Sylvia Plath: A Beginner's Guide [Paperback]

Gina Wisker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001 | Series: A Beginner's Guide

This book introduces you to the life and works of one of the most unique and powerful minds of the 20th century. Focusing on Daddy, The Bell Jar, and her diaries, the author explores the background, themes, images, and techniques that unite them.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This handy series from Headway offers brief yet lucid introductions to the world¹s cultural icons. Each book examines the life, the work, and the legends surrounding its subject, and key terms and concepts are highlighted and clearly explained. Additionally, each chapter ends with a review section for easy reference and to help consolidate the reader¹s understanding of the text.

About the Author

Gina Wisker is currently a principle lecturer in English and Women's Studies at Anglia University, Cambridge and has been a teacher since 1973. Between 1978 and 1992 she was a course tutor at the OU specialising in Literature and the Modern world, C19th Novel and C20th Poetry. Between 1994 and 1996 she was the director of the Summer University Literature Courses and Cambridge University Board of Continuing Education. She has lectured widely on many aspects of women's literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340800402
• ISBN-13: 978-0340800409
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,051,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #67 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( P ) > Plath, Sylvia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Textbook? A Study Guide? What is It? An Obscenity., July 29, 2005

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divinebunbun (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sylvia Plath: A Beginner's Guide (Paperback)

This is not the serious study guide to Plath's works that I expected. (I had been considering it as a possible college textbook.) It's a gamey 88-page volume of generalizations, paraphrases, and horrid little cartoon drawings of Plath (as herself and as Lady Lazarus -- in G-string and pasties!). Because the book can't quote more than five lines from any of Plath's poems, it paraphrases, which isn't the same as explaining how any one poem actually works. (The author says you must have the Collected Poems alongside.) It also contains proofreading errors and misinformation (Did you know Esther Greenwood was a 'country girl' and that's why she hated Manhattan?). Example of its prose: "The artist needs to fly the roles but she is tied down and a person." What a disappointment. Least offensive chapter: Chapter 7, a briefing on the critical reception of Plath's work.