Once again, Sylvia Plath's pen delivered to me what I love: a great deal of the sea and a great deal of sadness.

It was also strange and wonderful, overwhelming and as if taken straight out of my head.

I will never cease to be amazed by what she has created. Her works have this unique power to touch the deepest recesses of our emotions. The way she describes the sea, it's as if we can feel the salty breeze and hear the crashing waves. And the sadness she portrays, it's so palpable that it makes us reflect on our own lives.

Sylvia Plath's writing is a true masterpiece, and I feel privileged to have discovered it. It has opened up a whole new world of emotions and experiences for me, and I can't wait to explore more of her works.

The rating is 3.5 out of 5.

I really love Sylvia.

I took my time with this task.

I think on the one hand, it was because I didn't want to be done too quickly. There was a certain allure and depth in it that made me reluctant to rush through.

On the other hand, Plath's writing is not easy to digest. Her words are like a complex web, filled with hidden meanings and emotions that require careful examination and thought.

Despite the challenge, I loved it, especially the first part. It had a captivating quality that drew me in and made me eager to explore further.

The way she crafted her sentences and the vivid imagery she used left a lasting impression on me.

I found myself constantly going back and rereading certain passages, trying to fully understand the nuances of her writing.

It was a truly rewarding experience, and I look forward to delving deeper into her work in the future.

I started reading this book because I wanted to understand more about the metaphors and themes that Plath made very personal. I first thought of reading the Complete Diaries, but I preferred something shorter and seemingly, at first glance, more condensed. And yes, reading this compilation helped me understand more about her poetry, since all her literature is autobiographical in a sense.

As it is well mentioned, it is an anthology of stories, essays, and extracts from her diary. Starting with what I liked least: the extracts, as they are often long descriptions and events of her life that are somewhat interesting. It overwhelmed me to have to read a succession of images that made me stumble through the reading.

Then the essays, as far as I remember there are only three, the one dedicated to the memory of her grandparents' house by the sea, the one dedicated to her intention as a poet, and another about the origin of poetry. The first one in particular I liked more, as it summarizes like a story the topics that run through her poetry and her own stories, and then the second one, which informs us that hers is spontaneity.

And finally her stories, which populate most of the book. In Hughes' epilogue it is related that Sylvia had difficulty writing prose, and she even discarded some of the stories that are available in this compilation. The one I liked most, "Cutie and the Canal Men", is one of her discarded ones. It is the most cryptic of all the stories, as mysticism and feminism appear as metaphors, with the eldest daughter of the marriage being the tool with which the protagonist directs her offensive against the concept of the Western family. "Among the Bumblebees" is another of my favorites, where the topic of the father is present and allows us to clarify the admiration that the writer had for her father, an admiration that involved her own vitality. Of the stories that she accepted, "The Daughters of Blossom Street" is in my opinion the best, where again the topic of death and feminism appears in the form of sisterhood and of a weak and seemingly homeless young man in the community. Another of my favorite stories are "Mothers, Charlie Pollard and the Beekeepers", "The Fifteen-Dollar Eagle", "The Box of Dreams", and "In the Mountains". In summary, the most mystical stories are the ones I liked the most, they are also the most characteristic.

In a certain summary, and if it can serve someone to understand Plath, the topics that abound most in her literature are:

-The father, provider of the home and of its strength. Plath shows a mixture of fear and respect, being aggressive towards others but attentive towards her. In poems like "Daddy" I have read that a negative image of him is often conceived, since Plath assimilates him to a Nazi, but that has more to do with his bad temper and his excessive power.

-Nature, which we could say is reflected in her father, who represents death. The sea and the forests show brutality with their descriptions of darkness and power to carry everything away in their path like her grandparents' house on the coast. It is, as we can see, very different from the life reflected in many other writers.

-Feminism and machismo, as in "The Fifteen-Cent Eagle" where a woman is able to disrupt the entire male atmosphere of a small tattoo parlor, in "In the Mountains" where the protagonist's boyfriend shows his machismo by being jealous of others but weak and fearful in front of his closest ones, or in the stories where the male protagonist -clearly a reenactment of Ted Hughes, her ex-husband- is someone apart from his family and on whom all the apprehensions of the protagonist fall. In the only events where the protagonists are seen without their armor is when the man is their love interest.

