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This well-known literary critic and commentator on many art forms, and a poet himself sets out to explore the whys and wherefores of the suicidal impulse and act, particularly, in the creative personality. He first goes to historical sources and the work of philosophers, sociologists and psychoanalysts before examining his own field, his familiarity with which makes for fascinating and instructive reading. The author's personal involvement in his theme is made explicit in a prologue and epilogue.
The prologue describes his with Sylvia Plath as a person and as a poet during the two years before her suicide. The epilogue is an account of his own attempt which pre-dated hers. It is written wryly, a mistake draped with the illusions of immaturity. What they both seemed to share was a fateful sense of familiarity with suicide and the failure of crucial relationships.
In the body of the book, we are taken through the ages from Roman times and observe either the heroic or romantic concept of suicide prevailing over the idea of its sinful nature (introduced by the early Church to stem the rash of martyrdoms) and over the notion of bad taste and basic inferiority as it was seen in the Age of Reason.
Arriving at our own age, the author deals reasonably adequately with psychodynamic