Every day from nine to five I sit at my desk facing the door of the office and type up other people's dreams.An office assistant in a hospital pursues a secret vocation. A girl endures a series of initiation ceremonies to join her high school sorority. A married woman seeks relief from the dull realities of daily life. From her mid-teens Sylvia Plath wrote stories, twenty-four of which are collected here, along with works of journalism and extracts from her journal. 'All the pieces presented here are revealing . . . It ought to round out one's knowledge of the writer, and, perhaps, offer some surprises. Luckily it does both.' Margaret Atwood, New York Times'A beautiful, delicate, commanding poet.' Lena Dunham'She embodied a seismic shift in consciousness which enabled us to feel and think as we do today, and of which she was a supremely vulnerable and willing casualty. She changed our world.' Margaret Drabble, Guardian