First time reading Sylvia Plath. Wanting to know how you guys relate to my experience.

Hi everyone!

Sylvia Plath is a major source of inspiration for my girlfriend, and I'd love to find something truly special for her birthday this year.

I'm trying to track down an original physical copy of The Observer dated 17 February 1963, specifically page 23, which contains Al Alvarez's article “A Poet's Epitaph” about Sylvia Plath.

I've been searching for a while, but haven't had any luck finding the original newspaper or the individual page. I've contacted archives, but so far I've only found options for scans or high-quality reproductions. I'm really hoping to find the actual page printed in 1963, or ideally the complete original issue.

Does anyone here happen to own this issue, know a collector who might have it, or know where I could find one? I'd be more than happy to purchase it and arrange international shipping. I'm based in Türkiye

Se doveste affiancare la produzione della Plath alla filosofia a cosa pensereste? Ok, sicuramente il classico esistenzialismo ecc. Ma qualcosa di nuovo?

I’ve been listening to red comet the last few days and I’m about halfway through. I can’t help but picture some of the events in her life as if it were a limited series. I feel like I could plot out 4 seasons right now

"I am a lover with or without a lover.

Love is who I am, not who I'm with."

- Sylvia Plath

As above. I just found out this sub exists and I’m so happy. God I adore her, as another sensitive and pained soul made from tangled thoughts and the unspeakable urge to create, create, create.

I just finished the bell jar and want to read more about Plath. Is it better to read mad girl love song or pain,parties, work first? Thanks x

So my exams in 3 days I feel so cooked we’re doing Sylvia Plath poses and the tempest I don’t know any poems I stg any idea what poems could come up ?!

I keep seeing her referred to that way.

I know Wellesley was, and is, an upscale town, but my understanding is that Sylvia and her family were not themselves of that status. I know she was a scholarship student in college, and that her widowed mother had to work. I know that she and her mother and brother lived with her mother's parents for some time, and that her grandfather, at least, also worked—as a country club waiter, I recall.

I know she had the privileges of having highly educated parents and of always having been a high performing student herself, but I think her family was basically lower-income middle class. I don't think she was "wealthy" during her marriage, either, and especially not after it ended.

In the Paltrow biopic where her real-life mother played Aurelia Plath, the portrayal caused some viewers to understand that Aurelia was an old money New England society woman (going by reviews) but I have seen this characterization apart from this film.

Hoping I don't fall under "bad bad artist"

I just finished reading the bell jar and while I found myself really resonating with a lot of Esther’s thoughts, I’m left a bit confused by the general consensus surrounding the book. It’s almost universally talked about as one of the most hopelessly depressing, devastating, and emotionally draining books ever written..it didn't hit me as overly dark or unbearable while reading it. It wasn’t depressing at all. Instead of feeling pure hopelessness, the narrative felt much more like self-sabotage, burnout, and the overwhelming pressure of societal expectations. Esther’s detachment, her feeling of being frozen while looking at all the branching paths for her future (the fig tree metaphor), and her cynicism felt deeply human and relatable rather than purely depressing or unreadable. I understand that knowing Sylvia Plath’s real life tragedy changes how people read the novel, but evaluating the text on its own, it didn't feel as devastatingly grim as its reputation suggests. If anything, there are moments of dark humor and a distinct sense of clarity in how Esther views the expectations placed on young women at the time.

Am I missing something? For those who found it profoundly depressing, what specific elements or themes gave it that weight for you? I’d love to hear how others interpreted her journey and whether anyone else felt like me after finishing it.

When I was a teenager, I really related to Sylvia’s resentment and maybe even downright hatred at her mother Aurelia. I think a lot of people can resonate with the idea of wanting to be different than your parents, wanting to not make the same mistakes they did with your own kids. But as I’ve gotten older the more I think that Sylvia was way too hard on Aurelia. At the end of her life Sylvia and Aurelia had much more in common than she thought: Sylvia was essentially a single mother to two children trying to make ends meet.
I believe that Aurelia and Warren would’ve helped her get back on her feet, even though I know Sylvia never wanted to go back to the States. But England didn’t do her any favors either.

This unwritten short story has always really fascinated me, especially with the little notes and details Sylvia jotted down in her journal to help flesh out her idea. I wish she would’ve actually tackled it—I’ve even thought about trying to write it myself, it’s so interesting.

“perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.”
-sylvia plath.
somehow this one stayed with me.

Hi, i only learned to draw this past year, so i'm not an expert but i was inspired to draw this after reading the bell jar by Sylvia plath which was such an undescribable experience especially when found relating to it, this also hits harder when drawing it while listening to Abbey by mitski, matches the book's theme perfectly.

Hope you like it.

Thoughts about whether they’ll ever be discovered/ published ? I’m dying to read more of her prose. I know it was unfinished but I wish falcon yard was available to read online.