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The Bell Jar
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The Bell Jar Paperback - 2013

by Sylvia Plath

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This extraordinary work--echoing Plath's own experiences as a rising writer/editor in the early 1950s--chronicles the nervous breakdown of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful, but slowly going under, and maybe for the last time.

About this book

The Bell Jar is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Sylvia Plath, published in 1963. It tells the story of Esther Greenwood, a talented and ambitious young woman who struggles with mental illness and societal pressures in the 1950s.


The Bell Jar is a powerful and poignant portrayal of mental health and the pressures faced by young women. Plath's use of language and imagery captures the complexities of Esther's inner world, making the novel a powerful exploration of the human condition.


It’s Plath’s only novel, and the book is often regarded as a roman à clef due to its parallelism with the author’s own experiences and her struggle with mental illness. Plath committed suicide a month after The Bell Jar was first published.

Reader reviews for The Bell Jar

From the publisher

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels

"A coming-of-age masterpiece." --Boston Globe

"It is this perfectly wrought prose and the freshness of Plath's voice in The Bell Jar that make this book enduring in its appeal." --USA Today

A beautifully designed Harper Perennial Deluxe Edition of Sylvia Plath's masterwork--an acclaimed and enduring novel about a young woman falling into the grip of mental illness and societal pressures

The story chronicles the breakdown of Esther Greenwood, a bright, beautiful, enormously talented college student coming of age in 1950s America, as she navigates the pressures of society along with her own ambitions. While at a prestigious, competitively won position at a New York City magazine one summer, Esther finds herself struggling with the looming expectations of marriage, motherhood, and giving up on her dreams to achieve them. She becomes increasingly disillusioned and her mental health deteriorates, ultimately leading her to undergo harsh treatment and therapy.

"Funny, intense, enormously human" (Cosmopolitan), The Bell Jar is a poignant exploration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche and remains an extraordinary accomplishment from one of the country's most luminous talents.

First line

IT WAS A QUEER, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

From the rear cover

A Special Paperback Edition to Commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Publication of Sylvia Plath's Remarkable Novel

Sylvia Plath's shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanity

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under--maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational--as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.

First edition identification



The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath first edition was published by William Simmonds; London, 1963. It was bound black cloth-affect boards with spine lettered. Plath originally published it under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas". The first edition pictorial dust-jacket was designed by Thomas Simmonds.

Details

  • Title The Bell Jar
  • Author Sylvia Plath
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: repri
  • Pages 288
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Harper Perennial, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Publication date 2013-06-11
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Illustrated
  • ISBN 9780061148514 / 0061148512
  • Weight 0.6 lbs (0.27 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 in (20.83 x 13.97 x 2.29 cm)
  • Reading level 1050
  • Themes
    • Demographic Orientation: Rural
    • Demographic Orientation: Small Town
    • Ethnic Orientation: Native American
    • Sex & Gender: Feminine
    • Topical: Coming of Age
  • Category Fiction - General
  • Library of Congress subjects Psychological fiction, Suicidal behavior
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

Citations

  • Entertainment Weekly, 06/27/2014, Page 23

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The Bell Jar
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The Bell Jar

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The Bell Jar : A Novel
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The Bell Jar

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The Bell Jar

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