Books on Sylvia Plath
Note: This bibliography is ordered by the following topics:
general guides
biographical material
criticism on The Bell Jar
criticism on the Poetry of Sylvia Plath
other
Some items may be listed more than once.
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General Guides
- Bloom, Harold (ed.): Sylvia Plath : Comprehensive Research and Study Guide (Bloom's Major Poets)
- Levy, Pat: A Guide To: Poems of Sylvia Plath
This series is designed to help students shorten revision time, remember more and obtain higher
grades. This text covers themes, settings and characters, and contains questions to develop a personal
view of the text, essay practice and mind maps which summarize what students should know.
- Wisker, Gina: Sylvia Plath : A Beginner's Guide
- Trafalgar Square; ISBN: 0340800402, Paperback (June 1, 2001)
click here to order from amazon.com
This handy series from Headway offers brief yet lucid introductions to the worldİs cultural icons. Each book examines the life,
the work, and the legends surrounding its subject, and key terms and concepts are highlighted and clearly explained. Additionally,
each chapter ends with a review section for easy reference and to help consolidate the readerİs understanding of the text.
- York Notes on the Selected Works of Sylvia Plath
The Notes are designed for GCSE and A level and are tailored to exam requirements. The books provide criticism on specific texts plus questions. Information on the author and the historical background to the text is given and a specimen essay, commentaries, hints for study and a summary of the text is included. The present book provides a commentary and notes on selected works by Sylvia Plath.
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Mainly Biographical Material
- Alexander, Paul (ed.): Ariel Ascending, Writings about Sylvia Plath
contains essays on Plath and her work
- New York: Harper & Row 1984, 217 p.
- Alexander, Paul: Rough Magic: A biography of Sylvia Plath
- Alvarez, A.: The Savage God: A Study of Suicide.
- New York: Random House, 1971
Alvarez, then a poetry editor for The Observer, knew Sylvia during her last months. Alvarez himself
attempted suicide, and this study offers important insights into Sylvia's
death. --J.Folsom
- Alvarez, A.: Where Did It All Go Right? : A Memoir
The best memoirs always go beyond
anecdote to give us the shape of a life. Free-falling between art and action, between despair and
exhilaration, Alvarez struggled to find a shape for his conflicted life, and we share his surprise and
his joy that it all went right. A remarkable book about a remarkable life. --Bill Ott
Although this is a biography of Alvarez' life it does contain a chapter on his 3 year
friendship with Plath and Hughes.
- Becker, Jillian: Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath NEW!
Jillian Becker, who knew Plath during the last months of her life in London, has published a small memoir
under the title "Giving Up - The Last Days of Sylvia Plath". It is a tiny book but gives a convincing account of the
desperation of the last days of Plath's life and leaves one utterly sad.
read a review in the Philadelphia Inquirer
- Brain, Tracy: The Other Sylvia Plath Recommended!
Longman Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature
In this exciting new study, Tracy Brain moves away from the endlessly retold story of Sylvia Plath's
life to argue that there is another Sylvia Plath: a writer who was much more interested in a world
beyond her own skin than critics have allowed. Tracy Brain provides new close readings of stories
and poems that have seldom been talked about, or have been dicussed in mainly biographical
terms. She provides a fascinating discussion of: environmentalism in Plath's work; Plath's treament
of American and English culture; and the relationship between Plath's work and the work of
Charlotte Bronte and Virginia Woolf. Plath's unpublished letters are examined, as well as
hand-written drafts of poems, typescripts of The Bell Jar and annotated copies of the books that
most influenced her. The book also explores the ways in which Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath
drafted their poems together and wrote poems in answer to each other. It is also the first volume to
look at Plath's home-made art scrapbooks and to analyse the significance of the cover designs and
marketing of Plath's work. Providing a fresh new insight into the life and work of Sylvia Plath, The
Other Sylvia Plath is essential reading for students of Twentieth Century Literature, American
Literature and Contemporary Poetry, as well as being of interest to those who have a general
interest in Plath. --Synopsis
A very interesting book, it reveals indeed some unknown sides of Plath, her paintings, her interests. I am not wholly convinced by the
argument regarding her supposed environmentalism, but the treatment of transatlanticism is very valid. --Anja Beckmann
- Butscher, Edward: Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness
a biography
- New York: Seabury Press 1976
- Butscher, Edward (ed.): Sylvia Plath: The Woman and the Work
contains essays on Plath and her work by Gordon Lameyer, Jane Baltzell Kopp, Clarissa
Roche Elizabeth Sigmund and others
- New York: Dodd, Mead 1977
- Chapman, Lynne F.: Sylvia Plath (Voices in Poetry)
- Creative Education Inc. 1994, ISBN 0-88682-614-4, Library Binding
- Peter Davison: The Fading Smile
Poets in Boston from Robert Lowell to Sylvia Plath
An intimately perceptive account, by a poet who knew them all - Robert Frost,
Robert Lowell, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich -
a brilliant circle of poets who lived and
worked in Boston during "one of the most vital milieux for poetry in the history of our country." --Synopsis
Actually, this account is very detailed but tends to list meetings and names etc. and becomes a bit boring after a while.
