Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness
Subtitle: A Biography
Edition: 2nd Revised edition
Publisher: Schaffner Press
Published: February 15, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 416
ISBN-13: 9780971059825
Subjects: Biography: general; Plath, Sylvia, 1932-1963; Biography & Autobiography; Biography / Autobiography; English; Biography/Autobiography; USA; Literary; Women; Biography & Autobiography / Literary
First sentence: For Sylvia Plath, as even the most casual reading of her poetry demonstrates, the central obsession from the beginning to the end of her life and career was her father, Professor Otto Emile Plath.
Description: Few modern poets have generated as much controversy as Sylvia Plath. In the aftermath of her suicide in 1963 at the age of thirty, Plath's popularity and stature have steadily increased due to her powerful, self-revelatory imagery and her unflinching stare into the abyss of the human soul. "Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness" masterfully explores the paradoxes of this fascinating woman: the overachieving daughter desperate for approval, the tormented poet warring with her demons, the doting mother who abandons her babies, the resentful wife raging against the confines of domesticity and an unfaithful but famous husband. Edward Butscher shows us both victim and avenging goddess. -- From publisher's description.