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  • Red Comet

  • The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
  • Written by: Heather Clark
  • Narrated by: Laura Jennings
  • Length: 45 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

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Red Comet

Written by: Heather Clark
Narrated by: Laura Jennings
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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
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What the critics say

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

What listeners say about Red Comet

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Goosebumps

Exhilarating and devastating. This book finally humanizes Plath in a way I haven’t seen before by illustrating her extreme highs and lows throughout life and her optimism for it. Here, she is not defined by death nor its implications. It’s already been said that she was the comeback queen but the incredible research done only demonstrates that further.

It is worth noting (and applauding) that Heather Clark does not insert any analyses of events in Plath’s life; the book remains a retelling of her life from a researched, empathetic and appropriately detached perspective all the way through.

Clark is an incredible writer and she has once again reminded of the person and genius that Plath was…just an amazing read overall.

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