Review by Booklist Review
Plath and her indelible writings have been subjected to a veritable hurricane of commentary. The storm seems to be subsiding, and although it does leave devastation in its wake--the unfair vilification of poet Ted Hughes, Plath's husband, the father of their two children and the holder of the copyright to Plath's writing--it has also kept Plath's work in the public eye, and it has inspired the publication of this treasure: the original manuscript for Plath's masterpiece, Ariel. As Frieda Hughes, a poet and an artist, explains in her set-the-record-straight foreword, her mother left behind a manuscript of 40 poems ordered by a table of contents as well as around 30 more poems written in what Frieda calls the Ariel voice. When Ted Hughes published Ariel, he replaced and rearranged poems, editorial decisions that have been harshly criticized. Now, finally, readers can see Plath's actual manuscript in this handsome facsimile, which provides a missing piece in the Plath annals and proves that there's nothing like going to the source. --Donna Seaman Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Along with withholding (or allegedly destroying) one of Plath?s journals after her death in 1963, Plath?s husband, the late English poet laureate Ted Hughes, brought out a version of her second and final book of poems, Ariel, that differed from the manuscript she left on her desk. That edition?for which Hughes dropped 12 poems, added 12 composed a few months later, shifted the poems? ordering and included an introduction by Robert Lowell?has become a classic. The present edition restores the 12 missing poems, drops the 12 added ones, and prints the manuscript in Plath?s own order, followed by a facsimile of the typescript Plath left, along with a foreword by Plath and Hughes?s daughter Frieda Hughes (Wooroloo), several hand- and typewritten drafts of the book?s title poem and notes by David Semanki. The original manuscript?s contents have been widely known since Hughes published them in the 1981 Collected Poems, but there is an undeniable thrill to reading Plath?s book as she left it?the lacerating ?The Rabbit Catcher,? left out of the Ted Hughes edition, comes third here, with its rhyme of ?force? with ?gorse,? the flowers of which ?had an efficiency, a great beauty,/ And were extravagant, like torture.? As to whether this version is a better book, only time will tell. For now, despite Frieda Hughes?s repeated references to her father?s respect for Plath?s work, tally another shot in the Plath wars. (Nov. 9) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Review by Library Journal Review
Among the most acclaimed literary titles of the last half-century and a canonical example of what became known as Confessional poetry, Ariel, as it was published in 1965-66, did not follow the plan of Plath's manuscript as she had left it just before her suicide in 1963; instead, it was substantively edited by her estranged husband, poet Ted Hughes. This was not widely known until 1981, when Hughes included Plath's original table of contents in the notes to her Collected Poems; it was revealed that up to 13 poems had been excised and others not in the manuscript substituted in their stead. This volume at last presents Ariel in its original form, heretofore available only to scholars working in the Plath archive at Smith College; included are facsimiles of Plath's typescript, handwritten drafts of the title poem, and the poet's own radio commentary on her work. In a frank foreword, Frieda Hughes expresses dismay at the "possession" of her parents' troubled relationship by critics. She defends her father against charges that his emendations were self-serving while noting that the restored Ariel captures her mother's voice "in the act of revenge." Alas, the publication of this "other" Ariel will no doubt sustain the Plath/Hughes controversy for years to come, but we can be grateful for the insights provided by this restored edition. For most academic libraries and for public libraries where Plath is popular. [For more on this book, see "Plath As She Was," p. 82.-Ed.]-Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
