On 7 May 2009, Faber will release two new editions of books by Plath: The Bell Jar and Selected Poems (selected and edited by Ted Hughes). These are part of their 80th anniversary editions. Here are the covers!
Sylvia Plath inspires us all in various and wonderful ways. She is in many respects a form of comfort to us, which is something that Esther Greenwood expresses in The Bell Jar , about a bath: "There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. Whenever I'm sad I'm going to die, or so nervous I can't sleep, or in love with somebody I won't be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: 'I'll go take a hot bath.'" We read and remember Sylvia Plath for many reasons, many of them deeply personal and private. But we commemorate her, too, in very public ways, as Anna of the long-standing Tumblr Loving Sylvia Plath , has been tracking, in the form of tattoos. (Anna's on Instagram with it too, as SylviaPlathInk .) The above bath quote is among Sylvia Plath's most famous. It often appears here and there and it is stripped of its context. But I think most people will know it is from her nove...
Wow - very retro. I look forward to them coming out.
ReplyDeleteP
I must say, I'm getting a little tired of ALL the Sylvia Plath poetry editions being selected/edited by Hughes.Not saying he didn't have a particular insight, obviously, just that other people's views could be very refreshing. Partly because they would be less defensive.
ReplyDeleteGORGEOUS!
ReplyDeleteI don't really read selected editions - preferring the collections assembled by the poet over anything else. Though, with Plath that's sometimes proven difficult since her most famous collection has two arrangements! And the whole mess with Crossing the Water and Winter Trees...
ReplyDeleteI think the covers are alright...
The selected editions are a fine introduction to Plath's work. Why the "whole mess" with CTW and WT?
ReplyDeleteDoes Hughes' non publication of Plath's Ariel still rankle after so long? and after Plath's Ariel was published?
They are both interesting works in their own right but equally lovely and if they allow people into some of the lesser known poems particularly Plath's poetry about children.
We have the CP if you do want the whole lot and it's terrific to see all the mature work , but I don't think the SP should be dismissed.
Hi Suki,
ReplyDeleteCrossing the Water and Winter Trees appear and read differently depending on which edition you read (Harper's versus Faber). As The Colossus appeared in different editions (Heinemann/Faber and Knopf), I guess Hughes did his best in editing these volumes of transitional and late poems, but the selections make for a different reading.
I agree that selected editions can be a fine introduction to Plath. I'd feel differently had Plath been able to select the poems herself, but that obviously wasn't the case.
To a certain degree I think that the different Ariel's is still a sensitive subject - but I'm still surprised at the relative quiet about the "Restored" Ariel - I just think with the stink that was raging through the 1980s its publication as Plath intended should have been bigger.
I think that one of the reasons for the quiet about the Resored Ariel was that in the intervening years, we have had Plath's Collected Poems which is a much bigger work.
ReplyDeletePeople are also able to read Ted Hughes and Plath together in poems like Pig/ Sow You Hated Spain/ the Goring and so on, allowing the reader to get a much broader picture of two great poets of the 20 th century.
This is not to say that the Restored Ariel wasn't worth it, I really liked having the Restored Ariel with(Plath's) spring ending. Just that it's part of a much bigger work.
Similiar, perhaps, to seeing that Colossus didn't come out of nowhere but in fact that Plath had worked at poetry for years.
I think too that Hughes' Birthday Letters answered some criticism there.