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Sylvia Plath: Drawings
Catalogue to accompany the "Sylvia Plath: Her Drawings" exhibition at The Mayor Gallery (2nd November - 17th December 2011).
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
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1961 people want to read
About the author
Sylvia Plath
280 books28.5k followersSylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer, widely regarded as one of the most influential and emotionally powerful authors of the 20th century. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she demonstrated literary talent from an early age, publishing her first poem at the age of eight. Her early life was shaped by the death of her father, Otto Plath, when she was eight years old, a trauma that would profoundly influence her later work.
Plath attended Smith College, where she excelled academically but also struggled privately with depression. In 1953, she survived a suicide attempt, an experience she later fictionalized in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. After recovering, she earned a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Newnham College, Cambridge, in England. While there, she met and married English poet Ted Hughes in 1956. Their relationship was passionate but tumultuous, with tensions exacerbated by personal differences and Hughes's infidelities.
Throughout her life, Plath sought to balance her ambitions as a writer with the demands of marriage and motherhood. She had two children with Hughes, Frieda and Nicholas, and continued to write prolifically. In 1960, her first poetry collection, The Colossus and Other Poems, was published in the United Kingdom. Although it received modest critical attention at the time, it laid the foundation for her distinctive voice—intensely personal, often exploring themes of death, rebirth, and female identity.
Plath's marriage unraveled in 1962, leading to a period of intense emotional turmoil but also extraordinary creative output. Living with her two children in London, she wrote many of the poems that would posthumously form Ariel, the collection that would cement her literary legacy. These works, filled with striking imagery and raw emotional force, displayed her ability to turn personal suffering into powerful art. Poems like "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" remain among her most famous, celebrated for their fierce honesty and technical brilliance.
In early 1963, following a deepening depression, Plath died by suicide at the age of 30. Her death shocked the literary world and sparked a lasting fascination with her life and work. The posthumous publication of Ariel in 1965, edited by Hughes, introduced Plath's later poetry to a wide audience and established her as a major figure in modern literature. Her novel The Bell Jar was also published under her own name shortly after her death, having initially appeared under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas."
Plath’s work is often classified within the genre of confessional poetry, a style that emphasizes personal and psychological experiences. Her fearless exploration of themes like mental illness, female oppression, and death has resonated with generations of readers and scholars. Over time, Plath has become a feminist icon, though her legacy is complex and occasionally controversial, especially in light of debates over Hughes's role in managing her literary estate and personal history.
Today, Sylvia Plath is remembered not only for her tragic personal story but also for her immense contributions to American and English literature. Her work continues to inspire writers, artists, and readers worldwide. Collections such as Ariel, Crossing the Water, and Winter Trees, as well as her journals and letters, offer deep insight into her creative mind. Sylvia Plath’s voice, marked by its intensity and emotional clarity, remains one of the most haunting and enduring in modern literature.
Plath attended Smith College, where she excelled academically but also struggled privately with depression. In 1953, she survived a suicide attempt, an experience she later fictionalized in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. After recovering, she earned a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Newnham College, Cambridge, in England. While there, she met and married English poet Ted Hughes in 1956. Their relationship was passionate but tumultuous, with tensions exacerbated by personal differences and Hughes's infidelities.
Throughout her life, Plath sought to balance her ambitions as a writer with the demands of marriage and motherhood. She had two children with Hughes, Frieda and Nicholas, and continued to write prolifically. In 1960, her first poetry collection, The Colossus and Other Poems, was published in the United Kingdom. Although it received modest critical attention at the time, it laid the foundation for her distinctive voice—intensely personal, often exploring themes of death, rebirth, and female identity.
Plath's marriage unraveled in 1962, leading to a period of intense emotional turmoil but also extraordinary creative output. Living with her two children in London, she wrote many of the poems that would posthumously form Ariel, the collection that would cement her literary legacy. These works, filled with striking imagery and raw emotional force, displayed her ability to turn personal suffering into powerful art. Poems like "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" remain among her most famous, celebrated for their fierce honesty and technical brilliance.
In early 1963, following a deepening depression, Plath died by suicide at the age of 30. Her death shocked the literary world and sparked a lasting fascination with her life and work. The posthumous publication of Ariel in 1965, edited by Hughes, introduced Plath's later poetry to a wide audience and established her as a major figure in modern literature. Her novel The Bell Jar was also published under her own name shortly after her death, having initially appeared under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas."
