Recognized for her poetic work, Sylvia Plath was also a brilliant prose writer. This collection of stories, essays, and excerpts from her diaries is notable for her fierce concentration on art, the vitality of her intelligence, and the longings of her imagination. In these writings we will find Plath's early concern for the problems derived from mental illness; the complex processes of creativity and, notably, a diversity of themes that have femininity as a central axis. This work is especially evocative, as it presents the essence of her poems and all the recurring themes of her later work, and thus offers a significant insight into her development as a writer. Ted Hughes was in charge of the selection of the texts and the epilogue present in this edition. "I have to admit from the beginning that this type of publication makes me feel uncomfortable. [...] But I must also admit that I read the texts collected in The Wish Box with considerable absorption and, at times, fascination." Margaret Atwood, The New York Times