Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation by Emily Van Duyne

A nuanced, intelligent, and passionate exploration of the life and work of one of the most misunderstood writers of the twentieth century. Sylvia Plath is an object of enduring cultural fascination―the troubled patron saint of confessional poetry; a writer whose genius is buried under the weight of her status as the quintessential literary sad girl. A pro-Plath polemic, Loving Sylvia Plath examines these myths in order to dismantle them and asks why, when Plath speaks frankly about her husband’s brutality, we refuse to take her at her word. Emily Van Duyne―a superfan and scholar―radically reimagines the last years of Plath’s life, confronts her suicide and the construction of her legacy, and offers feminist, interdisciplinary readings of her extraordinary poetry. Drawing from decades of study on Plath and her husband Ted Hughes, the chief architect of Plath’s mythology; never-before-seen archival materials; and a nuanced, empathetic understanding of the experience of domestic violence; Van Duyne seeks to undo the silencing of Sylvia Plath and resuscitate her as the hard-working, brilliant writer she was. 6 illustrations