Plath’s work is often classified within the genre of confessional poetry, a style that emphasizes personal and psychological experiences. Her fearless exploration of themes like mental illness, female oppression, and death has resonated with generations of readers and scholars. Over time, Plath has become a feminist icon, though her legacy is complex and occasionally controversial, especially in light of debates over Hughes's role in managing her literary estate and personal history.
Today, Sylvia Plath is remembered not only for her tragic personal story but also for her immense contributions to American and English literature. Her work continues to inspire writers, artists, and readers worldwide. Collections such as Ariel, Crossing the Water, and Winter Trees, as well as her journals and letters, offer deep insight into her creative mind. Sylvia Plath’s voice, marked by its intensity and emotional clarity, remains one of the most haunting and enduring in modern literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
February 24, 2019
It sounds kind of funny to say, but this book makes me so happy. There is such a gulf between a poem and a drawing: a poem exists in time, whether you choose to read it out loud or not, it passes through phases, from beginning to middle to end, then curtsies and takes its exit from the room until such time as you choose to reread it. It is an event, a process, a happening: birth, lifespan, death. At its finish: curtains. But a drawing exists less in time than in space, and it sits there patiently for as long as you choose to look at it, so you bring your eyes and your brain to bear on first one part and then another, moving over its planes at leisure the way one strolls through a pleasure park. It doesn't hurry away from you. Unlike a poem, it is not forever rehearsing its own goodbye. And when these contrasts coalesce around someone like Sylvia Plath, whom we associate so inextricably with the rush through life toward death, the act of discovering and rediscovering her drawings, as few as they are, cannot help bring joy. It means we get to keep her somewhat longer.
One thing that mesmerizes me about Plath's work, both the writings and the drawings, is how different it all is from the myth of her. Her real personality is here, in these drawings as in her poems, for us to appreciate if we are willing. Her personality: what makes her not me and not you. In these drawings, we can see a major part of her personality was a love of architecture, and all that architecture means: solidity, durability, three-dimensional substance with sculpted surfaces, perhaps the most vital genre of human achievement since we can live inside its walls and under its roofs -- in fact, must. I think you can see this in her poems, too -- their sculptured forms, their interest in creating something that outlives and outlasts. This is not what we think of when we think of her myth, but these drawings insist we recognize it, recognize that what absorbed her such that she would spend hours painstakingly conjuring it in both pictures and words was this clash of human achievement with the erosions of time, these cracks and sags where a country manor roof confronts the corrosive atmosphere. To borrow a phrase from an Annie Sloniker story, the valiance of that. We are reminded she was not so interested in the transient: even her portrait of Ted Hughes is more about the architecture of his face and hair than, say, the evanescent wink or smile. The fleeting infatuation, the soon-over sexual embrace: that was not what interested her most, her drawings and poems seem to say.
We talk a lot about Plath's shadows, and there are gorgeous shadows in these drawings, true, but also -- highlights, details, textures, faithfully rendered. She put a lot into each of these drawings so that there's a lot for us to get out of them -- our eyes could wander their crevices for afternoons upon afternoons. No shingle in this roof is quite like any of the others. The this-ness is more important here than the idea(l). They were her footholds and can be ours. Yes, what gets me in the end is the industriousness of her drawings (as of her poems), which on all levels celebrate industry, human industry -- slowing down, being patient, delaying gratification, being willing to put in the work. This was her work, and she wanted to do it so badly, it overflowed from one art form into another.
One thing that mesmerizes me about Plath's work, both the writings and the drawings, is how different it all is from the myth of her. Her real personality is here, in these drawings as in her poems, for us to appreciate if we are willing. Her personality: what makes her not me and not you. In these drawings, we can see a major part of her personality was a love of architecture, and all that architecture means: solidity, durability, three-dimensional substance with sculpted surfaces, perhaps the most vital genre of human achievement since we can live inside its walls and under its roofs -- in fact, must. I think you can see this in her poems, too -- their sculptured forms, their interest in creating something that outlives and outlasts. This is not what we think of when we think of her myth, but these drawings insist we recognize it, recognize that what absorbed her such that she would spend hours painstakingly conjuring it in both pictures and words was this clash of human achievement with the erosions of time, these cracks and sags where a country manor roof confronts the corrosive atmosphere. To borrow a phrase from an Annie Sloniker story, the valiance of that. We are reminded she was not so interested in the transient: even her portrait of Ted Hughes is more about the architecture of his face and hair than, say, the evanescent wink or smile. The fleeting infatuation, the soon-over sexual embrace: that was not what interested her most, her drawings and poems seem to say.
