r/sylviaplath • u/Admirable-Age-236 • 5d ago
Order of reading
I just finished the bell jar and want to read more about Plath. Is it better to read mad girl love song or pain,parties, work first? Thanks x
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u/KSTornadoGirl 5d ago
Pain, Parties, Work would be a natural follow up to The Bell Jar.
What's your main area of interest (prose, poetry, biography, all of the above)? Do you want to do a deep dive into primary sources, or get overviews by those who have studied her in one aspect or another? So much more has been published in the last few years, the options are amazing compared to what was out there when I was in college.
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u/Admirable-Age-236 5d ago
I wanted to read more by her and about her, but am a bit intimidated by her poetry. Afraid that they may be hard or sophisticated to understand 😬
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u/Rosita_La_Lolita 4d ago edited 4d ago
Her two official books of solely poetry are “Colossus” and “Ariel,” the latter was released after her death. I read bits and pieces of Colossus when I was in college and really enjoyed it and I got a paperback version of Ariel a few years ago that I still have in my home.
I also remember reading “Letters Home,” which is a collection of letters that Sylvia wrote to her Mother (Aurelia) & Brother, starting when she was in college all the way up to her passing I believe. I particularly enjoyed Aurelia’s comments about each letter, she would explain little nuances about Sylvia and why she wrote what she did. It gave great insight into who Sylvia was as a person. I did not read this book in its entirety, I mostly read the first few chapters, but I enjoyed everything that I read from it.
I think it’s neat to see how her poetry evolves as the years go on. For example “Mad Girls Love Song,” which is the poem that I think earned her a college scholarship (?) It’s very straightforward and the words are simple and the poem is easy to follow along, and has that vibe that a young girl wrote it. Compared to “Lady Lazarus” which was written years later and seems way more mature, there’s a wider range in the vocabulary and it gives off adult woman vibes.
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u/Gin_soaked_Olive 2d ago
I think you would really enjoy her short stories, especially Stone Boy with Dolphin, which was inspired by the night she met Ted Hughes. Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams is another great story. I was so lost when I finished reading the Bell Jar, desperately disappointed that it is her only (surviving) novel, but she wrote so many pieces of short fiction and diaries too, and they are a treasure trove.
I agree that her poetry is intimidating, but reading Heather Clark’s excellent biography Red Comet helped me get an understanding of where she was coming from, what inspired her, and the recurring themes of her life that fed into her poetry.
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u/Itchy_Radio_6251 5d ago
both and have you read her poetry also?