Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom: A Story

" Plath's] story is stirring, in sneaky, unexpected ways. . . . Look carefully and there's a new angle here -- on how, and why, we read Plath today."-- Parul Sehgal, New York Times

Never before published, this newly discovered short story by literary legend Sylvia Plath is a remarkable allegorical tale about a young woman's rebellion against convention and the 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 is a compelling coming of age story about 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."

This strange, dark tale of female agency and independence, a powerful work of psychological fiction written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.