We talk a lot about Plath's shadows, and there are gorgeous shadows in these drawings, true, but also -- highlights, details, textures, faithfully rendered. She put a lot into each of these drawings so that there's a lot for us to get out of them -- our eyes could wander their crevices for afternoons upon afternoons. No shingle in this roof is quite like any of the others. The this-ness is more important here than the idea(l). They were her footholds and can be ours. Yes, what gets me in the end is the industriousness of her drawings (as of her poems), which on all levels celebrate industry, human industry -- slowing down, being patient, delaying gratification, being willing to put in the work. This was her work, and she wanted to do it so badly, it overflowed from one art form into another.
"It gives me such a sense of peace to draw; more than prayer, walks, anything. I can close myself completely in the line, lose myself in it."
December 26, 2024
با هر تصویر شگفتزده میشدم که سیلویا چقدر استعداد داشته. همهی نقاشیها در حدی بودن که انگار آثار یه نقاش حرفهای باشن.
January 31, 2015
It is always fascinating to see how artists in various mediums engage other mediums for which they are not primarily known (i.e., painters writing poems or poets drawing pictures). This slim volume gives a reader a handful of drawings done during perhaps the happiest years of Sylvia Plath's short life, 1956-57, when she and Ted Hughes were newlyweds. Even so, it is impossible to look at these drawings without considering her later incandescent stage of writing the poems that went into her masterpiece collection, Ariel. I found the drawings competent but not anything really spectacular (they are certainly much better than her daughter Frieda Hughes' paintings, which I find ghastly). The handful of letters that mention her drawing activity are not particularly illuminating or even well written, and the introduction by Frieda Hughes (the poet's daughter) is decidedly (and understandably, given her family's sad history of suicides) stoic and so offers little insight into how Plath's drawing intersected with her writing, if at all. Having said that, I do like the way the black-and-white ink drawings isolate objects in a starkness I very much associate with Plath. But this is Plath-the-ever-good-student and not the rebellious genius she would become. In fact, I wonder if there were any drawings done during the furious stage when she was writing the poems that went into Ariel, and if those weren't destroyed by Hughes whether they contrast sharply with these early drawings. Final note, this is a very quick book to burn through and so satisfies one's curiosity before the drawings become repetitive.
Here is Sylvia Plath sketch, Ted Hughes, from 1956; pen and ink on paper, 21.5 x 14 cm:
Here is Sylvia Plath sketch, Ted Hughes, from 1956; pen and ink on paper, 21.5 x 14 cm:
February 22, 2016
Apanhados de desenhos de Plath "emoldurados" com poesia, diário e cartas escritos e esboçados durante o primeiro ano de casamento com Ted Hughes.
April 2, 2016
Sylvia Plath's simple gaze in art is inversely proportional to her complex view in poetry.
December 12, 2018
I loved this so much.
January 26, 2014
I loved this book. It was a new view of Sylvia Plath, for me anyway, and it was a good idea to couple the drawings with letters and journal entries for a sense of context and of Plath's creative process. And I absolutely loved the drawings themselves. It's my understanding that, after one exhibition at a privately owned gallery in the UK, Plath's daughter split up the collection and sold the drawings separately to the private collections of random people. This seems like an ill-considered decision. I hope, at least, someone will consider making prints of these works--there are a few I would love to be able to hang on my walls. Until then, I suspect I'll be returning to the art in this book again and again.
February 7, 2017
It was really interesting to see this side of Plath. I had no idea she could draw, but I'm not at all surprised. Her talent continues to amaze me.
Read
June 20, 2023Beautiful collection. Having to read through the letters she sent to her bastard of a husband was painful but I persisted.
