Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet [Paperback]

Elaine Feinstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2003

"[The] biography that needed to be written, an attempt to set the record straight and clear the air."—The New York Times Book Review

Although Ted Hughes ended his days as England's beloved poet laureate, his life was dogged by tragedy and controversy. He never entirely recovered from the suicide of his wife Sylvia Plath in 1963, for which many have held his adultery responsible. In this insightful biography, the first written since Hughes's death, Elaine Feinstein explores an altogether more complex situation, throwing new light on his relationship with his lover Assia Wevill, who later killed herself along with their young daughter. 12 b/w photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The biographer of D.H. Lawrence and Marina Tsvetayeva tackles the thorny issue of Ted Hughes.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A fascinating read...the story of [Hughes's] romantic escapades...keeps this book rolling. -- The Virginian-Pilot

An admirable book....Hard to believe it could be bettered any time soon. -- The Times [London]

[The] biography that needed to be written, an attempt to set the record straight and clear the air. -- New York Times Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393323625
• ISBN-13: 978-0393323627
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #973,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine example of the art of biography, April 13, 2004

By 

Stacey M Jones (Conway, Ark.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet (Paperback)

TED HUGHES: THE LIFE OF A POET by Elaine Feinstein was a fabulously engaging read about the "other half" of the famous Sylvia Plath-Suicide Poet story. Hughes, born in Yorkshire, read English, Anthropology and Archeology at Cambridge, and met Plath, the ambitious American while she was on a Fulbright to Cambridge, after he had graduated. Their meeting was violent and dramatic (she bit him on the cheek when they kissed at a party he had brought another date to), and they quickly married. They had two children, and after she discovered his affair with another woman, they separated. During a harsh London winter, Plath killed herself by putting her head in an oven and leaving on the gas, and Hughes suffered the weight of that death for pretty much the rest of his life. That's the short story. The long version, as told in Feinstein's book is fair, multilayered, well and accessibly written, and includes informative critical comments of his work, and follows the path of his career. After Plath's death, Hughes maintained a relationship with the object of his affair, Assia Wevill, and other women. She had a daughter with him, and suffering her own depression, she killed herself AND their daughter within 10 years of Sylvia's death. Hughes was marked by some feminists as a horror of a husband, which was based on Sylvia's own viewpoint in her poems (poems that Hughes published, even though he was horrified at Sylvia's use of personal incidents for public poetry). Later, Hughes married a woman named Carol Orchard, and they were married for nearly 30 years. He also seems to have had numerous affairs in his life, and yet found Carol to be a stabilizing influence. Feinstein's work is important because she gives us a fuller picture of Britain's Poet Laureate Hughes (a work she began after his death in 1998 from cancer). Hughes, in an effort to protect his children with Plath, Freida and Nicholas, liked to maintain privacy about his life with Plath (and also, one suspects, because he just WAS private). When his book of poems about Plath was published in the years before his death, BIRTHDAY LETTERS, positive feeling was overwhelming for him, as people read the beautiful poems that spelled out his love, fear, hurt, empathy and his sense of powerlessness in the face of Plath's need in his relationship with her. This is a book you may read with other books around. I got out Plath's COLLECTED POEMS and Hughes's LUPERCAL and BIRTHDAY LETTERS to refer to. I recommend this biography to anyone. The dramatic events of his life make this compelling to those who have never read a word of his poems, and it stands as well, as fine example of the art of biography alone. Feinstein, who knew Hughes socially after the death of Plath, is sympathetic to him, but fair, I felt. As the quote on the book states, this is a book that needed to be written. It was written well.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally puts the travesty of "Bitter Fame" to rest.., February 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet (Hardcover)

This biography is wonderfully written and compulsively readable. But most importantly, it finally sheds light on the full, real, complex people that Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath were. It also dispells and negates much of the awful Anne Stevenson/Olywn Hughes biography, "Bitter Fame".

This book captures the man that captured Plath. It's a much for all fans of both.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intricate portrait of a man raised by women, June 1, 2005

By 

Devan (Astoria, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet (Paperback)

I know that a good number of people would purchase this biography on the basis of what new light could be shed on Ted Hughes' relationship with you-know-who, or through curiosity on what the infamous poet was really like, from birth to death, but either way, I think you'll be satisfied and a whole lot more once you put it down.

I checked this out at my local library and became immersed in every chapter in no time flat. The book is hard to put down because it is written extremely well and offers broad insight into everything that made Hughes who he was. It's obvious that Hughes was a very engaging presence even in childhood, and the biography, like so many others, inevitably plunges into his first meeting and ultimately unstable relationship with Sylvia Plath (an entire chapter serves as a quick summary of Plath's life before the fated meeting).

What separates this biography from, say, "Her Husband", is that after Plath commits suicide, the book carries on in Hughes' favor, chronicling his rather difficult life onward, indulging us with every detail as to the seemingly major damage done to his reputation in the wake of Plath and Assia's suicide, his short-lived relationships with the few women in his later years, his artistic struggles, and his eventual redemption. The book does not glorify him or draw a biased line just because it's his biography, although some would beg to differ; it simply tells it like it is. Some moments of his life were great, but most were rife with darkness, and it makes you understand that he was not a man to be hated for his indiscretions, but a man to be cherished for his grand vision and bold demeanor. There is no question that he and Plath, two extraordinary poets that made each other famous, have made their peace in the afterlife.