The Voice of the Poet: [UNABRIDGED] [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio Cassette)

~ Sylvia Plath (Author, Narrator)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Before committing suicide in 1963 at the age of 31, Sylvia Plath wrote a bounty of work, including the final eight poems included in this self-read collection--described by Robert Lowell as her "appalling and triumphant fulfillment." This later work, as well as 13 additional recordings gathered here from Plath's short but significant career, are certainly triumphant: her prose is precise, scathing, utterly original, and mature beyond her years. Fortunately for listeners, Plath's voice mirrors her writing. She delivers "Lady Lazarus"--a piece about suicide, self-loathing, and her hatred for men--with a dagger-like cadence and clear, confident pitch. She describes a suicide attempt:

It's easy enough to do it in a cell.
It's easy enough to do it and stay put.
It's the theatrical

Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute

Drawn from two separate recordings--one while accompanied by her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, in 1958, and one conducted shortly after their separation in 1962, The Voice of the Poet includes a companion book containing the text of each poem, as well as an introduction by editor J.D. McClatchy. Listen to Plath read "Lorelei." Visit our audio help page for more information. (Running time: 1 hour, 1 cassette) --Rob McDonald

From Publishers Weekly

This is part of a handsomely packaged new series, in which archival recordings of noted poets reading from their works are paired with accompanying text volumes. The poems are published for cross-reference, along with historical photographs and introductory biographical essays by J.D. McClatchy, editor of The Yale Review. (Other poets included in the launch are W.H. Auden and James Merrill.) The Boston-born Plath (1932-1963) reads her works in an incisive and forthright manner, carefully enunciating her words to give a strong sense of structured internal rhythms. Largely written while married to the British poet Ted Hughes in the years just before her suicide, these works dwellAprescientlyAon themes of marriage and death. In "November Graveyard," she speaks of "...the bare room, the blank, untenanted air." Read aloud, the rawness of Plath's vision comes across especially immediate and acute. Of interest to scholars and general-audience Plath fans alike. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio (April 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375405992
• ISBN-13: 978-0375405990
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,205,352 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Voice from the Dead, November 29, 1999

By	James Chong (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Listening to these recordings is a haunting experience. Plath recorded Side A when she was 25 and in the full blush of newlywed happiness. Like the rigidly structured poems of "The Colossus," Plath's delivery of these earlier poems reflects a painstaking adherence to precision of pronunciation and form. However, turn to Side B, recorded five years later on October 30th, 1962--three days after her 30th birthday, three months before her suicide--and you are at once stunned by the harrowing transformation in both Plath's voice and poetry. These are the "Ariel" poems, the poems that Plath herself declared to be "the best poems of my life; they will make my name." Here, it is clear that all hope and vitality has been sapped, and all that is left are the charred remains of her former self--bruised and beaten, suffocating in a self-made grave of self-loathing and regret. Listen closely, and you can hear the faint murmuring of traffic outdoors, or the gentle shuffling of papers and creaking of wooden drawers. You are lost in her world, locked in her slow destruction. Sylvia Plath's pain bleeds from these recordings, and you will not walk away from them unstained.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have for Any Plath Fan, May 18, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Grand Forks, ND, USA) - See all my reviews

If you are thinking about purchasing this tape and are a Plath fan, I urge you to stop just thinking about it, and buy it! It is worth the money, and worth the time to wait for it to arrive in the mail. Sylvia Plath reads her own work so well, and with such clarity that you will probably never look at poetry the same way. Listening to them is like listening to stories, especially so on side B of the tape where she reads from her later works including "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus." Side A is her earlier work, her heavily structured poems, and crisp voice. Each word is pronounced so exactly correct, it does tend to get a little annoying. I do not listen to Side A as much as side B, let's just say that. You can hear the different sound so well between the two that it seems like two seperate people. The one "in plaster" and the one without.

Buy it! :)

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Audio intensifies relationship between poet and listener, April 30, 2000

By	Laura Phillips (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This tape is amazing. From the moment I first read Plath's poetry, I longed to hear her read it herself. Her poetry is so extremely personal. The sound of her voice makes the poetry all the more powerful. This tape also allows the listener to hear the beauty of the words and the rhythm of Plath's works.