I've never read a biography that was actively gripping, before! Unfortunately it has to deal with wrenchingly tragic events.

This biography of Hughes is, I believe, the first to be published. I'm not sure there are any others, though there have been memoirs dealing with Hughes and Plath. Now, Hughes became a widely hated figure in America because of a radical Feminist view of his treatment of his first wife Sylvia Plath (who committed suicide) based on extremely limite, biased and factually inaccurate evidence and Hughes' refusal to try to set the record straight in any serious way until very late in his life. Plath's suicide became the defining incident in Hughes' life and Feinstein does everything in her power to shed the maximum light on it, establish the bare facts of what actually happened and examine as closely as possible the states of mind of everyone involved from all perspectives, whilst trying to take in to account everybody's biases (including her own; she new Hughes later in his life). Of course, unsurprisingly to any dispassionate observer, it turns out to be way more complicated than the "Hughes was the root of all evil" extremism of Plath cultists in America, or the "Plath was totally off her rocker" argument Hughes defenders countered with. (Hughes himself did his best to dismiss this view of matters.) The sometimes posited, "if it wasn't for Assia Wevill's predatory behaviour" angle also fails to capture the whole thing.

So here are some things to consider before taking a view: Plath attempted suicide as a teen. She was clearly struggling emotionally prior to Hughes' affair and the marriage was already in trouble because of it. She was paranoid about Hughes' fidelity before he started the affiar with Wevill. Assia Wevill did behave as a sexual predator, not just towards Hughes, either. Hughes' attitude to sex before and after his relationship with Plath was never one of idealising monogamy. Plath knew this. Plath kicked Hughes out of their home when she found out about the affair but subsequently maintain a duplicitous attitude, whereby publicly she wanted a divorce and provately she desperately wanted Hughes back. Her suicide had some remarkable features: She took extensive precautions to protect her children from harm; she left the phone number of her doctor in a prominent place; she expected to be found relatively soon after turning on the gas.

Putting all this together suggests a situation where Plath, whilst not completely bonkers by any stretch, was losing the mental and emotional stability she had regained after ECT treatment in her teens. The marriage was already under strain because of it. Assia Wevill was sexually aggressive towards Hughes but Hughes reciprocated and his past and future behaviour strongly suggest if it wasn't Wevill then, it would have been somebody at some point. Plath may have strategised a failed suicide attempt as a method of getting Hughes back but instead miscalculated and died. No single person was to blame; nobody was evil personified; nobody benefitted emotionally from the tragedy. Maybe not even Plath herself wanted the outcome she got.

So this is an excellent biography, clearly stating what is fact, what is opinion, what speculation, what is out-right false and presenting the public views of the key players. Feinstein is clearly sympathetic towards Hughes, way more forgiving of his philandering than I am, but still attempting to be fair to all and crucially set the factual record straight.

Hughes' poetry is discussed mainly in terms of whatever light it sheds on his character and life, rather than from a strongly lit. crit. perspective. You will probably learn more about it from reading the volume of Hughes' letters, which should be read by anyone interested in Hughes' life, anyway, as it serves as a compliment to this biography, filling gaps and giving its own insight into Hughes life, work and character. ( )

This is a truly sympathetic biography of Hughes and yet, it does display at least some of the warts. For any man, the suicide of two wives would be hard to bear: however much one justified the situation with the baggage which they brought in to the relationship - and this was clearly a considerable amount, one would question one's own responsibility. How much more does a poet?

I am going on from Hughes to a biography of Plath and, it will be interesting to see how far my sympathy swings from its current pro-Hughes view point. I am, therefore, being a little cautious as to what I say.

Hughes' poetry stands on its own but, inevitably, a little more knowledge as to what happened in his life makes them that little bit more poignant.

