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A Lover of Unreason: The Biography of Assia Wevill
 
 
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A Lover of Unreason: The Biography of Assia Wevill [Illustrated] (Hardcover)

by Yehuda Koren (Author), Eilat Negev (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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  • This item: A Lover of Unreason: The Biography of Assia Wevill by Yehuda Koren

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 280 pages
  • Publisher: Robson Books Ltd; illustrated edition edition (28 Sep 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1861059744
  • ISBN-13: 978-1861059741
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.2 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 285,493 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

The Sunday Times, Culture, October 15, 2006
"Eye opening, utterly intriguing biography of the beautiful but
troubled women who was one of Ted Hughes's mistresses."


Roger Lewis, Mail on Sunday, October 15, 2006
...One of the most wonderfully well-written and powerful literary
biographies I have encountered.

See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

A Lover of Unreason: The Biography of Assia Wevill
78% buy the item featured on this page:
A Lover of Unreason: The Biography of Assia Wevill 4.8 out of 5 stars (4)
£15.49
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars well written and fascinating, 13 Jan 2007
By D. Cameron (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I have read many of the previous biographies of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, but this book still proved highly informative and very interesting. It added another chapter to their story by exploring the life of the woman who Ted Hughes left Sylvia Plath for. This relationship has been ignored by biographers and this gives a rounded account of Assia Wevill as a complex and fascinating person in her own right, rather than "just" the other woman in the Hughes' marriage. Well written and compelling.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent biography. . .sensitively written, 12 May 2007
By ILONACAT (WIRRAL, ENGLAND) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Okay, I admit it-one of my reasons for buying this book was sheer nosiness ! Why do so many of us want to know about this story-this tragic, true story-from all possible angles ? What are we trying to SOLVE, exactly ? Why someone commits suicide ? What motivates poets to write the poetry that they write ?

There seems to be a deep human drive-I'm not exempting myself from this-to set up saints and villains : who was to blame ? In the Plath-Hughes-Wevill story, the conventional villain has usually been Assia Wevill. She was, after all, The Other Woman. One of the good things about this biography is, it refuses to judge. Not that it loses itself in bland statements and cryptic references-not at all ; the two biographers spent about 15 years interviewing family and friends of the deceased, pouring through letters, visiting the places in which this drama was enacted. Frankly, none of the three protagonists emerges smelling of roses, and that feels about right-that's what life is like. There is no sensationalism, no hysteria. The biographers simply set out to paint a portrait of Assia Wevill, a woman who was beautiful and troubled, talented without doubt but who never seemed to quite find her niche. Her life was "colourful"-a child in Berlin when Hitler came to power, Wevill subsequently lived in Palestine, Canada, England, Burma, then England again ; married and divorced three times, she had several abortions and finally a daughter ; when she committed suicide in 1969, she gassed her child (deliberately) as well as herself. One might call such an act as that last a truly monstrous one, and yet she comes over throughout the book as simply human. Deeply flawed, yes,and selfish, without question. Words like "narcissistic" and "sociopathic" come to mind but I'm glad the book does not get bogged down in dubious psychiatric diagnoses (which Wevill herself never sought out anyway); it simply presents its story. Lucidly, thoroughly, and with a certain compassion for all involved.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful siren, 26 Feb 2007
By Mrs. M. Pickard "Mary Pickard" (Exeter, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Assia comes over as an irrestible woman to someone of Ted's psyche. They seemed made for each other,(both eager to prey on those that they found sexual chemistry with) until Sylvia's suicide, when of course history repeated itself. I found this biography utterly fascinating, giving insight into Ted Hughes' character, showing that he was the ultimate predator, and Assia was left abandoned with his child which he did not acknowledge. She is portrayed as demanding, confrontational and selfish but also as a beauty, charmer, poet, artist, intelligent and devoted mother. Well researched and beautifully written.
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5.0 out of 5 stars An untold tragedy that reveals the seamy side of Eng. Lit.
A Lover of Unreason exposes the truth behind one of the most shameful episodes of Ted Hughes' life, and of England's literary establishment. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2006 by Martin Baker

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