Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath

Paul Alexander's "Rough Magic"is an outstandingly sensitive account of Sylvia Plath's life. The enormous amount of research by Alexander is highly impressive and clearly comes through in his amazing book. Since the author spent over five years interviewing over two hundred people who knew Plath and or Hughes as well as reading most if not all of the available archival documents concrned with his subject, it's small wonder that "Rough Magic" is such a great biography. The description of her horrible ordeal in the chapter "Edge" should evoke sympathy and admiration for this highly talented woman who tried to cope against overwhelming odds of personal mental and physical sickness, harsh environment and separation from the man she loved. The strength of this is the great number of personal stories from Aurelia's numerous talks with Alexander, and so many other close friends of the author which range over much of Syliva's lifetime. I would strongly urge anyone who has even a modicum of interest in Sylvia Plath to beg, borrow, steal or even buy this book. It is one of the best biographies I have had the enormous pleasure and at times sadness in reading. Paul Branscombe

Paul Alexander wrote an ambitious book about the actor James Dean in which Dean is shown to have gotten ahead on his back, and liked doing so, while indulging in a passion for rough sex with just about anyone who took his fancy. Now Sylvia Plath is shown going the same route at about the same time, and for the first time her affair with the mysterious Richard Sassoon is given center stage and explored as perhaps the central love relationship in her life, which makes for a change from other biographies which dwell on Ted Hughes' inadequacies (or conversely on why Ted was so much a better man and poet than Sylvia was a human being), or on Sylvia's fear of Otto and her love hate thing she had with Aurelia. Paul Alexander's National Enquirer-style reporting may turn some heads, and may startle gentler souls, and in fact did we really need to hear all this about Sylvia's sexual masochism and taste for spanking? When it comes to moving to England, the book goes kind of Lucifer Rising with its deep focus on Ted's zodiac mysticism and Sylvia's picking up ghostly reverberations and getting her poetry from out of the air, like Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy cover or a leftover chapter from Cold Comfort Farm. It's great.

Thank you, Paul Alexander, for a complete and compassionate view of the life of the poet, artist, mother, wife--and sunbather!--Sylvia Plath. You put her heart, mind, and poetry (and how she arrived at that poetry) first, chapter after chapter, so that the reader could feel so very close to Sylvia. I read this book with a collection of Sylvia's poetry at hand, which made the read feel especially all-inclusive, and thorough. You did such a wonderful job of pinpointing the days on which Sylvia wrote certain poems, so that it was a pleasure to follow along and read those particular poems at the 'right time'. Sylvia grew up in print--having published her first poem at eight then continuing to publish poems year by year, until (well, and after) her death. I found so many of the details revealed in this biography fascinating (for instance, Ted's interest in the occult and hypnosis) and Sylvia's desires for "signs" when she was lost in her life. I appreciated that she felt she had received a sign from William Butler Yeats, given his own meanderings into the supernatural. If not for this book, I would not have been touched by her life. Many thanks for the years you must have put into bringing the book--and Sylvia--into existence. I am thankful that she gave so much of herself to the world, and that you've shown us a great deal of that Self, that heady poet and that very brave woman Sylvia Plath.

At long last, a biography of Sylvia Plath written by someone who refused to bow to the editorial demands of Ted & Olwyn Hughes, who unfortunately controlled the late poet's estate at the time. Choosing freedom of speech over permission to quote Plath's work, Paul Alexander has produced an extraordinary biography that reveals the true Sylvia Plath as a girl, woman, wife, mother, and most important, author. With interviews from friends and family who had never before spoken about Plath for publication, this is a book that any scholar of Plath's life and work should not miss.

I read this book for a research paper I did in high school almost five years ago and still check it out of the library every once in a while. Alexander does a tremendous job showing the reader Plath as a person and a poet, up to those last terrible days preceding her death. He goes through real conversations, focuses a lot on Assia Wevill and Ted Hughes, and holds nothing back. I recommend this book without reservation; it is a way to feel like you knew Plath, who unfortunately we will never see or hear from again.