The account of Davison's liason with Plath is interesting, however. --Anja Beckmann
- Hamilton, Ian: Literary Estates and the Rise of Biography from Shakespeare to Plath
We live in the great age of literary biography. But how much should a biographer tell? How much should an executor
suppress? Does the public's right to know override an individual's right to privacy? To answer these questions, Ian
Hamilton presents a probing and far-reaching account of literary estate management and mismanagement through the
centuries from Donne and Shakespeare to Plath and Larkin. In a gripping series of case studies, he recounts the battles
between the protective and the curious, between the keepers of the sacred flame and those who might seek to snuff it
out. ... Offering a compelling contribution to current debate on the moral issues of biography, Hamilton writes of the
"greats" of English literature with an intimacy and a subversive wit that
make this book a joy to read. (from the Catalog Card description)
- Hayman, Ronald: Death and Life of Sylvia Plath
A gossipy biography in a sensationalist style, Hayman doesn't name his sources, so it is often difficult to know what is fact and what is fiction.
- Kyle, Barry: Sylvia Plath, a Dramatic Portrait
- Faber & Faber 1976
- HarperCollins 1977, 92 p.
A companion piece to Sylvia Plath's Three women (p. 71-92).
conceived and adapted from her writings by
Barry Kyle.
- Lehrer, Sylvia: The Dialectics of Art and Life : A Portrait of Sylvia Plath
- Malcolm, Janet: The Silent Woman. Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
On the difficulties of writing a biography about Sylvia Plath: This book
compares the existing biographies and discusses the influence of Olwyn
Hughes on Stevenson's biography of Plath. It is not a biography in itself. --Anja Beckmann
- Middlebrook, Diane: Her Husband: Hughes and Plath, Portrait of a Marriage NEW!
A well-researched and fair account of the marriage of two poets, looking not only at how they lived together but - more interestingly - how they worked together. --Anja Beckmann
- Myers, Lucas: Crow Steered, Bergs appeared
A memoir of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath,
This memoir of one of Hughes' close friends from Cambridge days portrays Hughes as a friend who inspired those who knew him,
never said a wrong word and always saw the best in people. It portrays Plath as a loud American who didn't fit in, who kept Hughes
in chains and should have become anything but a writer. It provides some interesting facts and memories about Hughes,
both about the time they spent at Cambridge together as well as time after Plath's death,
supplies ample speculations and judgements about Plath, and sports a rather unaccomplished style.
See reviews of this book at the Sylvia Plath Forum in the reviews section.
