.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this classic coming-of-age novel set in post-World War II America, Esther Greenwood emerges as a double for author Sylvia Plath. A summer internship at a fashion magazine in New York City reveals only the lack of beauty in the young woman's inner life, as Esther succumbs to a pervasive depression that she likens to being trapped beneath the title object, a bell jar, struggling for her next breath. Noted literary scholar Harold Bloom introduces this new title in the ""Bloom's Guides"" series, which also features an annotated bibliography and a listing of other works by the author.

Read more less