Laura Chérau, “Sylvia Plath’s Use of Dantean Structure” (2012)

“It appears that Plath at least had an interest in The Divine Comedy written by the 13th-century Italian poet, Dante Alighieri. We know that Plath read The Divine Comedy by Dante, specifically the Carlyle-Wicksteed translation. Both it and the book The Figure of Beatrice, by Charles Williams were read for a Medieval Literature course taken by Plath at Smith College during the 1952-1953 school year (‘Legacy Library: Sylvia Plath’). Plath also possessed a personal copy of The Divine Comedy, which is now held at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. Her copy of the book contains ‘extensive manuscript annotations’ (‘Legacy Library: Sylvia Plath’).”    —Laura Chérau, “Sylvia Plath’s Use of Dantean Structure,” Plath Profiles vol. 5 (Summer 2012).

A preview of this article is available on Medievalists.net. The full article can be downloaded as a PDF from the journal Plath Profiles here.