- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (26 July 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140103732
- ISBN-13: 978-0140103731
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
85,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #93 in Books > Biography > Novelists, Poets & Playwrights > Poets
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Product Description
Product Description
A biography of the American poet Sylvia Plath which presents a different view of her life and death by shifting any blame away from Plath's husband, Ted Hughes, and suggesting the problems lay in her personality difficulties.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anne Stevenson is a fine and talented poet, but this biography was the result of a very ugly tussle with the Hughes estate, which originally commissioned Stevenson to see off Hughes's many critics (not all of them shrieking feminist-separatists). When she found evidence that contradicted their version of events they became very uncooperative, so that Stevenson had to struggle to appease them.
The biography contains daft passages as a result of this appeasement: my favourite is the long analysis of how very paranoid Plath was to continue to suspect Hughes of having an affair - when he WAS having an affair! On the other hand, the biog. doesn't help us much with understanding Hughes either because it's all so strained: for that you want Elaine Feinstein's far better biog. of Hughes himself. The best parts are the engagements with Plath's development as a writer.
It is honestly tragic that the lives of two of the finest poets of last century have been so ill served, not least by the custodians of their own writings. I suspect we won't get a good biography of Plath until another thirty or forty years have brought perspective to all concerned.
In the meantime, to understand Plath the best way forward is to read her own journals and (with due caution) letters home.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've just finished reading "Bitter Fame" by Anne Stevenson. It was a struggle, but I persisted because the good side of this book is its comprehensive marshalling of the facts about her life. Stevenson has done her research, and the description of the details of Sylvia Plath's life is well done. But it was a struggle, nonetheless, because Stevenson writes with a clear agenda in mind, which is that all of Sylvia Plath's problems, all of the tragedy of her life, was her fault and hers alone. The language is sodden with damning judgement, no detail is completely described without a negative connotation concerning Plath. In the end, it became wearisome, so much so that the book, in my view, fails its purpose, to isolate the blame for Plath's suffering and suicide to Plath herself, because the endless blame game provokes a reactionary response, a sympathy for Plath.
A secondary, related misson for this book is to exonerate Hughes of any responsibility for his wife's death. In order to achieve this, Stevenson simply leaves him out of much of the latter stages of Plath's life. He becomes like a ghost or a vague shadow, his name popping up in connection with some inconsequenteial detail here and there. There is one section, though, that is puzzling, as far as I'm concerned. When Plath and Hughes are living in Devon, at the start of the summer they split up, the Wevills visit them for a weekend. Stevenson relates an occasion when Assia Wevill is in the kitchen at the back of the house alone with Hughes. Sylvia, entering the front of the house, slips off her shoes and quietly approaches the kitchen to observe them. After that point, her manner towards Assia hardens. Stevenson writes that, in the view of those close to Hughes, if Plath had behaved differently on this occasion, Hughes and Wevill might never have had an affair. A couple of pages and a little time later, quite out of the blue, Stevenson relates that it was at this point in time that Hughes first made contact with Wevill. The whole episode begs some very large questions - for example, if nothing was going on between Wevill and Hughes, and Sylvia was just paranoid, was Hughes starting an affair to spite her? Or was there a real attraction between Hughes and a woman on her third marriage already? Stevenson obviously has to mention the event, because of its importance to the breakdown of Plath's and Hughes marriage, but, desparate as she is to absolve Hughes, has to gloss over the details and leave these questions unanswered.
So, to sum up, read it for the factual and chronological detail, but read it carefully and be aware of the book's ultimate purpose.
A secondary, related misson for this book is to exonerate Hughes of any responsibility for his wife's death. In order to achieve this, Stevenson simply leaves him out of much of the latter stages of Plath's life. He becomes like a ghost or a vague shadow, his name popping up in connection with some inconsequenteial detail here and there. There is one section, though, that is puzzling, as far as I'm concerned. When Plath and Hughes are living in Devon, at the start of the summer they split up, the Wevills visit them for a weekend. Stevenson relates an occasion when Assia Wevill is in the kitchen at the back of the house alone with Hughes. Sylvia, entering the front of the house, slips off her shoes and quietly approaches the kitchen to observe them. After that point, her manner towards Assia hardens. Stevenson writes that, in the view of those close to Hughes, if Plath had behaved differently on this occasion, Hughes and Wevill might never have had an affair. A couple of pages and a little time later, quite out of the blue, Stevenson relates that it was at this point in time that Hughes first made contact with Wevill. The whole episode begs some very large questions - for example, if nothing was going on between Wevill and Hughes, and Sylvia was just paranoid, was Hughes starting an affair to spite her? Or was there a real attraction between Hughes and a woman on her third marriage already? Stevenson obviously has to mention the event, because of its importance to the breakdown of Plath's and Hughes marriage, but, desparate as she is to absolve Hughes, has to gloss over the details and leave these questions unanswered.
So, to sum up, read it for the factual and chronological detail, but read it carefully and be aware of the book's ultimate purpose.
Format:Paperback
Anne Stevenson has written a masterful biography of the very difficult and complex Sylvia Plat, but it is more than a biography of Plath, it is a biography of bipolar illness in all its manifestations. As the author myself of a biography of another literary victim of this terrible illness, I credit Ms. Stevenson with her willingness to set before the reader the harsh realities of bipolar illness by letting Plath's own words tell part of the story while allowing others their say. What they say is not necessary what admirers of Plath want to hear but their words describe accurately their reactions to Plath's behaviour and their bewilderment when her actions seemed to have no explanation. Plath's treatment of Hughes -- destroying his manuscripts -- and others was appalling but it was also characteristic of the extremes of an illness that she could not control but that controlled her. Stevenson IS sympathetic to Plath and clearly cares about her as a person and respects her as a poet. This is a compelling biography that will, if read with an open mind, provide newcomers to Plath's world with insights and understanding that make the iconic Plath thoroughly human and tragically damaged. Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott: Song of Pain and Beauty
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not a balanced biography so leaves a bitter taste in the mouth
The problem with Bitter Fame is evident on the first page, when Stevenson writes that she and Olwyn Hughes collaborated closely on the book. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Poetlaundrette
Thoughtful Portrayal of a Difficult but Brilliant Woman
Anne Stevenson's come in for a lot of very unfair treatment for this book, including a decidedly spiteful remark from A. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Bitter Fame
I am a big fan of Sylvia Plath and have read several books about her personal life, however, this book does provide new information. Read more
Published on 15 July 2009 by Mrs. S. Sutherland
Objectivity in Biography
This biography is one of the finest of any modern writer. For those who would make Plath a saint it falls well short of hagiography but is a thoughful account of the dificulty of... Read more
Published on 13 July 2009 by Robert Horn
Do Not Buy This One!
Do not buy this one. Even at a reduced price you'd be wasting your money. It's a concoction between two people hostile to Sylvia - the biographer (a far less successful... Read more
Published on 5 Jun 2009 by another customer
Bitter Biography
I have seldom read a more vindictive and downright mean bio of a major literary figure. There is no attempt to be objective rather it is subjective and reliant upon two or three... Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2006
too bitter for me...
Anne Stevenson begins this book with a real dislike for Plath and her bi-polar or as she puts it "psychotic" fits. Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2004
Amazingly subtle account of plaths's manically creative life
a very acessible and easy read. will keep you to the last page if you are willing to read yet another point of view of plath's life. Read more
Published on 14 Jun 2001
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