The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath

But those looking for juicy insights about the Plath/Hughes marriage will be disappointed. Most critics have assumed that Ted Hughes supervised a sizable number of omissions to protect his own maligned reputation. Ironically, there is little here that alerts the reader that her self-loathing is anything but momentary and passing. After a rejection from Frank O'Connor's prestigious fiction writing workshop at Harvard, Plath's psyche takes a nosedive into a destructive, clinical depression, which culminated in her first suicide attempt.

But then suddenly her excitement turns to self-beratement and recrimination. The ambitious Plath was able to snag scholarship after scholarship, build an impressive list of poetry and fiction publications, as well as win her famous summer guest editorship (really more of an internship) at Mademoiselle magazine (the summer that forms the basis of her celebrated novel The Bell Jar). You want him yet you remember: 'Once a woman has intercourse she isn't satisfied.' 'You need time and security for full pleasure.' 'You'll be finished at Smith.'' It's enlightening to read her many frankly feminist comments concerning the ghastly double standard that plagued men and women: 'You sound ridiculous. The most fascinating thing about these early letters is Plath's vibrant sexuality many of the cuts in the previously published journal concern Plath's rather frank discussions of Fifties sexual mores and her curious experimentation. We encounter the self-dramatizing, exuberant college girl of 1950, excitedly describing her latest batch of clothing and the prospect of a blind date from Yale.

The contents of these journals range from the touching to the exasperating. The editor seems to assume that anyone reading these journals will have a thorough knowledge of the life of Sylvia Plath - unfortunately, there is no chronology in the book. The manuscripts are printed practically verbatim and the organization of the book is difficult to follow. While the book includes many interesting passages, there is also a great deal of superfluous detail that could only excite the most dedicated Plath fan. Kukil, the supervisor of the Plath collection at Smith College, has presented a selection of journals featuring more than 400 previously unpublished pages. He has also confessed to destroying a crucial volume of Plath's journal that covered the remaining few weeks of her life. Apparently, Hughes excised too much from the journals (his harshest critics sense this was done to protect his own reputation). In 1982, Plath's widower Ted Hughes and Frances McCollough edited an abbreviated version of the journals that drew much hostility from fans and critics alike. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath is not the first collection of her journals to make it into print.

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath