If it’s possible to love a book that enraged you, put this one on the list. Emily Van Duyne’s blend of biography, literary history, and criticism is an effective tool for bringing out the righteous anger one should feel when they realize just how poorly Sylvia Plath (and her counterpart, Assia Wevill) has been treated, both throughout her own life and ever since her death. From a terrible husband to gossiping, backstabbing poets and biographers, she has faced it all well into her afterlife. Van Duyne is very good at boiling down years of controversy and pain to the salient points one needs to understand Plath’s history. Perhaps this is because of her love of her subject, or perhaps it’s because she’s a top-notch critic, but it’s probably a combination of both, and I thank her for her work.

What a fantastic book. I first discovered Sylvia Plath when I was in school and fell in love with her writing, she is a woman who put my own raw thoughts and feelings into writing when I couldn't and felt alone. But I always felt that people who wrote about her or conveyed/studied her work did it in a way that completely diminished the domestic abuse she clearly suffered from and her mental illness.

I really liked the way the author, so bravely, shared her own story and connected it with Plath's. She showed how a powerful man has told the story of this woman to suit him and how scholars continue to brush his behaviour under the rug and turn it around on Plath. This book really centers Plath as the victim and urges us to believe her, to not discredit her.

I was drawn to this book's combination of academic criticism, reporting and personal narrative, all woven expertly together. It is a very important addition to the world of Sylvia Plath scholarship, especially for the way in which it utilizes new archival materials. A captivating read!

As a poet, I've appreciated Plath's work for some time, and can't resist a well-written Plath book so I was desperate to read "Loving Sylvia Plath." This is a thoughtful, well researched work which includes the author's own bias as an admitted DV survivor. It is engaging and fresh, a great addition toPlath Scholarshp. Highly recommended for writers and loves of Plath. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.
#lovingsylviaplath

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of Loving Sylvia Plath by Emily Van Duyne.

I went into this book not knowing if I was going to like it, as I don't read a lot of nonfiction. However, I was/am a lover of Plath and was very interested in Van Duyne's reclamation of her story. I was captivated by this book. Really well-written, astounding points about how Plath's life was shaped by Ted Hughes and other critics that were Hughes' friends. Sylvia's story is told as if it was inevitable that she commit suicide, it was her genius and poetry that killed her, but the violence she suffered in her marriage along with mental illness has all but been pushed aside, or questioned. I enjoyed the interwoven stories from the author's own life and the connection of Sylvia's problems with that of powerful men in modern culture. A tale as old as time. Fantastic work.

As a Plath superfan since adolescence, I was drawn to this book and am so grateful to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for the opportunity to get an early peek at it.

I have read many of the biographies cited in this book, and found it to be a compelling addition to the Plath catalog. My concern was that it might offer a simple rehashing of what has already been written. However, it is ultimately (and most importantly) a critical examination of the scholarship done thus far, particularly regarding the choices various biographers have made when it comes to the intimate partner violence between Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. IPV is the filter through which Van Duyne examines Sylvia's life, work, and death. It was fascinating to see how scholars have protected the myth of Hughes at Plath's expense. The distillation of Plath's life to her tragic demise has always bothered me, and this book goes a long way in taking a more holistic look at her life and work as well as the culpability that not only Hughes but his apologists bear.

I received this as a digital galley from NetGalley.

One of the things I loved about this new work of scholarship about Sylvia Plath was the reconsideration of previous scholarship (good & bad).

Also fuck Ted Hughes.

A feminist reimagining of Sylvia Plath's final years leading up to her suicide. What did she suffer to end up this way? What toll did her life take? Fans of Sylvia Plath will want to read this tale to get to know Sylvia's last years and to try to understand the oft slandered "literary sad Gil" from a new perspective.

As someone who reads everything going on Plath, l appreciated this new perspective. A thoughtful, reflective work that also veers into the author’s own life and is unashamed in its passion for its subject.
My only reservation is that while the author thoroughly pursues the IDV angle, there is no attempt to engage with the possibility of BDSM in the marriage, which l would have thought necessary, if only to dismiss.

A really interesting look at the life of Sylvia Plath by an author who loves her writing and also experienced violence at the ends of her partner. Through looking at what Plath said in her work and words, and what was suppressed, and the difficulties in writing biographies about her, the book presents lots of information on interpersonal violence, the ways women are silenced and much more. I particularly appreciated the chapter on Assia Wevill as it appears to me she is even more misrepresented, such a sad story. A book I found hard to put down (probably because of my own interests in death, mental illness, feminism etc)

I was always interested in learning more about the intriguing, sad, and unbelievable life of Sylvia Platt. I really liked the way Emily incorporated her story and it kept me interested and wanting to know more. Very interesting take on one of literary most iconic figures.