the Silent Woman

Is it ever possible to know 'the truth' about Sylvia Plath and her marriage to Ted Hughes, which ended in her suicide?

In The Silent Woman, Janet Malcolm examines the biographies of Sylvia Plath, with particular focus on Anne Stevenson's Bitter Fame, to discover how Plath became an enigma in literary history. Blending investigative prowess with a personal touch, Malcolm delves deep into biographers' lives to uncover the motives behind their work.

The Silent Woman is a brilliant, elegantly reasoned inquiry into the nature of biography and its flaws and destructive qualities, which sheds light on the origins of Plath's legend and its unwavering hold on our imagination.