Clark is compassionate, clear-eyed, sceptical. Along with illuminating readings of the poems themselves, Clark's meticulous, compassionate research brings us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail that still lights the way for women poets the world over.Ī first-class biography. *FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY 2021ĭetermined not to read Plath's work as if her every act, from childhood on, was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark presents new materials about Plath's scientist father, her juvenile writings, and her psychiatric treatment, and evokes a culture in transition in the mid-twentieth century, in the shadow of the atom bomb and the Holocaust, as she explores Sylvia's world- her early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife her conflicted ties to her well-meaning, widowed mother her troubles at the hands of an unenlightened mental-health industry and her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes, a true marriage of minds that would change the course of poetry in English.Ĭlark's clear-eyed sympathy for Hughes, his lover Assia Wevill, and other demonized players in the arena of Plath's suicide promotes a deeper understanding of her final days, with their outpouring of first-rate poems.

*A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND THE TIMES The first biography of this great and tragic poet that takes advantage of a wealth of new material, this is an unusually balanced, comprehensive and definitive life of Sylvia Plath. Each chapter reads with the ease of a novel. We see Plath's early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife we witness her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes and, through clear-eyed portraits of the demonised players in the arena of her suicide, we gain a deeper understanding of her final days.įeaturing illuminating readings of Plath's poems, Red Comet brings us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail that still lights the way for women the world over. Refusing to read Plath's work as if her every act was a harbinger of her fate, Clark evokes a culture in transition in the mid-twentieth century as she thoroughly explores Sylvia's world.

*FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY 2021*ĭrawing on a wealth of new material, Heather Clark brings to life the great and tragic poet, Sylvia Plath. *A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND THE TIMES* *WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED PRIZE 2021* 'Surely the final, the definitive, biography of Sylvia Plath' Ali Smith

Red comet sylvia plath