- Plath, Aurelia (ed.): Letters Home. Correspondance 1950 - 1963
selected & edited with commentary by Aurelia Schober Plath
Presents Sylvia's mother's view of her daughter, the letters themselves show just how desparately
Sylvia was trying to appear cheerful and happy to her mum. --Anja Beckmann
- Rose, Jacqueline: The Haunting of Sylvia Plath (Convergences)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Since her suicide in 1963 at the age of 30, Sylvia Plath has become a strange icon. This book addresses why this is the case and what this tells us about the way culture picks out "important" writers. The author argues that without a concept of fantasy we can understand neither Plath's work nor what she has come to represent. She proposes that no writer demonstrates more forcefully than Plath the importance of inner psychic life
for the wider sexual and political world. By the author of "Sexuality in the Field of Vision".
Read an article in the London Review of Books from 22 August 2002 by J. Rose in which she discusses the problem of analysing Plath's work and its relation to biography, and the problems she encountered in dealing with her estate. NEW!
- Steiner, Nancy Hunter: A Closer Look at Ariel:
A Memory of Sylvia Plath
with an introduction by George Stade
- New York: Harper's Magazine Press, 1973
A valuable biographical/critical commentary by Stade, then at Columbia, and
Nancy Hunter's memoir, written by her as Sylvia's roommate during 1954-55,
gives us a rare first-hand view of the real person she was. -J.Folsom
- Stevenson, Anne: Bitter Fame. A life of Sylvia Plath
A good biography despite the influence of O. Hughes which makes the tone of the book biased.
Read an excerpt from Bitter Fame
describing the time when Sylvia and Ted Hughes first met in Cambridge
- Strangeways, Al: Sylvia Plath: The Shaping of Shadows
content: Introduction: An Intellectual Background,
1. Romantic Anxieties,
2. Politics--History--Myth,
3. The Psychoanalyzing of Sylvia,
Conclusion: A Dialectic of Transcendence and Memory
- Tytell, John: Passionate Lives : D. H. Lawrence, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Henry Miller, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath...in Love
Here is a compelling account of the romantic lives and times of five great writers of this century--D.H. Lawrence, F.
Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Dyland Thomas and Sylvia Plath. Passionate Lives evokes how these writers lived on
the cutting edge of passionate intensity, shows how their own love affairs influenced their writing, and brings a unique
perspective to the work and lives of some of the best literary artists of the 20th century. --Synopsis
- Wagner-Martin, Linda: Sylvia Plath : A Biography
A biography from a feminist point of view. It does suffer a bit from not being allowed to quote from PLath's work but it is
not as prejudiced as Bitter Fame. --Anja Beckmann
- Wagner, Erica: Ariel's Gift
A study of Ted Hughes's poetry collection, "Birthday Letters". Divided into ten sections, the book discusses groups of
poems as well as giving a biographical framework to the whole sequence. It also offers an explanation of the connections
between Hughes's work and that of Sylvia Plath. However, to people familiar with Plath's work and life, the book does not offer much that is new.
It is intended more as a sort of introduction for those who have no background knowledge of the whole story. --Anja Beckmann
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Criticism on The Bell Jar
- Spark Notes on The Bell Jar NEW!
- Alexander, Paul (ed.): Ariel Ascending, Writings about Sylvia Plath
contains essays on Plath and her work
- New York: Harper & Row 1984, 217 p.
- Barnard Hall, Caroline King: Sylvia Plath
(Twayne's United States Authors Series ; Tusas 309)
- Buntzen, Lynda K.: Plath's Incarnations: Woman and the Creative Process.
- Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; ISBN: 0472080881, Hardcover (November 1983), out of print
- Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; ISBN: 0472080881 , Paperback (January 1989), out of print
An important study from a feminist/mythic perspective. -J.Folsom
- Dickie Uroff, Margaret: Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes
- Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979
- Gentry, Deborah S.: The art of dying : Suicide in the Works of Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, and Sylvia Plath
(American University Studies. Series Xxiv, American Literature)
- Inness, Jeanne: The Bell Jar (Cliffs Notes)
(American University Studies. Series Xxiv, American Literature)
- MacPherson, Pat: Reflecting on the Bell Jar (Heroines?)
- Routledge 1991, ISBN: 041504393X
- Peel, Robin: Writing Back: Sylvia Plath and Cold War Politics NEW!
Those people who have read the book liked it a lot and are recommending it despite the hefty price.