Read
January 4, 2018[isto não tem pretensão de ser uma resenha. é apenas um compilado de informações e minhas impressões (predominantemente da primeira carta do livro) fora de ordem que quis registrar]
Sylvia Plath foi recepcionista de clínica psiquiátrica em 1958. Suicidou-se em 1963, quase dez anos depois da sua tentativa. Em 1956, apaixonadíssima por Hughes, 24-25 anos, descrevia pesadelos recorrentes em sua correspondência, mas desejava mais 3/4 de século de vida junto do marido. Nessa mesma carta, mencionava com entusiasmo a leitura de ensaios psiquiátricos sobre gênios maníaco-depressivos e esquizofrenia. Está voltando a desenhar com entusiasmo, mostra uma devoção amorosa um tanto excessiva, idealizada. Há certa felicidade quando discorre sobre o que é relacionado a Hughes, mas também há inadequação quando fala das pessoas em seu entorno: "é tão estranho esse sentimento de anormalidade que me invade quando estou longe de você". Costela de Adão, dependência do seu próprio sentido do ser alicerçada no outro. Conta como consegue divertir essas garotas que a rodeiam e manter os trejeitos de uma pessoa sã de modo mecânico, porém convincente. Desenhou vacas que talvez sejam touros. Não tem fome, em estranho declínio, mas se empanturra. Adia o sono para adiar os pesadelos. Fala da necessidade da rotina para alegrar-se um pouco. Começa a manter certa disciplina com suas obrigações. Tem ambições para o futuro. Recolheu um cardo e um dente de leão durante suas caminhadas e os desenhou amorosamente. O ato de desenhar a deixa calma e concentrada. Flerta com o existencialismo - acabou de ler um livrinho de Sartre recomendado por Hughes. Acabou de escrever um conto sobre uma mulher sem sonhos.
Sylvia Plath foi recepcionista de clínica psiquiátrica em 1958. Suicidou-se em 1963, quase dez anos depois da sua tentativa. Em 1956, apaixonadíssima por Hughes, 24-25 anos, descrevia pesadelos recorrentes em sua correspondência, mas desejava mais 3/4 de século de vida junto do marido. Nessa mesma carta, mencionava com entusiasmo a leitura de ensaios psiquiátricos sobre gênios maníaco-depressivos e esquizofrenia. Está voltando a desenhar com entusiasmo, mostra uma devoção amorosa um tanto excessiva, idealizada. Há certa felicidade quando discorre sobre o que é relacionado a Hughes, mas também há inadequação quando fala das pessoas em seu entorno: "é tão estranho esse sentimento de anormalidade que me invade quando estou longe de você". Costela de Adão, dependência do seu próprio sentido do ser alicerçada no outro. Conta como consegue divertir essas garotas que a rodeiam e manter os trejeitos de uma pessoa sã de modo mecânico, porém convincente. Desenhou vacas que talvez sejam touros. Não tem fome, em estranho declínio, mas se empanturra. Adia o sono para adiar os pesadelos. Fala da necessidade da rotina para alegrar-se um pouco. Começa a manter certa disciplina com suas obrigações. Tem ambições para o futuro. Recolheu um cardo e um dente de leão durante suas caminhadas e os desenhou amorosamente. O ato de desenhar a deixa calma e concentrada. Flerta com o existencialismo - acabou de ler um livrinho de Sartre recomendado por Hughes. Acabou de escrever um conto sobre uma mulher sem sonhos.
January 7, 2021
Esse livro reúne esboços e desenhos feitos por Sylvia Plath entre 1956 e 1957. Nessa época, a autora vivia — escondida — seu primeiro ano de casamento com o também poeta Ted Hughes. O motivo de tanta discrição tinha que ver com o medo de Plath perder sua bolsa Fullbright caso soubessem que ela não era mais solteira e com o de duvidarem de sua disposição aos estudos (em detrimento da vida conjugal) no momento em que ela galgava posições acadêmicas.
Acho fascinante ver como um artista se expressa em outros meios. Nos desenhos de Plath, acompanhado de cartas pessoais que os contextualizam, entrevemos a alegria, a melancolia, o olhar aos detalhes, o humor, a introspecção: atributos que caracterizam a autora. Observamos, também, diversos elementos biográficos sobre os quais Plath viria a compor “A redoma de vidro”, publicado originalmente sob o pseudônimo Victoria Lucas, em 1963 — um mês antes de suicidar-se.
Acho fascinante ver como um artista se expressa em outros meios. Nos desenhos de Plath, acompanhado de cartas pessoais que os contextualizam, entrevemos a alegria, a melancolia, o olhar aos detalhes, o humor, a introspecção: atributos que caracterizam a autora. Observamos, também, diversos elementos biográficos sobre os quais Plath viria a compor “A redoma de vidro”, publicado originalmente sob o pseudônimo Victoria Lucas, em 1963 — um mês antes de suicidar-se.
