In this book, 'The Silent Woman', Janet Malcolm explores how Plath has been presented through the various biographies of her life.

Born in 1932, Sylvia Plath is considered a significant, influential and enigmatic American poet and novelist. Yet her contribution and achievements have to some extent been overshadowed by her life story. She married fellow poet, Ted Hughes in 1956 and they had two children together. She had a lifelong battle with depression and, in 1963, she committed suicide. 

Janet Malcolm draws on five key biographies in her investigation, revealing their individual biases or constraints in presenting their 'truth' about Plath - her work, life, death and marriage. Malcolm explores the access they had to original materials, and how much they considered and were influenced by the feelings and perspectives of family members of both Plath and Hughes. She also highlights how friends and associates of Plath had their own agenda in revealing details of events as they saw them. 

It's a fascinating read and is challenging in terms of what we expect from a biography. Malcolm says: 'a biographer at work is like the professional burglar, breaking into a house, rifling through certain drawers that he has good reason to think contain the jewellery and money, and triumphantly bearing his loot away'.

And Malcolm quotes Olwen Hughes, Ted Hughes' sister, saying that reviewers and journalists treated Sylvia Plath's family 'as though they are characters in some work of fiction'.

A brilliant, challenging and thought-provoking book.