- Wagner-Martin, Linda W.: The Bell Jar : A Novel of the Fifties
(Twayne's Masterworks Studies; No. 98)
...It is through a multifaceted lens that Linda Wagner-Martin examines The Bell Jar in this
new study. Whereas past critical attention has centered on
The Bell Jar as autobiography, Wagner-Martin transcends that
approach, looking as well at the novel in its larger context
of the social and historical forces shaping women's lives in America
during the fifties and sixties. Thus eschewing a simplistic reading
of the novel, the author plumbs issues of gender, genre, and
narrative voice. Arguing that Plath's troubled personal history
was the product of her struggle against contemporary social forces,
Wagner-Martin reviews the writer's prior work and inspects earlier,
partial versions of the novel; explores Plath's use of humor
and sarcasm; traces the writer's representation of patriarchal
structures in the novel; and ultimately places the novel squarely in the
tradition of works about women at odds with a society dominated by
patriarchal values. A brilliantly argued, eminently readable
approach to this masterpiece, The Bell Jar: A Novel of the Fifties
is certain to be lauded by scholars and students alike. (Catalog Card desciption)
- Wagner-Martin, Linda W.: Sylvia Plath; A Literary Life NEW!
- Macmillan Press Ltd, UK, 1999
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Criticism on the Poetry of Sylvia Plath
- Aird, Eileen M.: Sylvia Plath
Modern writers series (Edinburgh)
- Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1973, 114 p.
This is an early study and really mostly of historical interest for us now.
It came out before the collected poems, diaries or letters were published. --Anja Beckmann
- Annas, Pamela J.: A Disturbance in Mirrors:
The Poetry of Sylvia Plath.
(Contributions in Women's Studies, No 89)
- Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1988
a perceptive critical study -J.Folsom
PAMELA J. ANNAS is Associate Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
from the Table of Contents:
Reflections
The Colossus: In Search of a Self
Speech and Silence: The Transitional Poetry
Three Women: "I Shall Be a Heroine of the Peripheral"
A Disturbance in Mirrors: The Late Poems
This study of Sylvia Plath's poetry offers a calculated balance between feminist theory and the old
heritage of the New Criticism. The apparent thematic peg here is Plath's fascination with mirrors in her life and in her
work. (from the Catalog Card Description)
-
Axelrod, Steven Gould : Sylvia Plath: The Wound and
tbe Cure of Words
Steven Gould Axelrod's book should be considered the definitive study of Plath. . . [It] enlarges our view of Plath's work and
provides important new interpretations of poems we might have imagined we knew well. This
book is essential reading for all critics of Plath's work. -Margaret Dickie, Journal of English and
Germanic Philology.
- Bassnett-McGuire, Susan: Sylvia Plath
- Bennett, Paula: My life, a loaded gun : Dickinson, Plath, Rich, and
female creativity
keywords: Dickinson, Emily - Rich, Adrienne Cecile - Plath, Sylvia -
Feminism and literature - Women authors - Criticism and interpretation
- Psychology
- Boston : Beacon Press, 1986, 300 p.
- Urbana : University of Illinois Press 1990, 300 p.
- Birkle, Carmen: Women's stories of the looking glass :
autobiographical reflections and self-representations in the poetry of Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde
(Mainz, Univ., Diss., 1994)
- Muenchen : Fink 1996, 271 p. Library Binding
- Bloom, Harold (ed.); Golding William: Sylvia Plath (Modern Critical Views)
- Bloom, Harold (ed.): Sylvia Plath : Comprehensive Research and Study Guide (Bloom's Major Poets) NEW!
- Blosser, Silvianne: A Poetics on Edge : The Poetry and Prose of Sylvia Plath : A Study of Sylvia Plath's Poetic and
Poetological Developments NEW!
- Brennan, Claire (ed.): Icon Critical Guide: the Poetry of Sylvia Plath
- Brennan, Claire, Nicolas Tredell (ed.): The Poetry of Sylvia Plath (Columbia Critical Guides)
Beginning with reviews of her initial collection, The Colossus, the reader is clearly guided through the profusion of critical material that has variously described Plath as feminine and feminist, personal and political, an American modernist and an English Romantic.
