Red Comet

The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath

By: Heather Clark

Narrated by: Laura Jennings

Length: 45 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize Finalist

The highly anticipated biography of Sylvia Plath that focuses on her remarkable literary and intellectual achievements, while restoring the woman behind the long-held myths about her life and art.

“One of the most beautiful biographies I've ever read." (Glennon Doyle, author of number one New York Times best seller, Untamed)

With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, Heather Clark brings to life the brilliant Sylvia Plath, who had precocious poetic ambition and was an accomplished published writer even before she became a star at Smith College. Refusing to read Plath’s work as if her every act was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark considers the sociopolitical context as she thoroughly explores Plath’s world: her early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife; her troubles with an unenlightened mental health industry; her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes; and much more.

Clark’s clear-eyed portraits of Hughes, his lover Assia Wevill, and other demonized players in the arena of Plath’s suicide promote a deeper understanding of her final days. Along with illuminating readings of the poems themselves, Clark’s meticulous, compassionate research brings us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail that still lights the way for women poets the world over.

©2020 Heather Clark (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

A New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year • Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the LA Times Book Prize • A New York Times Notable Book • Named a Book of the Year: O, the Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Boston Globe, Literary Hub, The Times (London), The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, and The Times of India • Winner of the Biographers' Club Slightly Foxed Prize for Best First Biography

“Mesmerizing . . . Comprehensive . . . Stuffed with heretofore untold anecdotes that illuminate or extend our understanding of Plath’s life . . . Clark is a felicitous writer and a discerning critic of Plath’s poetry . . . There is no denying the book’s intellectual power and, just as important, its sheer readability.” —The New York Times

“A majestic tome with the narrative propulsion of a thriller. We now have the complete story.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“An exhaustively researched, frequently brilliant masterwork. . . . It is an impressive achievement representing a prizeworthy contribution to literary scholarship and biographical journalism.” —The Washington Post

One of the most remarkable biographies ever

This is a remarkable and well researched biography about the total personhood, daughter, woman, scholar, poet, wife and mother who was Sylvia Plath.

Sylvia Plath was a great loss.

She would’ve been a great President, but her artistic sensibility probably would have gotten in the way, which is unfortunate. The most passionate, creative women do not usually choose politics as a field of endeavor. This is our ongoing loss as a civilization.

This book stayed with me. Excellent listen!

I didn’t know what to expect with this book purchase, not knowing a lot about Sylvia Plath. I found it so interesting and sad. Although the book is really quite long, I didn’t want it to end. Makes me want to learn more about her and her work.

Brilliant

The narration was a bit robotic but other than that this was utterly compelling. Inspiring and timely work of cultural and literary analysis.
More like this please!.

Great book, poor performance

Excellent biography and literary analysis. Compelling and enlightening description of how politics and the prevailing view of a woman’s place affected the brilliant and ambitious Plath. The performance was awful: words mispronounced often, such as the word poem consistently read as pome. Very annoying. I will never buy an Audible book read by this performer again.

Outstanding portrait of an entire era through a single life

With the detailed inclusion of biographical, literary, and sociopolitical history including the anti-immigrant WW2, anti-democratic Cold War, and pervasive misogynistic tendencies in both US and UK, as well as specifics of the failings of psychological/psychiatric care during Plath’s lifetime, the biographer presents a massive document of an extraordinary life and tragic death. The pronunciation flaws of the narrator are utterly annoying. Repeated mispronunciations of “row” as in an argument (as opposed to row as in a boat), plus La Leche League reference pronounced “La Lekay League” as well as dozens of others, and the awful poetry readings are such a shame. This 45-hour piece could be cleaned up and become impeccable because the book is worthy of a perfect recitation.

One of the best biographies that I've come across

You don't need to be a hardcore Sylvia Plath fan to enjoy this audiobook, long as it is. I knew little about her and was completely blown away by her story.

Author Heather Clark's aim was to "trace Plath’s literary and intellectual development, rather than her undoing,” “to recover Sylvia Plath from cliché”, “to examine her life through her commitment, not to death, but to art.” In other words, the book focuses on her powerful artistry, rather than on her suicide, which sadly is what a lot of people know her for.

Plath was a prodigy who began writing poems at the age of 8. She gained recognition in a period in history in which female poets were generally overlooked. The book follows Plath’s progress through her work and the events that influenced it. There is an amazing amount of detail here from her diary, which makes the listening experience so much more immersive.

Clark writes about her subject from many angles, certainly from one of admiration, but is also unafraid to address Plath's excesses, such as her obsession with achievement. The poet struggled with mental illness, was hospitalized and given shock and insulin treatments, which scarred her for life. This biography suggests that such treatment, provided by male psychiatrists in what's described as "Eisenhower’s brutally conformist America", didn’t so much seek to alleviate Plath’s anxieties, but rather to punish her for breaking conventions and showing the kind of ambition that was then considered "unfeminine". This is all proposed very soberly, without a trace of sensationalism.

The biography also explores Plath's romantic relationships, including that with her husband, the celebrated British poet, Ted Hughes, the way that they inspired and complemented each other, but also the rivalry and contention that they shared. I was moved by their poetry and was left with a deep feeling of awe and a sense of beauty.

I think Laura Jennings' warm voice is perfect for the narration of this audiobook. She does a really wonderful job.

This is the Plath biography the world's wanted...

...since 1963. Past works about Plath and Plath's own posthumous publications have had to overcome the self-serving, deferential or vengeful perspectives and elisions of those who knew her or could use her. Heather Clark's is the first to give the detail and breadth to make some sense of this tragedy. In the last chapters, I felt anger and tears. I am certain if I'd known her, I'd have loved &/or hated Plath as those who knew her did.

The depth of the research that was done.

I liked including her poems but would have liked more. I especially would have liked the whole poem of “Daddy.”

Read Red Comet

A good, long journey through the life and work of Sylvia Plath. An intimate, detailed accounting of one of our greatest poets.