Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom

“[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 TimesNever 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.