Her Husband: Hughes and Plath--a MarriageTed Hughes married Sylvia Plath in 1956, at the outset of their brilliant careers. Plath's suicide six and a half years later, for which many held Hughes accountable, changed his life, his closest relationships, his standing in the literary world, and the style and substance of his verse. In this stunning new biography of their marriage, Diane Middlebrook presents a portrait of Hughes as a man, as a poet, and as a husband haunted-and nourished-his entire life by the aftermath of his first marriage. Drawing on a trove of newly available papers Middlebrook presents Hughes as a complicated, conflicted figure: sexually magnetic, fiercely ambitious, immensely caring, and shrewd in business. She argues that Plath's suicide, though it devastated Hughes and made him vulnerable to the savage attacks of Plath's growing readership, ultimately gave him his true subject-how marriages fail and how men fail in marriage. Writing with the penetrating insight and lucid sympathy that informed her previous bestselling biographies, Middlebrook rises to the multiple challenges presented by this highly fraught, deeply controversial subject. Her Husbandis a triumph of the biographer's art and craft. |
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Common terms and phrases
Al Alvarez Alvarez animal Anne Sexton appears April Ariel artistic Assia Assia Wevill Aurelia Plath baby Bell Jar Billie Hughes Birthday Letters Bitter Fame Botolph's Review British Library brother Calder Valley Cambridge conversation with DM Court Green D. H. Lawrence Devon Edith Elmet Emory father February Frieda friends Gerald Howls and Whispers Hughes and Plath Hughes wrote Ibid interview January Jill Barber July June Keith Sagar later Lilly literary living London Lucas Myers Macedo manuscript March marriage married mother Mytholmroyd Nathaniel Tarn night novel Plath wrote Plath's death Plath's journal Plath's poem poet poetry Prouty published quoted Rabbit Catcher September Sexton sexual Shakespeare Song Sonnenberg SP-AP SP's Stevenson story suicide Suzette Sylvia Plath Ted Hughes Ted Hughes's Ted's TH-AP TH-GH TH-Keith Sagar TH-Lucas Myers thought tion told voice Wevill White Goddess Winter Pollen Wodwo woman writing
References to this book
Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath's Art of the Visual Kathleen Connors,Sally Bayley No preview available - 2007 |