Bloom's Modern Critical Views - Sylvia Plath (2007) (259p) [Inua].pdf

Title: Sylvia Plath (Bloom's Modern Critical Views)
Editor: Harold Bloom
Series: Bloom's Modern Critical Views
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Chelsea House Pub (L); 2 Updated edition (February 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0791094316
ISBN-13: 978-0791094310

Description:
Sylvia Plath's short life and intense poetry continue to draw considerable critical and popular attention. Among her more recognizable works are the poetry collection "Ariel" and the novel "The Bell Jar". Her suicide and tumultuous marriage to Ted Hughes, as well as his choices in posthumously publishing some of her work (and not publishing other parts of it) add to the mystery of Plath's life, and are documented in this newly updated "Bloom's Modern Critical Views" title. This book offers readers fresh perspectives on a writer whose highly personal oeuvre continues to fascinate more than 40 years after her tragic death.

In each of these volumes, five poems are represented in critical essays by literary analysts both past and contemporary. Robert Browning highlights "My Last Duchess," "Fra Lippo Lippi," "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," "Andrea del Sarto," and "Caliban Upon Setebos." Sylvia Plath features "The Colossus," "The Arrival of the Bee Box," "Daddy," "Ariel," and "Lady Lazarus." The main texts are prefaced by brief but informative biographies of the poets and conclude with bibliographies of works by and about them as well as indexes of important themes and ideas from the poems. Each volume is divided into sections, one for each poem, and each section begins with Bloom's thematic analysis of the work. This information, given in a straightforward style, will be helpful to students. Because the essays are written by scholars, however, the language is often dense and hard to grasp for all but the most advanced high-school literature students. With their academic approach and language, these research and study guides would be best used in school libraries that support intensive literary research on the precollege or Advanced Placement level.
- Toni D. Moore, Simon Kenton High School, Independence, KY