The guide includes critical assessments from Robert Lowell, Sandra M. Gilbert, and Jacqueline Rose, among others. --Synopsis
- Broe, Mary Lynn: Protean Poetic: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath.
- Columbia, MO: Univ. of Missouri Press, 1980, 226 p.,
ISBN: 0-8262-0291-8 Cloth (out of print)
- Bronfen, Elizabeth: Sylvia Plath (Writers & Their Work Literary Conversations Series)
- Bundtzen, Lynda K.: The Other 'Ariel' NEW!
With great care and critical insight, Lynda K. Bundtzen examines Plath's original typescript for Ariel and
compares it to the version that was published by her estranged husband, Ted Hughes. Bundtzen argues that Plath's original plan
represented a conscious response to her disintegrating marriage—the swearing off of an old life with Hughes and
the creation of a new self as a woman and poet.
read more about this book
- Chapman, Lynne F.: Sylvia Plath (Voices in Poetry)
- Decker, Sharon D.: I Have a Self to Recover : Sylvia Plath's Ariel
- Gentry, Deborah S.: The art of dying : suicide in the works of Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, and Sylvia Plath
- New York ; Washington, D.C./Baltimore ; San Francisco ; Bern ; Frankfurt am Main ; Berlin ; Vienna ; Paris : Lang, 1995. ca. 250 p. ISBN 0-8204-2496-X
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- Hargrove, Nancy D.:
The Journey Toward Ariel : Sylvia Plath's Poems of 1956-1959
- Lund, Sweden : Lund University Press 1994, 293 p.
- Chartwell-Bratt 1994, 284 p., ISBN: 0-86238-355-2
This study of Plath's early poetry makes a number of contributions to Plath
scholarship and should force a re-examination of the order and worth of her
early poems.
- Holbrook, David: Sylvia Plath : poetry and existence
- London ; Atlantic Highlands, N.J. : Athlone Press 1988, 308 p.
- Jha, Pashupati: Sylvia Plath : The Fear and Fury of Her Muse
- Jaidka, Manju: the poetry of Sylvia Plath
- Published by Arun Pub. House
- Juhasz, Suzanne: Naked and Fiery Forms: Modern Poetry by Women: A New
Tradition.
- New York: Harper & Row, 1976
includes a big chapter on S.P.
- Kendall, Tim:Sylvia Plath : A Critical Study recommended!
Taking a roughly chronological structure, Kendall 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 groundbreaking techniques of Ariel. In the process, Kendall shows that
Plath was a poet constantly remaking herself, experimenting with different styles,
forms, and subject matter, while at the same time firmly reinforcing her rightful place in the canon of world literature. --Synopsis
The best book available on Plath, as it takes into account all the facts and arguments of the other studies, without going too deeply into biography. It appreciates the poems as poetry, not biography. Highly recommended! --Anja Beckmann
- Kroll, Judith: Chapters in a Mythology: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath. recommended!
- New York: Harper & Row, 1976, 303 p.
An important study, widely quoted, showing how Sylvia mythologizes herself
and her art. -J.Folsom
This book deserves a reprint. For the moment you will have to try to find it in a library or in a second hand bookshop.
It is not the last word on Plath's work but an important study and one of the first to stress the coherence in
Plath's imagery, reflecting her personal mythology, --Anja Beckmann
- Lane, Gary (ed.): Sylvia Plath, New Views on the Poetry
- Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press 1979, 264 p., ISBN: 0-8018-2179-7 Cloth
contains essays on Plath's poetry and prose
- Levy, Pat: A Guide To: Poems of Sylvia Plath
This series is designed to help students shorten revision time, remember more and obtain higher
grades. This text covers themes, settings and characters, and contains questions to develop a personal
view of the text, essay practice and mind maps which summarize what students should know. --Synopsis
- Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita: Sylvia Plath: Studies in Her Poetry and Her Personality NEW!
