4
Short stories
This newly discovered story by literary legend Sylvia Plath stands on its own and is remarkable for its symbolic, allegorical approach to a young woman’s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life.
Written while Sylvia Plath was a student at Smith College in 1952, Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom tells the story of a young woman’s fateful train journey.
Lips the color of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like “guilt, and guilt, and guilt”: these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom.
“But what is the ninth kingdom?” she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. “It is the kingdom of the frozen will,” comes the reply. “There is no going back.”
Sylvia Plath’s strange, dark tale of female agency and independence, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.
© 2019 HarperAudio (Audiobook): 9780062940865
Release date
Audiobook: 22 January 2019
4
Short stories
This newly discovered story by literary legend Sylvia Plath stands on its own and is remarkable for its symbolic, allegorical approach to a young woman’s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life.
Written while Sylvia Plath was a student at Smith College in 1952, Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom tells the story of a young woman’s fateful train journey.
Lips the color of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like “guilt, and guilt, and guilt”: these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom.
“But what is the ninth kingdom?” she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. “It is the kingdom of the frozen will,” comes the reply. “There is no going back.”
Sylvia Plath’s strange, dark tale of female agency and independence, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.
© 2019 HarperAudio (Audiobook): 9780062940865
Release date
Audiobook: 22 January 2019
Step into an infinite world of stories
Overall rating based on 484 ratings
Thought-provoking
Page-turner
Confusing
Download the app to join the conversation and add reviews.
Showing 5 of 484
Shruti
13 Feb 2021
Sylvia Plath's brilliant imagination and vividly descriptive storytelling will captivate you right from the moment Mary Ventura embarks on her momentous and life-altering train journey and will leave you hanging with a million question at the end.
Labster
26 Sept 2022
Writing to die for but the story didn't have an ending to complete the tale.
Aneesha
3 Jul 2020
Pretty average!
Dhanya
22 Dec 2021
Enjoyed the writing and narration.. but couldn't quite get the story.. 🤔
Mitchelle
25 Feb 2023
Explains so much about Sylvia's life and what she thought of it.
English
India