Quincy MD.

Amazon dutifully delivered the Restored Ariel yesterday. (In a private car by the way). I know I have all the poems already and so I have just bought it for the facsimile and drafts but the comparison with the thin, red edition I have always had is striking. The foreword by Frieda is breathtaking yet measured and I am sure will provide material for the adjustment of all the old dissections. The main point is of course its analysis of Plath and Hughes as real people rather than the literary deities and focus for two different camps. It would be glib to say that the foreword could be summarised as "Calm down" for it is actually quite angry at points; as angry as the rarefied atmosphere of literary life appears to be for us outsiders anyway.

There is no point in any specific review of the poems apart maybe from The Swarm which as I may have mentioned has suddenly made itself know as one of my favourite Plath poems though it has not yet overtaken Electra On Azalea Path.