- Novus Press; ISBN: 8270993417; (January 2002), Hardcover: 130 pages
- Marantz, Louis Aston: A Revolution in Taste : Studies of Dylan Thomas, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Lowell
- MacMillan Publishing Company 1978
- Markey, Janice: A new tradition? The poetry of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Adrienne Rich :
a study of feminism and poetry
- Frankfurt am Main ; Bern ; New York ; Paris : Lang 1988, 239 p. ISBN 3-8204-1552-1
- Markey, Janice: Journey Into The Red Eye: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath - A
Critique.
- Interlink Publishing Group 1994, ISBN 0-7043-4316-9
This is a feminist exploration of Plath's work. It looks at recurring topics in her writing rather than at individual poems, illustrating those
topics with a large number of quotes from the poems. --Anja Beckmann
- Marsack, Robert: Sylvia Plath
- Buckingham: Open Univ. Press 1992, 106 p., ISBN 0335-09352-3, ISBN
0335-09353-1, (open guides to literature)
- Melander, Ingrid: Poetry of Sylvia Plath: a Study of Themes
- Newman, Charles (ed.): The Art of Sylvia Plath, A Symposium
- Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press 1970, 319 p.
comprises writings by Plath, a bibliography and essays about Plath and her poetry
- Northouse, Cameron; Walsh, Thomas P. : Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton: A Reference Guide
(Reference Guides in American Literature, No. 1)
- Oberg, Arthur: Modern American Lyric : Lowell, Berryman, Creeley, and Plath
- Parmet, Harriet L.: The Terror of Our Days : Four American Poets Respond to the Holocaust NEW!
- Ramakrishnan, E. V.: Crisis and Confession : Studies in the Poetry of Theodore Roethke, Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath
- Rose, Jacqueline: The Haunting of Sylvia Plath (Convergences)
Since her suicide in 1963 at the age of 30, Sylvia Plath has become a strange icon. This book addresses why this is the
case and what this tells us about the way culture picks out "important" writers. The author argues that without a concept
of fantasy we can understand neither Plath's work nor what she has come to represent. She proposes that no writer
demonstrates more forcefully than Plath the importance of inner psychic life for the wider sexual and political world. By
the author of "Sexuality in the Field of Vision". --Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references and index. Difficult read, deals more with theory and criticism than with Plath. --Anja Beckmann
- Rosenblatt, Jon: Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation.
- Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1979
still the most useful book-length critical study, it is concerned with the idea of
development, Rosenblatt's main argument is that Plath's poetry enacts the ritual
of initiation from symbolic death to rebirth, he refrains from placing her poems
in extraliterary contexts, such as her biography --Brita Lindberg-Seyershed
Unfortunately it seems to be impossible to get hold of this book at a reasonable price, so I can't say whether it actually
still is the most useful book on Plath.
- Saldivar, Toni: Sylvia Plath : Confessing the Fictive Self
- Steiner, Nancy Hunter: A Closer Look at Ariel:
A Memory of Sylvia Plath
with an introduction by George Stade
- New York: Harper's Magazine Press, 1973
A valuable biographical/critical commentary by Stade, then at Columbia, and
Nancy Hunter's memoir, written by her as Sylvia's roommate during 1954-55,
gives us a rare first-hand view of the real person she was. -J.Folsom
I can only agree with Jack, this is a memory of Plath that makes her come alive as a young girl. --Anja Beckmann
- Van Dyne, Susan R.: Revising Life: Sylvia Plath's Ariel Poems (Gender &
American Culture)
In this work of feminist literary criticism, Van Dyne examines the manuscript evidence
for 25 of the Ariel poems (written during 1962-63, in the turbulent last six months of
Plath`s life), revealing the complexity of their gestation and revision from first draft to final
form. --Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
This book is very valuable if you want to see how the poems were written, the actual process of writing and rewriting is examined and a corelation between
text and subtext (on the backside of the page) is explored. van Dyne argues that Plath rewrote/revised her personal history
when she wrote and revised the poems. --Anja Beckmann
- York Notes on the Selected Works of Sylvia Plath
- York Press 1991, Paperback - 72 pages
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The Notes are designed for GCSE and A level and are tailored to exam requirements. The books provide criticism on specific texts plus questions.