-Mysticism, where the protagonists have an intimate bond with their environment, such as connecting with just a look with an aggressive girl in "Cutie and the Canal Men", an intense interest in the dreams of the patients of a hospital and a terrifying ending in "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams", and the intrusion in the reading of a gloomy atmosphere and reflection of the events of a couple in "In the Mountains". As I understand it, Plath was knowledgeable in tarot and astrology.

In short, "The Box of Dreams" is a good read and a good summary of Sylvia Plath's originality. I like it when I learn new ways of doing literature, and this book helped me clarify many doubts.

**"The Dialogue Between My Writing and My Life"**

The dialogue between my Writing and my Life always runs the risk of becoming a serpentine transfer of responsibility, of evasive rationalization. In other words, I justified the chaos of my life by saying that I would give it order, form, and beauty by writing about it.

This extract belongs to the entry that Plath wrote in her diary hours before meeting Hughes. In that same entry, she aspired to meet an adult in Cambridge whom she could admire and was torn between the dilemma of being alone and focusing on her writing, her readings, and her studies or falling in love with someone.

"The Box of Desires" is an excellent approach to both the work and the personality of the author, both inseparable. Although it lacks the visceral quality that her poetry conveys, one can see in it a way of opening up and pausing to analyze the reality that surrounds her. However, I would only recommend this book to those who are devoted admirers of Plath and wish to deepen their understanding of her figure. To read the great Plath, in my opinion, it is better to turn to her poetry and, if her work enamors you, to her Diaries.

One last observation. Nórdica libros is a publisher that I love. Thanks to it, I read "Forgiveness", "The House of the Blind Lookout", or the illustrated version of "Three Women" by Plath. I have always considered their editions to be careful and exquisite. However, I don't know what happened in this volume as the number of errors that I have detected has been so extremely high that it has grated on my reading on many occasions. I hope that in the next reprints they will take care of these details.

**"A Look at Silvia's Wonderful Collection of Stories"**

Silvia's collection of stories is truly a gem.

The titles themselves are captivating. There's "Камени дечак с делфином" (The Stone Boy with the Dolphin) at 2⭐, which immediately piques our curiosity.

At 3⭐, we have a diverse range like "Орао од петнаест долара" (The Eagle for Fifteen Dollars), "Ћерке улице Блосом" (The Girls on Blossom Street), and many more. Each title seems to hint at a unique story within.

The 3.5⭐ story "У планинама" (In the Mountains) makes us imagine the beauty and solitude of the mountain landscapes.

The 4⭐ stories are equally enticing. "Џони Паника и Библија снова" (Johnny Panic and the Bible Again) and "Кутија за жеље" (The Box of Wishes) among others, promise to take us on different emotional journeys.

The 5⭐ stories are like the crown jewels. "Америко! Америко!" (America! America!), "Дан када је умро господин Прескот" (The Day Mr. Prescott Died), and the others are likely to be profound and thought-provoking.

Most of these stories share common themes such as the symbol of the moral and the ocean, human relationships, the mentality of a society, events from childhood, nostalgia, growing up, and sometimes even situations that shed light on the position of women and their relationships. Silvia appears to be a collector of moments, as she manages to capture the small thoughts and events that many of us experience but are unable to analyze deeply and understand their significance for our lives. I think with these stories, Silvia has achieved just that, which many artists struggle with on a daily basis.

Page 72.

I'm just finding it not funny. Maybe I'll come back to read it one day. It could be that the content on this page didn't quite catch my interest at the moment. There might be various reasons for this. Perhaps the writing style didn't resonate with me, or the jokes didn't land as expected. However, I'm not ruling out the possibility of giving it another chance in the future. Sometimes, our perspectives can change, and what didn't seem amusing before might suddenly strike a chord. So, for now, I'll set this page aside and look forward to the day when I might pick it up again and discover something new and interesting within its words.

My collection was interesting because the personality of Sylvia Plath is interesting to me, and in a large part of her stories, there is a strong autobiographical element.

Purely literarily, it didn't please me as much as I had hoped, but the translation by Nadezhda Radulova is a pleasure to read.

Sylvia Plath's works often explore themes such as mental illness, depression, and the search for identity. Her writing style is unique, with vivid imagery and powerful emotions.

Although some of the stories in the collection may not have been to my personal taste, I still appreciate the skill and artistry that went into them.

The translation by Nadezhda Radulova is excellent, capturing the essence of Plath's writing and making it accessible to a wider audience.

