Her Husband (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Diane Wood Middlebrook
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1930-1997
- Setting: Massachusetts; London; Cambridge, England
- Principal Characters: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Aurelia Plath, Otto Plath, William Henry Hughes, Edith Farrar Hughes, Olwyn Hughes, Gerald Hughes, Al Alvarez, Assia Weevil
- Subjects: Suicide, Authors or writers, Literature, Marriage, Poetry or poets, Mental illness, England or English people, Death or dying, Fame, Censorship, Great Britain, Massachusetts
Sylvia Plath surely surpasses any other poet of her generation as a cultural icon and center of controversy. Was she the victim of a misogynist husband? Is she a feminist martyr? How did Plath come to write the stunning poems of her last year? What was Ted Hughes’s role in advancing or retarding her reputation? Why did he destroy some of her work? What kind of man marries two women who commit suicide?
To gauge the significance of Diane Middlebrook’s book, it is necessary to place it in the context of the voluminous Plath canon. Although Middlebrook provides a bibliography, it...
[The entire page is 1709 words long]
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