Books February 2018
Sylvia speaks
A review of Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume I: 1940-1956 by Plath.
Dear Mother, . . .
I hope I shan’t be so proud as to forget myself. Yet there is a secret pleasure one has to hear one’s self praised. You must know, then, that my Lady Davers, who, I need not tell you, is my master’s sister, has been a month at our house, and has taken great notice of me, and given me good advice to keep myself to myself. She told me I was a very pretty wench, and that every body gave me a very good character, and loved me; and bid me take care to keep the fellows at a distance; and said, that I might do, and be more valued for it, even by themselves. . . .
Your honest as well as dutiful DAUGHTER
The words are Pamela’s in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded...
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