January 6, 2015
La meva primera aproximació a la Sylvia Plath a través de les seves cartes i dibuixos. Es tracta d'entrar a la seva vida privada, coneixent-la d'una manera més íntima. Reflecteix, principalment, la felicitat de l'autora durant el seu matrimoni secret amb Ted Hughes i la seva lluna de mel a París i Espanya.
Una preciositat.
En aquest context resulta molt il·lustrativa l'entrevista a ella i al seu marit, gravada l'any 1961 per la BBC:http://www.brainpickings.org/2013/07/... (less)
Una preciositat.
En aquest context resulta molt il·lustrativa l'entrevista a ella i al seu marit, gravada l'any 1961 per la BBC:http://www.brainpickings.org/2013/07/... (less)
Want to read
August 31, 2019I have no idea where to find this book. I'm having such a hard time using the ISBN to search. Any ideas?
UPDATE: Nevermind! It looks like this ISBN is for a very specific copy and there's a different US version?
UPDATE: Nevermind! It looks like this ISBN is for a very specific copy and there's a different US version?
May 25, 2025
“Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.”
This is such a precious book that I can’t believe I stumbled upon on accident!! The combination of letters, poems and journal entries accompanying her beautiful drawings just made this such an experience to read. Honestly felt like a window into her real life rather than the tragedy of its ending.
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.”
This is such a precious book that I can’t believe I stumbled upon on accident!! The combination of letters, poems and journal entries accompanying her beautiful drawings just made this such an experience to read. Honestly felt like a window into her real life rather than the tragedy of its ending.
September 1, 2022
ela parece tão feliz falando dos desenhos 🥹
June 17, 2024
RIP Sylvia Plath (*) You would looooove Lana Del Rey.
September 19, 2020
Cartas da Sylvia Plath acompanhadas de desenhos que ela mesma fez
Sensível, e meio triste. Os desenhos são lindos.
Sensível, e meio triste. Os desenhos são lindos.
June 14, 2016
The unknown that becomes known, a gift.
September 27, 2022
Sencillo y al mismo tiempo elaborado
September 16, 2017
Para fãs de Sylvia Plath. Há alguns poemas de grandes força e melancolia, além de cartas à mãe e trechos de diários. Mas o que mais chama atenção nesse livro são os desenhos da autora. São "retratos" realistas e detalhados e esboços, a nanquim e lápis, de lugares por onde passou, de pessoas e objetos isolados. São belos desenhos. A ressalva fica para as palavras de Plath que mencionam o marido e também poeta Ted Hughes, em poemas e cartas. São palavras de carinho, de profunda admiração. É incômodo porque Hughes foi um marido abusivo, alguém que contribuiu decisivamente para a piora do quadro depressivo de Plath, levando-a ao suicídio, aos 30 anos.
July 1, 2020
Short read. I'm a Sylvia Plath fan. Her life is so tragic. I wish I could have helped her. I've read her poetry and The Bell Jar. I did not know she enjoyed sketching. It was nice to see a different side to her. I enjoyed observing her sketches.
If you enjoy Sylvia Plath's poetry, you'll probably enjoy her sketches. Context and descriptions of the sketches are also provided.
If you enjoy Sylvia Plath's poetry, you'll probably enjoy her sketches. Context and descriptions of the sketches are also provided.
January 10, 2021
Compuesto por cartas a Ted Hughes y a su madre, y por numerosos dibujos. Muestra a una Sylvia Plath distinta a lo que se la conoce. Una Sylvia alegre que mediante sus dibujos cuidados muestra su día a día y sus viajes.
February 16, 2023
The sickening (to me) and debilitating (to her) nature of her young love is displayed in these letters. How eager she is to offload her accomplishments and take up residence in him. Ah, yes. I’ve felt the same. Drawn by the combined lure of congress/scent and a lack of self esteem/self awareness.
August 8, 2018
why was she good at everything?
December 20, 2018
Livro lindo e muito sensível que me fez querer ler A Redoma de Vidro ainda mais.
September 11, 2024
Me ha hecho especial ilusión y cariño encontrar uno de los libros que me faltan de Sylvia en París✨
Desde luego es precioso y la sección de los dibujos en España (🩵🩵🩵🩵)
Desde luego es precioso y la sección de los dibujos en España (🩵🩵🩵🩵)
December 21, 2024
"Do write and stand by."
June 12, 2022
What a great little book. It’s inspired me to re-read Plath’s journals and The Bell Jar, my favorite book of all time.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews