Red Comet

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.

Determined 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 marriage of true minds that would change the course of poetry in English. Clark'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. 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.

Prima biografie a acestui mare si tragic poet care profita de bogatia de materiale noi, aceasta este o viata neobisnuit de echilibrata, cuprinzatoare si definitiva a Sylviei Plath. Determinata sa nu citeasca opera lui Plath ca si cum fiecare act al ei, inca din copilarie, a fost un vestitor al soartei sale tragice, Clark prezinta noi materiale despre tatal om de stiinta al lui Plath, scrierile ei juvenile si tratamentul ei psihiatric si evoca o cultura in tranzitie la mijlocul secolului al XX-lea, la umbra bombei atomice si a Holocaustului, ca ea exploreaza lumea Sylviei: relatiile ei timpurii si determinarea de a nu deveni o femeie si o sotie conventionale; legaturile sale conflictuale cu mama ei bine intentionata, vaduva; necazurile ei din mana unei industrii de sanatate mintala neiluminate; si intalnirea ei de Cambridge si de tunete cu Ted Hughes, o casatorie de minti adevarate care ar schimba cursul poeziei in limba engleza.