The Cambridge Companion to Sylvia Plath

The controversies that surround Sylvia Plath’s life and work mean that her poems are more read and studied now than ever before. This Companion provides a comprehensive and authoritative overview of Sylvia Plath\'s poetry, prose, letters and journals and of their place in twentieth-century culture. These essays by leading international scholars represent a spectrum of critical perspectives. They pay particular attention to key debates and to well-known texts such as Ariel and the The Bell Jar, while offering thought-provoking readings to new as well as more experienced Plath readers. The Companion also discusses three additions to the field: Ted Hughes\'s Birthday Letters, Plath\'s complete Journals and the \'Restored\' edition of Ariel. With its invaluable guide to further reading and chronology of Plath\'s life and work, this Companion will help students and scholars understand and enjoy Plath\'s work and its continuing relevance.

• A most comprehensive and accessible student guide to Plath’s work • Clear critical discussion aimed at students of the new editions of Plath’s journals and poems • Provides an authoritative and engaging introduction to the controversies of Plath’s life and work

Notes on contributors; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations and textual note; Chronology of Plath\'s life and work; Part I. Contexts and Issues: 1. The problem of biography Susan R. van Dyne; 2. Plath, history and politics Deborah Nelson; 3. Plath and psychoanalysis: uncertain truths Lynda K. Bundtzen; 4. Plath and contemporary American poetry Linda Wagner-Martin; 5. Plath and contemporary British poetry Alice Entwistle; Part II. Works: 6. The poetry of Sylvia Plath Steven Gould Axelrod; 7. The Colossus and Crossing the Water Jo Gill; 8. Ariel and other poems Christina Britzolakis; 9. The Bell Jar and other prose Janet Badia; 10. Sylvia Plath\'s letters and journals Tracy Brain; 11. The poetry of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes: call and response Diane Middlebrook; Selected reading; Index.