Sylvia Plath, under the pen name Victoria Lucas, published this, her only novel in 1963 and a few years later, a despondent and broken woman, Sylvia Plath killed herself in her London apartment by asphyxiation. The story and the tragedy speaks to my heart for the many women who suffer from a major depressive disorder and can't find a lifeline to save themselves from utter despair.
Wikipedia provided this description of the overlap between reality and fiction:
"The book contains many references to real people and events in Plath's life. Plath's real-life magazine scholarship was at Mademoiselle magazine beginning in 1953.[1] Furthermore, Philomena Guinea is based on Plath's own patron, Olive Higgins Prouty, author of Stella Dallas and Now, Voyager, who funded Plath's scholarship to study at Smith College. Plath was rejected from a Harvard course taught by Frank O'Connor.[2] Dr. Nolan is thought to be based on Plath's own therapist, Ruth Beuscher, whom she continued seeing into adulthood. A good portion of this part of the novel closely resembles the experiences chronicled by Mary Jane Ward in her autobiographical novel The Snake Pit; Plath later stated that she'd seen reviews of The Snake Pit and believed the public wanted to see "mental health stuff," so she deliberately based details of Esther's hospitalization on the procedures and methods outlined in Ward's book. Plath was actually a patient at McLean Hospital, an upscale facility which resembled the "snake pit" much less than certain wards in Metropolitan State Hospital, which may have been where Mary Jane Ward was actually incarcerated."
In searching for "blog material" I found an interesting NY Times Book Review of Sylvia Plath's husband's work, Ted Hughes' Birthday Letters. This work, reportedly a collection of poetry written about their relationship, and over a long period of time, provoked a rather skeptical review from Katha Pollitt. She does not see Britian's poet laureate and accomplished author as the doting lover that he espouses, as she reviews his book of poetry about his perception of his relationship with Sylvia Plath she muses he might be trying to correct history. Pollitt suggests Hughes didn't really deliver the rose garden that he promised to Plath and that Birthday Letters might be as far from a work of reality as The Bell Jar is a work of fiction.
And, as a footnote, Frieda Hughes, the daughter of Plath and Ted Hughes is herself an accomplished writer, painter and after years of trying to avoid it, a poet.
Discussion group questions are suggested at: ReadingGroupGuides.com
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