Her Husband: Hughes & Plath—a Marriage

Kliatt, Jan, 2005 by Bernard Cooperman

HER HUSBAND: HUGHES & PLATH--A MARRIAGE. Diane Middlebrook. 2003. Read by Bernadette Dunne. 8 tapes. 11.5 hrs. Blackstone Audiobooks. 0-7861-2651-5. $56.95. Vinyl: content, author notes. SA

Emeritus Stanford University Professor Middlebrook's extraordinary presentation of the troubled six-year marriage of the poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes has been criticized for being overly kind to the latter and for not sufficiently highlighting the victimization of the former. But this is, I think, to ignore the point of departure of the book and the reason for its success: rather than rehashing the guilt and/or innocence of these two individuals, Middlebrook has treated us to a stimulating discussion of the conscious self-fashioning of two powerful artists.

Almost miraculously, Middlebrook gets behind the endless discussions of personality and guilt to remind us that poetry is a calling, that people of talent struggle endlessly to invent and master their craft, and that the nobility of artistic creation can redeem (though never erase) the sordid and sad details of real life. Even if you have never read Hughes and know Plath only from The Bell Jar, by the end of this audiobook you will want to go out and read all their poetry again and again. Dunne's reading is delightful and fills both the narrative and the poetry with vitality. Bernard Cooperman, Assoc. Prof., Univ. of MD, College Park, MD

S--Recommended for senior high school students.

A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.