Absolutely superb.

This is a remarkable piece of work that delves into the realm of biography meta. It investigates the subject, along with its practices and impossibilities, by zeroing in on the biographies and the biographers of Sylvia Plath. And, as is inevitable, it involves Ted Hughes in all sorts of ways.

I have always been fascinated by biography, perhaps even regarding it as a black art. But I have a particular love for a good literary biography. So, it comes as no surprise that I was completely glued to every single page of this work. (Although, I must admit, the metaphor of being "glued" is such a bad one that I can't even begin to defend it.)

In conclusion, I highly recommend this piece to anyone with an interest in biography, literature, or the complex lives of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. It offers a unique and insightful perspective that is sure to captivate and engage the reader.

The most even-handed of the bios on Plath and Hughes is truly a remarkable piece.

Malcolm makes a genuine effort to uncover the full story without taking sides. It is refreshing to encounter such an approach.

Since most Plath bios tend to portray her as a simpering victim of Hughes' cruelty, which was most assuredly not the case.

Malcolm's work offers a more balanced perspective, delving into the complex relationship between the two poets.

By presenting both sides of the story, she allows readers to form their own opinions.

This bio is a valuable addition to the literature on Plath and Hughes, providing a more accurate and nuanced understanding of their lives and relationship.

It serves as a reminder that there are always multiple perspectives to consider when examining the lives of historical figures.

Sometimes the physical movement or narrative progression can impose limitations on her capacity to convey a point. It might even enable her to present an argument without any real stakes. A significant portion of the exegesis is nearly glossed over. Malcom selects the points of connection that drive the sequence of events forward, rather than those that could be debated or closely examined. As a result, the moments of analysis seem somewhat incomplete, despite the book being a homage to that very analysis. Her goals remain rather unclear to me.

Beginning with the Stevenson personal connection, there is a bit of a non sequitur. How does Malcolm fit into all of this? Why her specifically? At times, her presence seems to contradict her own questioning, yet she doesn't fully reflect on this disruption.

Also, I find myself wondering if her mission, which is to reflect on or dismantle the concept of biography through Plath's biography, would be more fruitful after the key players have passed away. Could she more effectively examine what we have demanded from the living once they are no longer among us? Does this create the necessary distance for her interrogation, or does it cease to be a scholarly and accurate biography at that point?

These are all thought-provoking questions that linger in my mind as I engage with her work.

Decepcionada: creí, erróneamente, que se trataba de una nueva biografía de SP.

Sin embargo, es más bien un paper en el que se analizan las diversas biografías de la poeta y los problemas entre su familia y los biógrafos.

Es decepcionante porque estaba esperando una obra que profundizara en la vida y la obra de SP, pero en su lugar encontré un análisis crítico de otras biografías.

No lo recomiendo en absoluto, ya que no cumple con mis expectativas.

Quizás para aquellos que estén interesados en el estudio de la bibliografía y la crítica literaria pueda ser útil, pero para mí, que buscaba una biografía más personal y detallada, no sirve para nada.

Me ha dejado con un sabor amargo en la boca y me ha hecho dudar si seguir leyendo obras relacionadas con SP.

It has been more than a year since I last delved into any literary criticism. And this particular piece presented a truly fascinating perspective on the genre of biography.

It was evident that Malcolm had a leaning towards a certain side, which she openly acknowledges as an inevitability. However, what makes her work truly engaging is her in-depth exploration of bias within the realm of biography.

Rather than simply writing a traditional biography about the deceased, she opts to focus on the people who surround the subject of the biography. This unique approach allows for a more nuanced and multi-faceted understanding of the biography as a whole.

Overall, this literary criticism provided a refreshing and thought-provoking look at the genre of biography, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying the read.

Outstanding.

It is truly unlike anything else I’ve ever read. It has definitely sparked a profound interest in more of Malcolm’s writing.

This work is essentially a meta-biography. It offers a fascinating critique of the genre of biography. It does so by carefully investigating the existing biographical efforts concerning Plath and Hughes.

Moreover, it touches on important aspects such as epistemology and psychoanalysis. All of these elements are weaved together effortlessly through an emotionally compelling narrative.

The way Malcolm presents her ideas and analyses is both engaging and thought-provoking. It makes the reader want to delve deeper into the subject matter and explore the works of both Plath and Hughes.