An excellent read. ( )

A good biography of the poet for those of us who want a reasonably non judgemental view of an extraordinary life. The book is very well written and gallops through the poets life wthout hardly missing a beat. It does not attempt to provide in depth readings of the poems (or the prose), but it does effectively link events in his life with published work. If you are interested in Ted Hughes this is a good place to start. It is written by a fellow poet who knew Ted socially and professionally, she obviously admired his work and is perhaps a little in awe of the man, but she does give us an inside track to his character and for that reason I think this biography succeeds very well ( )

Elaine Feinstein, a friend of Ted Hughes, has written what amounts to the first full length biography of the former poet laureate. Readers, especially those with a strong interest in his first wife, Sylvia Plath, will feel, I suspect, rather let down by this book, even though the bulk of the biography seems to be about Hughes' relationship with Plath. Feinstein's caution and wish not to offend - Ted's living family, friends, and maybe Ted himself - is evident throughout the book. But more than that, there seems to be little here that readers have not already read before in various sources. Anyone familiar with one or more of the several Plath biographies, or Lucas Myer's recent memoir, 'Crow Steered, Bergs Appeared,' will find the information on Hughes' years in Cambridge, his meeting of Plath and their life together until her death in 1963 completely unsurprising. There are a few 'new' bits of information with regard to Hughes' childhood in Yorkshire but nothing of major interest. There are also some interesting pieces of information regarding his relationship with Assia Wevill and about Assia herself, but again, not much we didn't already know. The relationships he had with Emma Tennant and Jill Barber are better and more thoroughly documented respectively in Tennant's book 'Burnt Diaries' and presumably in Barber's forthcoming memoir. Almost nothing is said about his 2nd wife Carol, or Hughes' children with Plath, seemingly because the biography is unauthorized and Feinstein wishes not to infringe on the personal life of the still living wife and children of her friend Hughes. This restraint for the sake of the living is admirable, but it hardly makes for a well-rounded bio (readers interested in the inherent implications and difficulties of writing biographies would do well to read Janet Malcolm's 'The Silent Woman'.) Indeed, Carol Hughes becomes hardly more than a footnote in her husband's life in this book. In any event, the personal details entailed are certainly not salacious; in fact, I've read quite a few things in Plath bios, on the internet and in the newspapers that are hinted at in this book but never fully explained, or left out altogether, probably because they would be considered too disparaging to the subject. I personally have no problem with this - biography is more than simply gossip and the airing of dirty laundry (at least it should be.) Feinstein is mildly defensive of Hughes when it comes to his personal behaviour in relationships with women, and strikes a balance between that defense and holding Hughes accountable for his actions or non-actions. Feinstein also seems to have a genuine respect and fondness for Hughes, although her use of the first person in some sections in the book throw the reader out of 'biography' and into 'memoir'. I came away with the feeling that biographers should never personally know their subjects, and if personal friends write books about the lives of those friends, the books are more properly called memoirs. The biggest surprise is the fact that Ted's work seems to be discussed hardly at all. Again, since this book is unauthorized I can only assume that Feinstein was unable to get the permission to quote freely from Ted's works. Perhaps I'm wrong, but in any case I was very disappointed at the lack of in-depth discussion of Hughes' work. There are repeated references to Hughes' interest in astrology, hermeticism and neoplatonism, but not much discussion of these influences overall. Basically, I came away from reading this bio no more informed about Ted Hughes than I had been before I read it. For me, Hughes remains a creative, talented, engimatic presence in 20th century literature. I look forward to subsequent biographies that may offer a more psychologically in-depth portrait of the man with a more detailed analysis of his work. Feinstein's book is a general primer for those that want an overview of Hughes' life but not much substance. ( )

Nicely written bio of "notorious" cad and husband of poet Sylvia Plath. True, Hughes was quite the womanizer; no woman was safe from him and he poached quite a few married women, but he was also a brilliant poet who championed Sylvia. Of course, Plath is treated shabbily in this book, but Hughes' sins were brought into the light as well. They were wrong for each other and should never have married. Too bad Sylvia hadn't read Marilyn French's The Women's Room before hand. (Yes, I know it hadn't been published yet.) ( )