Audiobook Review
The charged imagery of Sylvia Plath's carefully crafted poetry strikes even deeper when heard from the voice of the author. Remastered using contemporary digital technology, these historic recordings were made between 1958 and 1962, when Plath was at the height of her tragically shortened career. They capture the striking clarity of her writing and the studied pronunciations of her voice, while illuminating her subtle, yet profoundly moving vocal inflections. Plath carries the listener into a dreamscape that mixes memories of beautiful lightness with the secret pain of dark and disturbing insight. (Running time: 50 minutes, 1 cassette) --George Laney

From Library Journal
Despite a plethora of audiobooks with Plath reading from her own poetry, this one seems unique in that none of her standards are here. These are the poems, for the most part, written between The Colossus (Plath's first poetry book) and the posthumously published Ariel. She reads rapidly yet clearly, without bothering with titles, her voice throbbing, seeming to build up anger as she goes along. Its excellence notwithstanding, this is not a good introduction to Plath's work, so it is recommended only for libraries that already have her other audiobooks. The reading by Hughes is precisely the opposite--accessible to everyone, even if it doesn't showcase the writer's best works. Interweaving poems with memories of growing up in a small Midwestern town, of Harlem in the 1930s, or of the influence jazz had on his poetry, he illuminates the experience of African American life. Playfulness becomes a stand-in for anger as he looks back at being elected class poet because he "had rhythm" or working on the college newspaper and being assigned to cover fraternity and sorority life (which of course denied access to blacks). The tape would disappoint if it stopped here, but, as if anticipating contemporary needs, he closes with some acidic pieces on racial prejudice that validate both his experiences and those of the listeners; he died in 1967. Highly recommended.-Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Sylvia Plath ended her own life in 1963, and her reputation as a poet rests on the publication of three slim volumes of poetry. This program includes 22 poems, including "The Moon Was a Fat Woman Once" and "The Ghost's Leavetaking." Plath's voice was as I expected: sharp and intense. She reads her stormy poems with a precise pronunciation that emphasizes their emotions and the rhythms. Unfortunately, she does not identify any of the poems, nor does the publisher offer cuing information to help to locate a particular poem. P.B.J. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

-Philadelphia Inquirer
"Listening to her poetry - full of alliteration and liquid vowel sounds - is something like listening to music."

Book Description
" . . . a young woman who . . . rose from the dead to become, in ten driven years, the best - the most exciting and influential, the most ruthlessly original poet of her generation." -- John UpdikeOf the many American poets who reached her zenith in the last few decades, perhaps none looms so large as the legendary Sylvia Plath. Consummately crafted, Plath's poetry is stormy but luminous, sharp but poignant. This unique, compelling and intriguing recording has been heralded as "a significant tribute to and record of the lyric art that Sylvia Plath left to the literary heritage of America." (Booklist)Contents:The Ghost's Leavetaking November Graveyard On the Plethora of Dryads The Moon Was a Fat Woman Once Nocturne Child's Park Stones The Earthenware Head On the Difficulty of Conjuring up a Dryad Green Rock--Winthrop Bay On the Decline of Oracles The Goring Ouija The Beggars of Benidorm Market Sculptor The Disquieting Muses Spinster Parliament Hill Fields The Stones Candles Mushrooms Berck-plage The Surgeon at 2 A.M.

About the Author
To this day, Sylvia Plath's writings continue to inspire and provoke. Her only published novel, The Bell Jar, remains a classic of American literature, and The Colossus (1960), Ariel (1965), Crossing the Water (1971), Winter Trees (1971), and The Collected Poems (1981) have placed her among this century's essential American poets.Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, the first child of Aurelia and Otto Plath. When Sylvia was eight years old, her father died--an event that would haunt her remaining years--and the family moved to the college town of Wellesley. By high school, Plath's talents were firmly established; in fact, her first published poem had appeared when she was eight. In 1950, she entered Smith College, where she excelled academically and continued to write; and in 1951 she won Mademoiselle magazine's fiction contest. Her experiences during the summer of 1953--as a guest editor at Mademoiselle in New York City and in deepening depression back home--provided the basis for The Bell Jar. Near that summer's end, Plath nearly succeeded in killing herself. After therapy and electroshock, however, she resumed her academic and literary endeavors. Plath graduated from Smith in 1955 and, as a Fulbright Scholar, entered Newnham College, in Cambridge, England, where she met the British poet, Ted Hughes. They were married a year later. After a two-year tenure on the Smith College faculty and a brief stint in Boston, Plath and Hughes returned to England, where their two children were born.Plath had been successful in placing poems in several prestigious magazines, but suffered repeated rejection in her attempts to place a first book. The Colossus appeared in England, however, in the fall of 1960, and the publisher, William Heinemann, also bought her first novel. By June 1962, she had begun the poems that eventually appeared in Ariel. Later that year, separated from Hughes, Plath immersed herself in caring for her children, completing The Bell Jar, and writing poems at a breathtaking pace.A few days before Christmas 1962, she moved with the children to a London flat. By the time The Bell Jar was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, in early 1963, she was in desperate circumstances. Her marriage was over, she and her children were ill, and the winter was the coldest in a century. Early on the morning of February 11, Plath turned on the cooking gas and killed herself.Plath was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for her Collected Poems.