Her Husband: Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath--A Marriage

I loved this book. Diane Middlebrook approaches the subject respectfully and without bias, which really brought it home for me. I found it interesting because it really discusses the ins and outs of the marriage between Plath and Hughes, focusing specifically on the creative connection they felt with each other. The book is organized chronologically in stages of the relationship. It's certainly not your typical biography. Middlebrook has a flowing writing style that made this book fun to read. You can tell she understands the importance of words--it shows in her analyses and also her own writing style. And yes, there is a lot of analysis in this book. Personally, I loved getting the psychological and emotional background behind the poetry. This was, I thought, one of the greatest things about the book. If you like studying poetry and literature like me, you will love this biography. If you are looking for something more thrilling and tawdry, I'd go watch the movie "Sylvia."

Anyone fairly acquainted with modern poets will of course stumble across the marital storyline of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. In biographies I look for accuracy, dynamic writing, and the ability to have the reader feel as though they are part of the history, albeit in the shadows, listening and breathing it in. This book does an informative and exhaustively researched job in presenting a human and heartbreaking rendering of Syliva and Ted. The bias is hesitant in assigning blame to one or the other, but hopes to show the frailty and humanity in both of these intelligent individuals, whilst keeping the history and richness of both parties personalities and their artistry keenly alive. At no point did I find this tedious to read and I had a great interest in the unraveling of their marriage and I sympathize with the holding power of these two, not only their love affair, but their power as poets. It's a lovely, engaging story at it's most primitive level and a fantastic analysis of two wonderfully creative souls and the forces that drove them together and incidentally cast them apart.

Having read just about everything on the Plath/Hughes partnership I have to say that Diane Middlebrook's book is simply the best in the lucid intelligence and even-handedness with which she tackles a subject which has hitherto excited a great deal of sensationalistic biography and shallow "analysis" . Her understanding of both poets' work and placement within the culture is a tour de force. I can't praise it highly enough!

Diane Middlebrook's book about the ill-fated marriage of poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes is an extraordinary combination of biography and literary criticism. Rather than focusing on Plath's depression and subsequent suicide, the author offers a valuable, unsentimental analysis of both their work and the influence they had on each other's lives and creative processes. She portrays Hughes, not as an egotistical, philandering husband who abandoned his wife and family, but as a man and a poet, struggling with his failed marriage. In fact, how marriages fail, and the men and women who fail in making their relationships work, are part of the book's central theme. Hughes' inspired and encouraged his wife's creativity, but he also contributed to the anguish which led to her suicide. Living with Sylvia Plath was not an easy task though. Her work, her life and her death profoundly changed Ted Hughes' perspective on his own life and work. Plath, more than thirty years after her death, has evolved into an icon of martyred feminism and is revered by her passionate following. Many believe that her tragic suicide was a result of the overwhelming societal demands placed on a woman/wife/mother/artist at the midpoint of the last century. However, Sylvia Plath is, foremost, one of the most brilliant poets of that century, with her roles as daughter, wife and mother taking second place to her art. Her death was a tragedy, not a personal statement or rebellion. Her history of mental illness, and the barbaric treatment she received for the disease, is a known fact. Her pain was a violent presence in her life, especially during the last months. There was nothing passive, quiet or calculating about it. Plath was a victim of her demons, perhaps the Furies, who finally claimed her. During his lifetime Hughes was very reluctant to disclose information about his turbulent relationship with his poet wife, especially about their break-up and her months alone with her two children during a terrible London winter. He explained his silence as wanting to protect his children. Finally, in 1998, "Birthday Letters" was published, a volume of verse-letters about his relationship with his wife. Weeks after publication Hughes died. In this volume, Hughes breaks his silence and responds to critics, scholars, and in a sense to Sylvia. This material provided literary scholars with the perspective they had lacked for so long. Hughes, at last, describes his struggle to love and live with a beautiful, talented woman suffering from serious clinical depression. Middlebrook draws heavily on the book, as well as Hughes' papers at Emory University, Sylvia Plath's journals and papers at Smith College, and an abundance of written material heretofore unavailable.Ms. Middlebrook also analyzes the profound effect both poets had on each other's work. She writes, "One of the most mutually productive literary marriages of the 20th century lasted only about 2300 days. But until they uncoupled their liv

Having read biographies and criticism about Plath for the past 15 years, this is the first book that gives an unsympathetic account of Plath and Hughes' lives as artists, as mentors to each other, and as a couple. If you are interested in Plath and Hughes as writers, not merely the circumstances surrounding Plath's suicide, then this is a book you must read. Middlebrook is a wonderful biographer. She gives insights into poems, intellectual interests and belief systems of Plath and Hughes. By the end of the book, I felt I had a more well-rounded view of their lives together, as well as Plath and Hughes as artists and individuals in their own right. Well done.