With Heather Clark’s new biography, “ Red Comet,” clocking in at more than 1,100 pages, the Plath cup runneth over. From the moment of her death in 1963, her life and work have been transcribed onto many narratives, including but not limited to ambition, motherhood, the American dream, anti-Semitism, postwar poetry, mental illness and, most powerfully, feminism. Sylvia Plath long ago reached, even overshot, iconic status.

If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores. Clark’s talent for scene-painting and inserting the stray but illustrative detail ('By January 31, the date of her last surviving check stub, she had only 59 pounds') contributes to create a harrowing picture of the narrow confines of the London that Plath had moved to with such high hopes.Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath Instead of depleting my interest in Plath, the book stimulated it further. 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. Clark is at pains to see Plath clearly, to rescue her from the reductive clichés and distorted readings of her work largely because of the tragedy of her ending. as Plath and her complex, much analyzed legacy fade with the passing of successive generations, and her work grows more removed from the cultural mainstream, now seems a prime moment to revive her tale and try to bring all of its elements together. just as one is wondering whether there can possibly be anything new to be said, here comes Heather Clark’s Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath hurtling down the chute, weighing in at more than 1,000 densely printed pages. A bravura performance, Red Comet is the one we’ve waited for. By centering Plath’s evolving command of craft-by focusing on her peerless lyrical ear-Clark peels away clichéd interpretations much as the poet shed her false selves. Yet this gold standard of a biography does something more: Red Comet is a page-turner, particularly when Clark shifts to Plath’s final two years in England. Clark delves deeper than biographers who have gone before: We see the poet as if peering through the Hubble Telescope for the first time, blurred galaxies and nebulas bursting into crystalline detail. From both perspectives Clark evokes how their common purpose rose and later diverged, invaluable reportage missing from other books. Red Comet takes us on a literary picaresque, drawing on untapped archives, Plath’s complete correspondence, interviews with surviving members of the couple’s social and professional circles, and, most crucially, on Hughes’ journals and letters.

incandescent, richly researched biography.

Red comet sylvia plath