Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath

published	2003 by Anchor
binding	Paperback
isbn	1400035007 (isbn13: 9781400035007)
pages	336
description	This engrossing début novel depicts Sylvia Plath’s feverish artistic process in the bitter aftermath of her failed marriage to Ted Hughes—...more [close] This engrossing début novel depicts Sylvia Plath’s feverish artistic process in the bitter aftermath of her failed marriage to Ted Hughes—the few excruciating yet astoundingly productive weeks in which she wrote Ariel, her defining last collection of poems. In December 1962, shortly before her suicide, Plath moved with her two children to London from the Hughes’s home in Devon. Focusing on the weeks after their arrival, but weaving back through the years of Plath’s marriage, Kate Moses imagines the poet juggling the demands of motherhood and muse, shielding her life from her own mother, and by turns cherishing and demonizing her relationship with Ted. Richly imagined yet meticulously faithful to the actual events of Plath’s life, Wintering is a remarkable portrait of the moments of bravery and exhilaration that Plath found among the isolation and terror of her depression
date added	02-28-07 edit book

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | more...

discuss this book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

friend reviews (0)

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 209)

Becky rated it:

03/06/08

Read in October, 2003

recommends it for: Plath/Hughes fans

As someone who has studied Plath's life and work for a long time, I was intrigued by the notion of someone having taken on Plath, Hughes, and their friends and families as characters for a novel.

The chapters of Wintering are each titled after one of Plath's Ariel poems, in the original sequence Plath had planned for the book -- the manuscript was to begin with the word "love" and end with the word "spring." Wintering author Kate Moses has clearly done...more As someone who has studied Plath's life and work for a long time, I was intrigued by the notion of someone having taken on Plath, Hughes, and their friends and families as characters for a novel.

The chapters of Wintering are each titled after one of Plath's Ariel poems, in the original sequence Plath had planned for the book -- the manuscript was to begin with the word "love" and end with the word "spring." Wintering author Kate Moses has clearly done a lot of excellent research -- this is apparent even before you get to her notes at the back of the book. Readers who are familiar with Plath's life and work will find the characters' thoughts and the book's settings dressed with details from Plath's poems, journals, and letters -- the six jars of honey, the "lurid skins" of balloons that appear in an Ariel poem.

It is on this level that Wintering succeeds as "A Novel of Sylvia Plath." Kate Moses has immersed herself in the wealth of material that's out there, by and about Plath, and has produced a crystalline snowglobe world out of what had been chunks and fragments.

It's also interesting that the novel appears not to take sides. Plath and Hughes are human, each with strengths and flaws. Even Dido Merwin and Assia Wevill are fleshed out, rather than left as flat villains of the piece.

But herein lies what dissatisfied me about Wintering -- there doesn't seem to be any villain. Or, if a villain, per se, isn't necessary, there's no fire, no thrill, none of the crash and bang and intensity one gets from reading Plath's actual writing, whether it's her poems or journals. Apart from one scene in which a delirious Plath hears strange voices on the telephone and seems to see carrion birds in her house, there is no hint of her irrationality and demanding nature (aspects of her personality that have been under debate for decades, as to whether they really existed) or her intensity (which was an undeniable Plath trait).

Even though I was largely dissatisfied with the book (far too many of us Plath fans feel like we own her), there's no denying Kate Moses' achievement. Her creation is believable and incredibly detailed, especially the descriptions of life at Court Green (as idyllic and bucolic as I ever imagined it myself), the interactions of the Plath and Hughes characters (both as newlywed writers goading each other to produce, and as an estranged couple), and Plath's isolation during the winter in London, as she cares for her two young children.

I'm giving the book only three stars because, though I feel Plath fans will enjoy it, I can't imagine a casual reader picking it up and pushing all the way through to the end. As far as I'm concerned, a good biography of Plath is still much more interesting, especially with the mystery of "What was going through her head that day?" Though Moses has imagined that in a believable way, the mystery of not knowing is still more interesting.

The glory of Wintering is in the details -- details that have been picked up from primary source material: the poems, letters, and journals of Sylvia Plath. ...less

Like this review? yes

title link
avg rating
small image
med image
large image

Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath

discuss this book

friend reviews (0)

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 209)

book data (includes all editions)

blog this book

popular shelves

other editions