What finally persuades the reader are Alexander's use of statements made by Plath: 'Sylvia also said Hughes made an admission: he and Assia had speculated that, in light of her past emotional problems, Sylvia might already have killed herself. From his first mention of Hughes, his violence, power and promiscuity are emphasized. Alexander's theory that stress brought on sinusitis which then-he quotes a letter by Plath-'plunges me in manic depression' is only believable as a partial explanation.Īt the end of the biography, Alexander does quote Gloria Steinem's suggestion that 'Plath was an early prophet who described a societal problem by describing her own suffering.' What has made The Bell Jar so significant is conceivably that the constriction of freedom inherent in a woman's life was brought home to Plath during her Smith years and intensified by her infamous month at Mademoiselle.Īlexander unflinchingly targets Plath's husband, Ted Hughes, as a major factor in her suicide. Plath's experiences at Smith College prior to her breakdown are unnervingly familiar to any active undergraduate-the stress and tension of academics, time-consuming extracurriculars, trouble balancing social life, concerns over money and scholarships.

Plath responded to these evaluations by alternating between bouts of depression and celebration. Thereafter, the publishing world offered Plath both rejection slips and awards. Soon after accepting two poems, the New Yorker offered her a first-reading contract. Her persistence through 10 years of New Yorker rejection slips was finally rewarded. Her desire not just to write but also to publish, expressed at a young age, is startling in its intensity.įrom the age of eight, when her first poem was printed in the Boston Herald, Plath began awaiting the mailman with baited breath, her talent perpetually on trial.

In the first half of her short 30 years, Plath endured the rending death of her father a trusting but also accusatory relationship with her mother and numerous, and at times traumatic, experiences with love and sex. On the other hand, the Hughes estate would probably have excised many of Alexander's overly simplistic generalizations.Īdmittedly, Plath's story lends itself to soap opera. Had the book been dependent on the approval of the estate, Alexander would never have been able to make the convincing argument that Plath's stormy marriage had a direct, if not causal, relationship to her suicide. Paul Alexander is the first biographer to write without the permission of the Hughes estate, and from this stem both the book's weakness and its strength. Rough Magic is a gripping, exhaustively researched study of the ever-fascinating Sylvia Plath.

Rough Magic by Paul Alexander