Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom: A Story

Written by Plath in the early 1950s while she was a student, this short story was published only in 2019. It follows a young woman, Mary Ventura, who finds herself on a train travelling through a strange, dim landscape toward a place called the Ninth Kingdom. Fellow passengers and the mood of the journey turn it into a quiet allegory about choice, conformity and the self. The tale is brief and dreamlike, and gives readers an early look at themes that would shape her later work.