Information on the author and the historical background to the text is given and a specimen essay, commentaries, hints for study
and a summary of the text is included. The present book provides a commentary and notes on selected works by Sylvia Plath. --Synopsis
- Wagner, Linda W. (ed.): Critical Essays on Sylvia Plath
contains essays and reviews
see the articles section for more information
- London and New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall 1984, 231 p., Hardcover
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- London and New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall 1988, ISBN 0-415-00910-3
- Wagner-Martin, Linda W.: Sylvia Plath; A Literary Life
Linda Wagner-Martin's emphasis in
this study is the way Sylvia Plath made herself into a writer. In keeping
with the critic's early groundbreaking work on William Carlos Williams, she
here studies elements of Plath's work with dedication to discussions of style
and effect. Close attention to Plath's reading and her apprenticeship writing
in both fiction and poetry provides information helpful to understanding the
late work of the 1960s. The book concludes with a section assessing Plath's
current standing. --Synopsis
- Wagner, Erica: Ariel's Gift
A study of Ted Hughes's poetry collection, "Birthday Letters". Divided into ten sections, the book discusses groups of
poems as well as giving a biographical framework to the whole sequence. It also offers an explanation of the connections
between Hughes's work and that of Sylvia Plath. --Synopsis
- Wood, David John: The Critical Study of the Birth Imagery of Sylvia Plath, American Poet 1932-1963
Ch. 1. Misconceptions--critical perspectives
Ch. 2. Conceptions--late 1959 to early summer 1961
Ch. 3. The Bell Jar--summer 1961
Ch. 4. Gestation--autumn 1961 to midsummer 1962
Ch. 5. Birth--July 1962 to February 1963
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other related material
- Lane, Gary and Maria Stevens: Sylvia Plath: A Bibliography.
- Metuchen, NJ; London: Scarecrow Press 1978
- Matovich, Richard M.: A Concordance to the Collected Poems
of Sylvia Plath.
- New York: Garland Press, 1986
A thorough computerized concordance, useful for any scholar investigating
word occurrences and frequencies. -J.Folsom
- Moses, Kate: WinteringNEW!
- St. Martin's Press 2003, Hardcover: 272 pages, ISBN: 031228375X
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- Sceptre Press 2003, Hardcover: 352 pages, ISBN: 0340818875
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- Anchor Press 2003, Paperback 336 pages, ISBN: 1400035007
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- Sceptre Press 2003, Paperback 352 pages, ISBN: 0340818883
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A fictional account of Plath's assembly of her Ariel manuscript. Using Plath's original order as a framework, this novel
recreates her last months, beginning with her initial elation at moving from Devon to London following Hughes' departure and ending as she prepares optimistically for spring's rebirth. It is a searing story of resurrection,
female power and hope, told with remarkable empathy and sensibility and bringing to life a woman of precious gifts.
see the Wintering website for more information and excerpts as well as pictures
- Newman, Charles (ed.): The Art of Sylvia Plath, A Symposium
- Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press 1970
comprises writings by Plath, a bibliography and essays about Plath and her poetry
- Tabor, Stephen: An Analytical Bibliography
The first bibliography of Plath to contain analytical physical descriptions of her books; the first ot organize her poems
and prose works under uniform titles with reference to the definitive texts; the first to point out textual variants in the
poems; and the first to benefit from access to the important Plath collections at Indiana University and Smith College. --Synopsis
- Robert Graves: The White Goddess : A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth
A work first published in 1948 in which Graves argues that the language of poetic myth current in the Mediterranean and
Northern Europe was a magical language bound up with popular religious ceremonies in honour of the Moon-goddess, or
Muse - some dating from the Old Stone Age.
Sylvia Plath was introduced tot his book by Ted Hughes and both were considerably influenced by the ideas presented her.
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Last Modified: 2 Dec 2003 Anja Beckmann