[An] important, provocative, and often brilliant book.
Steven Gould Axelrod, author of "Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words"
[A] book that is meticulously researched, clearly and gracefully written, carefully argued, and beautifully presented.
"New England Quarterly"
Plath scholars will welcome intriguing accounts of the poet's composition and revising processes.
"American Literature"
This is criticism at its best, melding a quantity of factual information with Van Dyne's superb readings.
Linda Wagner-Martin, author of "Sylvia Plath: A Biography"
ÝAn¨ important, provocative, and often brilliant book.
Steven Gould Axelrod, author of "Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words"
ÝA¨ book that is meticulously researched, clearly and gracefully written, carefully argued, and beautifully presented.
"New England Quarterly"
"[An] important, provocative, and often brilliant book.
Steven Gould Axelrod, author of "Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words""
"[A] book that is meticulously researched, clearly and gracefully written, carefully argued, and beautifully presented.
"New England Quarterly""
"Revising Life" is a major contribution to Plath scholarship.
"New England Quarterly"
"This is criticism at its best, melding a quantity of factual information with Van Dyne's superb readings.
Linda Wagner-Martin, author of "Sylvia Plath: A Biography""
To examine Plath's twin goals of becoming a famous poet and a perfect mother, Van Dyne (English and women's studies, Smith) juxtaposes three kinds of texts here: Plath's private writings, feminist theoretical strategies, and, for the first time, the manuscripts of the ``Ariel'' poems themselves. More might have been made of a fourth type of text, i.e., the ``cultural myths and family scripts'' of her time that required women to emphasize the maternal role over others (an example of which is a condescending address given by Adlai Stevenson to the poet's graduating class at Smith). But this book's main points are clearly and forcefully argued: that both poems and babies require ``struggle, pain, endless labor, and . . . fears of monstrous offspring'' and that, in the end, Plath ran out of the resources necessary to produce both. Often maligned as a self-indulgent confessional poet, Plath is here retrieved as a passionate theorist. Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with strong literary collections.-- David Kirby, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee
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. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
