‘I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.’

It has been sixty years since Ariel was first published. The poems were written in an extraordinary burst of creativity just before Sylvia Plath's death in 1963, and they went on to establish her reputation as one of the most original and gifted poets of the twentieth century.

Critic Al Alvarez, reviewing the collection in the Observer, wrote: ‘If the poems are despairing, vengeful, and destructive, they are at the same time tender, open to things, and also unusually clever, sardonic, hard-minded... They are works of great artistic purity and, despite all the nihilism, great generosity... The book is a major literary event.’

Poet Emily Berry provides an introduction that offers both new and returning readers insight into the poems, demonstrating Plath's profound and lasting influence across generations.

Pages: 104, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm