Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation

Emily Van Duyne

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Sylvia Plath is an object of enduring cultural fascination--the troubled patron saint of confessional poetry, a writer whose genius is buried under the weight of her status as the quintessential literary sad girl. Emily Van Duyne--a superfan and scholar--radically reimagines the last years of Plath's life, confronts her suicide and the construction of her legacy. Drawing from decades of study on Plath and her husband, Ted Hughes, the chief architect of Plath's mythology; the life and tragic suicide of Assia Wevill, Hughes's mistress; newly available archival materials; and a deep understanding of intimate partner violence, Van Duyne seeks to undo the silencing of Sylvia Plath and resuscitate her as the hardworking, brilliant writer she was.

Book Details

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publish Date: Jul 22nd, 2025
Pages: 320
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00lb
EAN: 9781324110361
Categories: • Feminist• Women Authors• Modern - 20th Century

About the Author

Van Duyne, Emily: - Emily Van Duyne is an associate professor at Stockton University and a 2022 Fulbright Scholar. Her work has appeared in Literary Hub, Women's Studies Quarterly, Harvard Review, and American Poetry Review. She lives in New Jersey.

Praise for this book

[Van Duyne] carefully, almost tenderly, combines research with experience.--Bethanne Patrick "Los Angeles Times"

In Loving Sylvia Plath, Emily Van Duyne sets out to radically reimagine the last years of Plath's life and recontextualize her legacy by undoing her silencing and exploring the brilliance of her work. This book is perfect for lovers of poetry and literary history alike.--Michael Welch "Chicago Review of Books"

This impassioned reassessment of Sylvia Plath's life and work blends feminist theory and biography to challenge various narratives that have dominated criticism of the poet since her suicide... Many of Hughes's misdeeds (burning Plath's journals, altering the manuscript of "Ariel") are well-trod territory, but Van Duyne's approach, in which she shows how certain publishers, critics, and biographers helped maintain some version of Hughes's account, feels fresh and vital.-- "New Yorker"

Van Duyne rejects any notion that Plath was a bad mother or merely a morbid poet. She maintains Plath ought to be remembered as a complicated woman, a formidable writer--one who outshined Hughes--and almost certainly a victim of domestic abuse.--Krysta Fauria "Associated Press"

Impassioned... Effective in [its] takedown of the literary establishment that closed ranks around Hughes to protect him against feminist pushback from the 1970s on... Compelling and well argued.--Wendy Smith "Boston Globe"

This disquieting debut from Van Duyne... examines how Ted Hughes's physical and psychological abuse of his wife, Sylvia Plath, shaped her life, work, and legacy... [Loving Sylvia Plath is] an incriminating account exposing the depths of Hughes's cruelty, this is sure to reignite debate in literary circles.-- "Publishers Weekly"

A fresh melding of scholarly investigation and personal reflection.-- "Kirkus"

[A] deeply researched analysis of how the popular myth of Plath's life, one that subordinates her poetry to her depression and her suicide, was constructed by Hughes and maintained by critics from the time of her death in 1963 to the present.-- "BookPage"

Emily Van Duyne takes a deeper look at Plath and does away with the trappings of her sad-girl persona--perpetuated, in many ways, by Plath's husband, the writer Ted Hughes--to focus on her accomplishments and the enduring power of her work. This book is part celebration and part repossession, looking at the writer on her own terms instead of through the lens for her that others have created.--Adam Rathe "Town & Country"

[B]old and original... Ms. Van Duyne, a superb reader of both Plath's writing and her biography, identifies key moments in a marriage that was violent from the beginning... Only a critic as steeped in the literature of Sylvia Plath could have produced such an innovative book.--Carl Rollyson "New York Sun"

This is the best book I have read on Plath...and I have read them all.--Denise Duhamel "Best American Poetry"

Van Duyne is a provocative and intriguing writer who understands both the visible and invisible forces that come to play upon women who refuse to cower into silence. She will leave many a female reader thinking about how they present themselves to the world and perhaps encourage them to think how they might do otherwise.--Elaine Margolin "Book and Film Globe"

[Loving Sylvia Plath] examines the many myths surrounding the poet before taking them apart, wiping off the grime, and reconstructing a new vision of Plath for the future.-- "Literary Hub"

Brilliant, lyrical, and moving, Loving Sylvia Plath is a riveting story of misogynistic abuse, gaslighting, and the way our culture protects treasured male heroes at the cost of female victims. A must-read for any feminist, any lover of literature, and anyone who simply values a gripping story.--Kate Manne, author of Unshrinking

Loving Sylvia Plath is indeed a reclamation, and one that not only centers, but in many ways, resurrects Plath's own voice to speak her own truth.--Gail Crowther, author of Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz

Emily Van Duyne reveals Plath as she was: the best of her, the worst of her, the parts she hid in plain sight, the parts she made harder to find. I inhaled Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation like (what else?) air.--Jessica DeFino, Guardian columnist and beauty reporter