This meta-biography is a remarkable achievement that not only provides valuable insights into the lives of these two important literary figures but also challenges the traditional ways of writing biographies.

A Biography about Biographies and the Sylvia Plath Cottage Industry

What is truth? This is a fundamental question when it comes to biographies. The responsibility of the biographer often conflicts with the irresponsibility of the journalist. While the reasoned, 'truthful', and'responsible' biography may seem paint drying dull or dishwater dull compared to the salacious memoir. The case of Sylvia Plath adds an extra layer of complexity as she presented so many versions of herself, so many'selves'.

I, a relative newcomer to the Legend that is Plath and Hughes/Hughes and Plath, studied Hughes for A Level and tried The Bell Jar at 19, but truly loved it at 47. I worry that the mystique of Plath, including her suicide and the fact that her only novel (and poetry) is about darkness and despair, is part of my love. She is like a Jim, Jimi, Janis, Sid and Nancy, Kurt, or Amy figure.

This book unearths the essential 'unlikableness' of Plath. She wasn't really very nice. The Bell Jar charts this, from being witty (sexy) at the beginning to unwashed and bitchy at the end, making her unlikable. We perhaps shouldn't write biographies when there are relatives to be wounded. And Malcolm's book seems to have its cake and eat it too. This book, which blurbs like it'll be desert dry, actually skips along like detective fiction (literary detective fiction, of course!). It's truly brilliant.

I've always been intrigued by Sylvia Plath ever since my teenage years, which led me to read numerous books about her. Recently, I picked up a particular literary criticism that truly left a profound impression on me. Not only was the writing style captivating, but also the insights it provided regarding the concept of biography and autobiographical writing were thought-provoking.

Who has the ultimate authority to determine the facts about a person's life and works? What moral dilemmas emerge from the publication of diaries and letters? This book was penned in the early 1990s when Ted Hughes was still alive. The author details his interactions with Hughes and his sister, who was handling his literary estate at that time.

It's truly fascinating to contemplate what becomes of a writer's legacy after their demise, especially when they pass away at a tragically young age like Plath. Many of the individuals interviewed for this book have likely passed away by now, making it an interesting time capsule of those who were intertwined in the Plath-Hughes narrative.

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¿A quién le pertenece Sylvia Plath? The plot of the famous essay by Janet Malcolm, The Silent Woman, centers on the intense conflict between the biographers of Plath and the Hugheses after the publication of Ariel in 1965, the posthumous collection of brilliant and dark poems about death that catapulted Sylvia Plath to the pantheon of Literature.

Janet Malcolm attempts to restore the name of Ted Hughes, the victim of disgrace after Sylvia's suicide on February 11, 1963 by turning on the gas in the kitchen of her apartment. Her still husband Ted Hughes had just begun an adulterous relationship with the artist Assia Wevill, with whom he was traveling in Spain, while Sylvia was taking care of their two young children in London during the coldest winter in decades, dealing with bills and getting up every morning to write the poems that would consolidate her literary fame. She was 30 years old.

After Ted had been the target of the furious criticism of Plath's biographers for decades, a situation to which he tried to respond by exercising an ironclad control over his copyrights on Sylvia's works, in the early 1990s Janet Malcolm proposed to write this essay to articulate, through a detailed review of some of the most controversial moments in the written history of the Plath-Hughes marriage, her own criticism of the genres of biography and literary criticism, which in her opinion are victims of the subjectivity of their authors, of imprecisions that end up being established as dogma, of opinions that are elaborated until they are taken as facts. Who decides what is the objective truth of the biographee?

Where do the images we have of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes come from?

Are they shaped by their writings, the profound marks their work has left behind? Or perhaps by their way of living, the manner in which they acted and presented themselves in the outer, actual, and factual world?

Maybe the image we have of both of them, separately and as a famous couple, is rather constructed by their biographers. But what exactly is a biography?

Who can, and may, call himself a biographer? Can a biographer truly be truthful? And what about a biography itself?

Doesn't it often reveal more about the biographer than about the subject of the biography?

Can one even write a biography about biographies? And if so, how much of it should be biographical? How much of it should be true?

How much of it should be sensational to attract readers? How much of it should be about its author? And how much of it should be about the reader?

Finally, and perhaps most intriguingly, who should be most silent in this complex web of biographical exploration?

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