The Grief of Influence follows Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes through alternating periods of collaboation and competition, showing how each poet forged a voice both through and against the other's, and offering a new assessment of the twentieth century's most important poetic partnership. a significant book ... Clark not only clarifies the troubled relationship between Hughes and Plath, but also advances our ideas about how to understand literary influence, especially among artistic couples ... appreciated by students of Hughes and Plath, who will gain myriad new insights about the two.