Serious study of Sylvia Plath’s work has often been hampered by a fierce preoccupation with her life and death. Tim Kendall seeks to redress the balance in his detailed and dispassionate examination of her poetry. Taking a roughly chronological structure, he traces the unique nature of Plath’s poetic gift, finding an essential unity in her inspiration. He outlines the evolution of recurring themes and at the same time exhibits her accelerated development from the formal restraint of The Colossus through to the ground-breaking techniques of Ariel.