Sylvia Plath (Bloom's Modern Critical Views) [Hardcover]

Harold Bloom (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1989 | Series: Bloom's Modern Critical Views

Critics debate Plath's value as a writer: detractors call her overly sentimental, while admirers argue that she engendered whole movements of women's poetry. The works studied in this volume include The Bell Jar, A Fine White Flying Myth, and But I Have a Self to Recover.

This title, Sylvia Plath, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of Sylvia Plath through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on Sylvia Plath, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up-In each of these volumes, five poems are represented in critical essays by literary analysts both past and contemporary. Robert Browning highlights "My Last Duchess," "Fra Lippo Lippi," "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," "Andrea del Sarto," and "Caliban Upon Setebos." Sylvia Plath features "The Colossus," "The Arrival of the Bee Box," "Daddy," "Ariel," and "Lady Lazarus." The main texts are prefaced by brief but informative biographies of the poets and conclude with bibliographies of works by and about them as well as indexes of important themes and ideas from the poems. Each volume is divided into sections, one for each poem, and each section begins with Bloom's thematic analysis of the work. This information, given in a straightforward style, will be helpful to students. Because the essays are written by scholars, however, the language is often dense and hard to grasp for all but the most advanced high-school literature students. With their academic approach and language, these research and study guides would be best used in school libraries that support intensive literary research on the precollege or Advanced Placement level.
Toni D. Moore, Simon Kenton High School, Independence, KY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 179 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea House Pub (L) (June 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555462804
• ISBN-13: 978-1555462802
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,947,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New biography with new facts, June 28, 2004

By 

Peter K. Steinberg "pksteinberg" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sylvia Plath (Great Writers) (Hardcover)

I am the author of this book, for which Linda Wagner-Marting graciouslessly wrote the Foreword. This new biography of Plath, the first to appear since the early 1990s, presents Plath the poet and Plath the person as inseparable. It's about her writing life.

The mini-review Amazon has is for the Harold Bloom collection of essays published in the late 1980s. I certainly hope that they fix this in order to prevent confusion and/or slower sales.

Cheers!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lucid, compelling, and precise biography, July 13, 2004

By 

"amanda123" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sylvia Plath (Great Writers) (Hardcover)

Peter Steinberg's new biography charts Sylvia Plath's tumultous career in moving prose. His narrative demonstrates precision and is informed by the recent landmarks in Plath scholarship. His own passion for Plath's writing and travels to Plath sites lend a significant dimension to his descriptions of the places and events that inspired some of Plath's most famous poems. I think this book will be a welcome addition to high school reading lists and will inspire students to explore Plath's poetry.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, February 14, 2011

By 

Joe Wasserman (Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sylvia Plath (Great Writers) (Hardcover)

There are literally hundreds of Plath biographies out there but this is really the one to begin with. Steinberg painstakingly details every aspect of Plath's life without heavily weighing in with personal commentary or jaded viewpoints- it's as accurate and stark account of what happened as any other book out there, perhaps more chilling because of the detached voice. It allows the novice reader to decide for themselves, to give this narrative meaning. More importantly, what this book accomplishes that no other biography does is tie Plath's poems to specific events and places significant to the poet. The book is not just a progression of her life but a progression of her work as an author as well. Be sure to check out Steinberg's website, A Celebration, This Is which adds a whole other layer of depth as he painstakingly visited and photographed nearly all of the places mentioned in the book.