Overall, I would recommend this collection to anyone interested in Sylvia Plath or in exploring works with a strong autobiographical element.

Every day, from nine to five, I am seated at my desk, facing the door of the office. There, I type up other people's dreams. But it's not just dreams. That wouldn't be practical enough for my bosses. I also type up people's daytime complaints. There's trouble with mother, trouble with father, trouble with the bottle, the bed, and the headache that pounds and blacks out the sweet world for no known reason. Nobody comes to our office unless they have troubles, troubles that can't be pinpointed.

This is my second encounter with Plath in a week. However, this time, I have put the poetry aside and chosen this collection of short-stories, journal entries, essays, and lesser-known prose writings. Some of these were published posthumously by Ted Hughes. Many of the features offer an insight into Sylvia's life, thoughts, and feelings. Any serious Plath fan would find much to like here, although a few stories are a little bit unusual. Some pieces are witty and lively, but the darkness that plagued her mind always seems to be lurking around the corner. At least, that's the impression I got.

One thing is for sure, it's easy to get addicted. She had the ability to capture readers with a flick of a switch.

My Highlights -

'The fifteen-dollar eagle'

'Sweetie Pie and the gutter men'

'Johnny Panic and the bible of dreams'

'The day Mr. Prescott died'

'The daughters of Blossom Street'

'Widow Mangada'

I feel an overwhelming sense of guilt as if I have betrayed my beloved queen Sylvia by reading this book. It was never meant to be published in the first place. However, as devoted fans, we have an insatiable hunger for anything that our favorites create, even if it is posthumously and without their consent. The short stories within the book are decent, but unsurprisingly, my absolute favorite parts were the excerpts from Sylvia's journals. The eponymous story, "Johnny Panic," is truly excellent. It is unsettling, funny, and dark - all the themes that the other stories project with varying degrees of success. Nevertheless, I simply couldn't shake off the feeling that Sylvia would be disappointed that these writing exercises or attempts have made their way into the world.

"But you said God..." I protested feebly. Mother overrode me. "God will let it happen." I understood then that she was attempting to give me the missing piece of the puzzle that I had not possessed. The shadow in my mind lengthened as the night blotted out our half of the world, and beyond it, the whole globe seemed to be sunk in darkness. For the first time, the facts were not skewed in Mother's favor, and she was allowing me to see it. "I don't think there is a God, then," I said dully, without any feeling of blasphemy. "Not if such things can happen." "Some people think that," my mother said quietly.

I deserve that, don't I, some sort of blazing love that I can live with.

Love is like jumping from a twenty-story building.

It's like a noose around the neck.

A knife in the heart.

Love can bring such intense emotions and experiences that it feels as if one is taking a huge risk, just like jumping from a great height. The comparison to a noose around the neck emphasizes the sense of entrapment and the power that love can have over a person. And the image of a knife in the heart shows the pain and hurt that can come with love. It can be a double-edged sword, bringing both joy and sorrow. Love is a complex and often overwhelming emotion that can change a person's life forever.

Whether it leads to happiness or heartbreak, it is an experience that many people are willing to take on, despite the risks.

It is a force that can make us feel alive and passionate, or it can leave us feeling broken and defeated.

But in the end, it is a part of the human experience that we cannot escape.

As a huge Sylvia Plath fan, this book held great interest for me for a multitude of reasons.

Several of the stories, especially the title story, are fantastic stand-alone short stories that can be enjoyed without any prior knowledge of Plath's work. They have their own unique charm and literary merit.

However, for me, the truly fascinating aspect was delving into some of her shorter works and observing the recurring themes and motifs that also surface in her poetry and "The Bell Jar". References to Lazarus, for instance, are numerous. "Lady Lazarus" is indeed a masterpiece, and it's one of the few poems that I can vividly recall a significant portion of. This connection between her different works was truly captivating.

While I found the journal excerpts to be perhaps a bit redundant considering the extensive publication of her journals already, I did take pleasure in the few excerpts from her time at Cambridge, as well as the Cambridge-based short story. As Cambridge is my home, it was both lovely and slightly strange to envision one of my all-time favorite writers traversing the same streets that I do.

Overall, this is an interesting collection that I believe plays an important role in establishing Plath as a significant writer in her own right, rather than just being overshadowed by her tragic suicide. It offers a more comprehensive view of her literary talent and contributions.