This an intense book, filled with strong, intimist and caustic poetry.

But, even though it was on Sylvia Plath's desk when she commited suicide, this is not a sad book. It's not a book about depression, or even a depressing one. Plath is mostly remebered about "Lady Lazarus", "Daddy" and "Edge", and it seems that her life was all about these three poems...but thankfully, this restored edition shows us this is a book about many aspects of herself. Now we are reading what Plath wanted us to read...wanted us to feel. She takes un by the hand into her realm.

We can feel all the love she felt for her kids in the poem "Morning Song"; see her sensuality in "Fever 103º"; sense the freedom in "Ariel" and see her caustic anger in "Lesbos". No, Sylvia Plath's poetry is not just about sadness and suicide...it's about life, and all the experiences inside it, written with her unique style: raw, confessonal, slightly narcisistic.

Frieda's introduction is also very interesting and elightining. Any Sylvia Plath fan should read, specially the people who still have this ludicrous idea that Ted Hughes was her utmost enemy. He wasn't - he made mistakes. He hurt her. He was human. And so was she. A human and a great poet, who did not need someone else's betrayal or supposed abuse to write intense poetry. All that intensity, all that passion was inside herself. ( )

I'm very proud of how Freida Hughes handled this manuscript. As a long time "fan" of Plath's work I could not ask for anything more then this concise, definitive, un-edited version of Ariel. ( )

The confessional women poets of the 50s and 60s like Sexton and Plath are the star witnesses desired by feminists to prove the inequalities of sex. However such critics tend to also feel uneasy about the personae of such poets. As Adrienne Rich said at the memorial of Anne Sexton, ‘we have had enough suicidal women poets… enough self-destructiveness.’ Similarly, this restored version of Ariel evokes divided feelings.

After Plath’s suicide, the manuscript of Ariel was found by her husband, Ted Hughes, who consequently rearranged the poems for publication. Plath had spoken of Ariel as beginning with the word ‘love’ and ending with the word ‘spring’, an arrangement evocative of a movement towards hope. Hughes’ arrangement denied such hope and instead concluded with bleaker poems such as Edge: ‘The woman is perfected/ Her dead / Body wears the smile of accomplishment’.

More at this weblink: http://www.readysteadybook.com/BookRe... ( )

i love this collection. for some reason, the poems in here are even more powerful me than the ones in Colossus. I find a raw energy in Plath's voice here that rings like a crystal bell. ( )