{"id":5501,"date":"2022-09-06T01:00:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T06:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/?p=5501"},"modified":"2024-06-13T23:36:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T03:36:41","slug":"book-mary-ventura-and-the-ninth-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-mary-ventura-and-the-ninth-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"book-781\" class=\"bdb-book-info\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/book_maryventuraandtheninthkingdom.png?fit=250%2C375&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom\" class=\"alignright\"\/><strong>Title:<\/strong> Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom<br \/><strong>Author:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/author\/sylvia-plath\/\">Sylvia Plath<\/a><br \/><strong>First Published:<\/strong> <span content=\"2019-01-03\">January 3, 2019<\/span><br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/publisher\/harper-perennial\/\">Harper Perennial<\/a><br \/><strong>Pages:<\/strong> 46<br \/><strong>Genre:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/genre\/literary-fiction\/\">Literary Fiction<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/genre\/short-stories\/\">Short Stories<\/a><br \/><strong>Format:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/format\/ebook\/\">Ebook<\/a><br \/><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/source\/purchased\/\">Purchased<\/a><br \/><strong>Rating:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/rating\/3\/\"><span class=\"bdb-font-awesome-star-wrap\"><i class=\"fas fa-star\"><\/i><i class=\"fas fa-star\"><\/i><i class=\"fas fa-star\"><\/i><i class=\"far fa-star\"><\/i><i class=\"far fa-star\"><\/i><\/span><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/42614095-mary-ventura-and-the-ninth-kingdom\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/addtogoodreads.png?ssl=1\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\"\/><\/a><br \/><br \/><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> <p>Never before published, 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\u2019s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life. <\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s fateful train journey.<\/p>\n<p>Lips the color of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like \u201cguilt, and guilt, and guilt\u201d: these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom.<\/p>\n<strong>Get the Book:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/40fmJOu\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon<\/a>\r\n<hr \/><\/div>\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\/\",\n\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Review\",\n\t\t\t\t\"datePublished\": \"2022-09-06T06:00:42+00:00\",\n\t\t\t\t\"description\": \"Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom\",\n\t\t\t\t\"publisher\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Organization\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"Radical Dreamer\"\t\t\t\t},\n\t\t\t\t\"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/pastelgoth.net\\\/blog\\\/book-mary-ventura-and-the-ninth-kingdom\\\/\",\n\t\t\t\t\"itemReviewed\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Book\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"author\": [\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"Sylvia Plath\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"sameAs\": \"https:\\\/\\\/pastelgoth.net\\\/blog\\\/book-database\\\/author\\\/sylvia-plath\\\/\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t],\n\t\t\t\t\t\"isbn\": \"B07KPGCV95\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"numberOfPages\": 46,\n\t\t\t\t\t\"publisher\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Organization\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"Harper Perennial\"\t\t\t\t\t},\n\t\t\t\t\t\"image\": \"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/pastelgoth.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/book_maryventuraandtheninthkingdom.png?fit=250%2C375&ssl=1\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"datePublished\": \"2019-01-03T00:00:00+00:00\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"sameAs\": \"https:\\\/\\\/www.goodreads.com\\\/book\\\/show\\\/42614095-mary-ventura-and-the-ninth-kingdom\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"genre\": \"Literary Fiction\"\t\t\t\t},\n\t\t\t\t\"author\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"Jamie\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"sameAs\": \"https:\\\/\\\/pastelgoth.net\\\/blog\\\/\"\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t, \"reviewRating\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Rating\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"ratingValue\": 3,\n\t\t\t\t\t\"bestRating\": 5\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t\n<h2>Review<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom<\/strong> is a short story written by Sylvia Plath while she was attending Smith College. It was initially rejected by Mademoiselle magazine and until now has been unpublished. The story follows Mary, a young girl leaving home and boarding a train to the mysterious ninth kingdom. Mary is initially hesitant to leave but is urged to do so by her parents.<\/p>\n<p>While on her trip Mary marvels at the wonders of the train and makes an acquaintance with a fellow passenger. It becomes clear very quickly that there is something wrong with the train and the people on it. The descriptions of the world outside of the train and the depiction of color &#8211; reds, oranges, and grays &#8211; are written in a way that feels ominous. Each interaction with the other passengers gives the reader a foreboding feeling.<\/p>\n<p>It is clear that this is an early story for Plath, as the use of imagery and hints from Mary&#8217;s travel mate are extremely heavy-handed. Mary displays her naivet\u00e9 as she follows the directions of others unquestioningly, she never makes a choice for herself and has yet to develop autonomy. I have read many sources glamorizing the story as an allegory for suicide due to Plath&#8217;s history, but I feel that these assertions are trying too hard.  The story is ambiguous and I feel had a lot of potential, but was underdeveloped and it shouldn&#8217;t be looked into too deeply. If anything, I feel that the obsession around Plath&#8217;s famous personal life and tragic death is highly romanticized, and while important in understanding the author, it too often overshadows the beauty of her writing.<\/p>\n<h2>Quote<\/h2>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cDon\u2019t they know, <strong>don\u2019t they care<\/strong> where they are going?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<h2>About the Author<\/h2>\n<div class=\"ubb-about-author\">\n<h3>About Sylvia Plath<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/author_sylviaplath.png?fit=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft ubb-about-author-photo\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/author_sylviaplath.png?w=200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/author_sylviaplath.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/author_sylviaplath.png?resize=75%2C75&amp;ssl=1 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer.<\/p>\n<p>Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The book&#8217;s protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is a bright, ambitious student at Smith College who begins to experience a mental breakdown while interning for a fashion magazine in New York. The plot parallels Plath&#8217;s experience interning at Mademoiselle magazine and subsequent mental breakdown and suicide attempt.<\/p>\n<p>Along with Anne Sexton, Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry initiated by Robert Lowell and W.D. Snodgrass. Despite her remarkable artistic, academic, and social success at Smith, Plath suffered from severe depression and underwent a period of psychiatric hospitalization. She graduated from Smith with highest honors in 1955 and went on to Newnham College, Cambridge, in England, on a Fulbright fellowship. Here she met and married the English poet Ted Hughes in 1956. For the following two years she was an instructor in English at Smith College.<\/p>\n<p>In 1960, shortly after Plath and Hughes returned to England from America, her first collection of poems appeared as The Colossus. She also gave birth to a daughter, Frieda Rebecca. Hughes\u2019 and Plath\u2019s son, Nicholas Farrar, was born in 1962.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ubb-author-links\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/4379.Sylvia_Plath\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Goodreads<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4feEgKU\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom is a short story written by Sylvia Plath while she was attending Smith College. It was initially rejected by Mademoiselle magazine and until&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[70,1006],"book-author":[577],"book-illustrator":[],"book-series":[],"book-publisher":[],"book-genre":[],"book-source":[],"book-format":[],"class_list":["post-5501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","tag-american-literature","tag-published-posthumously","book-author-sylvia-plath"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/book_maryventuraandtheninthkingdom-header.png?fit=1080%2C540&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5501"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5532,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501\/revisions\/5532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"book-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-author?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"book-illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-illustrator?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"book-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-series?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"book-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-publisher?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"book-genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-genre?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"book-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-source?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"book-format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-format?post=5501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}