Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom, Sylvia Plath
Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom, Sylvia Plath
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Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom
A Story

Author: Sylvia Plath

Narrator: Orlagh Cassidy

Unabridged: 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/22/2019

Synopsis

This newly discovered story by literary legend Sylvia Plath stands on its own and is remarkable for its symbolic, allegorical approach to a young woman’s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life.Written while Sylvia Plath was a student at Smith College in 1952, Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom tells the story of a young woman’s fateful train journey.Lips the color of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like “guilt, and guilt, and guilt”: these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom.“But what is the ninth kingdom?” she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. “It is the kingdom of the frozen will,” comes the reply. “There is no going back.”Sylvia Plath’s strange, dark tale of female agency and independence, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.

About Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Massachusetts. Her books include the poetry collections The Colossus, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, Ariel, and Collected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. A complete and uncut facsimile edition of Ariel was published in 2004 with her original selection and arrangement of poems. She was married to the poet Ted Hughes, with whom she had a daughter, Frieda, and a son, Nicholas. She died in London in 1963.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Justin on February 04, 2019

This is a rejected short story Sylvia Plath wrote when she was 20. Unearthed and published for the first time, it’s an exciting event for no one but us literary nerds. The story itself is above-average quality. A bit wordy at the beginning, but amps up significantly by the halfway point. When the les......more

Goodreads review by aly on February 18, 2024

I read the author's article and know that this book is not something that I can immediately figure out once finished. Especially when she said: "I can’t let Shakespeare get too far ahead of me, you know" — because let's be real. When else do you ever get to crack Shakespeare works without......more

Goodreads review by Dr. Appu on October 29, 2022

The Bell Jar, written by Sylvia Plath, is one of my favorite books of all time. (Picture courtesy- vinhanley.com. You could relate to many of the things mentioned in the above picture if you have ardently followed her works.) When I saw the name Sylvia I quickly jumped on to read this short story......more

Goodreads review by Bill on January 14, 2023

Late in 1952, Smith College student Sylvia Plath completed this “vague symbolic tale” and submitted it to Mademoiselle. Although Mademoiselle commissioned Plath to interview poet Elizabeth Bowen, and invited her to come to New York as a guest editor (a heady and unsettling experience which provided......more

Goodreads review by Sam on January 30, 2019

Mary Ventura bids a reluctant farewell to her parents before embarking on a train journey to the mysterious Ninth Kingdom. But what is the Ninth Kingdom - and will Mary reach it safely? Sylvia Plath’s short story sounds dreamlike and that’s exactly how it reads! The premise and overall atmosphere fe......more

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