Sylvia Plath, pseudonym Victoria Lucas, (born October 27, 1932, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died February 11, 1963, London, England), American poet whose best-known works, such as the poems “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” and the novel The Bell Jar, starkly express a sense of alienation and self-destruction closely tied to her personal experiences and, by extension, the situation of women in mid-20th-century America.
Notable Works - The Bell Jar, Ariel, Collosus
Enclyclopedia Britannica
The Bell Jar, novel by Sylvia Plath, first published in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas and later released posthumously under her real name. The work, a thinly veiled autobiography, chronicles a young woman’s mental breakdown and eventual recovery, while also exploring societal expectations of women in the 1950s. Plath committed suicide one month after the publication of The Bell Jar, her only novel.
Enclyclopedia Britannica
Click here for full poem!Ariel, collection of poetry by Sylvia Plath, published posthumously in 1965. Most of the poems were written during the last five months of the author’s life, which ended by suicide in 1963. With this volume she attained what amounted to cult status for her cool, unflinching portrayal of mental anguish. Although the poems range in subject from pastoral chores (“The Bee Meeting”) to medical trauma (“Tulips”), each contributes to an impression of the inevitability of the author’s self-destruction. The volume contains “Daddy,” one of Plath’s best-known poems.
Enclyclopedia Britannica
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