The Bell Jar: A Novel (Perennial Classics) [Paperback]

Sylvia Plath (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 2, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0060930187 | ISBN-13: 978-0060930189 | Edition: First Perennial Clas

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under--maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experiece as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This 25th-anniversary edition of Plath's posthumous autobiographical novel includes a new foreword by the book's original editor, Frances McCullough; biographical notes; and eight previously unpublished drawings by Plath. Bravo to HarperCollins for putting all this together at a reasonable price.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics; First Perennial Clas edition (February 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060930187
• ISBN-13: 978-0060930189
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (642 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

164 of 171 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A true classic December 27, 2002

By Graham V. Foy

Format:Paperback

I personally find Sylvia Plath's journals her most interesting work, but this comes in at a close second. This book will challenge just about anyone who reads it, whether you're depressed or not. If you've never been depressed in the way Esther is, you're going to ask yourself why she torments herself for no reason and perhaps feel that the storyline is implausible. the deeper you go into the book, the less sympathy you'll feel for her. If you HAVE been as depressed as Esther gets, you'll feel challenged for another reason: the book will reach TOO far into your mind and make TOO deep a connection with you because, well, Sylvia Plath describes depression very well. Her writing tends to make you feel like you and no one else are experiencing what she's going through with her, and it's pretty disturbing. However, it's also a quite rewarding experience. A "bell jar" is just a very apt term for a distorted view of the world that presents everything as seemingly inherently bad. Esther lives under one all the time, and she's not truly aware of it. Eventually her life is turned into a constant waking nightmare because she can't even say what's wrong with her. It's painful to read but it makes for some damn good reading. Reading this book will give you a very graphic idea of what it's like to live under a bell jar and what happens to people who live in permanent ones. You probably won't be the same after you read it.

234 of 258 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bell Jar February 5, 2000

By Elizabeth

Format:Paperback

I read this book immediately following "Girl, Interrupted" by Susanna Kaysen. This was an interesting coincidence because both these novels are (nearly) autobiolgraphical accounts of mental traumas these women suffered in their early 20's. In fact, both women had resided in the same mental hospital during their recuperation. I finished "Girl, Interrupted" a bit confused on how I had ever rationalized spending my time reading such a book in the first place. The author's over-personification of the trite theme of "crazy may be sane" wasn't even accompanied by a plot. Sadly enough, the most interesting part of the novel was the excerpt taken from a psychology textbook describing Kaysen's diagnosis. Then, I picked up "The Bell Jar," not knowing what it was about, and read it. It was everything "Girl, Interrupted" had tried to be and wasn't. The main character's experiences were real and meaningful, and the book itself tried less to shock its readers by trying to include monumental meaning, but instead, simply told its tale in a beautiful and harrowing way that perfectly reverberated the all-too-familiar struggles of a young woman emerging into an unfamiliar world that in its simpleness, conveyed more than even Kaysen could ever fathom being bestowed upon a reader.

181 of 211 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT Classic! October 29, 2003

By Dianna Setterfield

Format:Paperback

I've been trying to broaden my reading range by throwing in a few classics here and there. One I had been interested in for quite some time is The Bell Jar. And with the Sylvia Plath movie coming out soon, I thought reading this book might be a nice complement to that. And what a real pleasure it turned out to be!

The Bell Jar does not read like a classic - "classic" being the term of very old books with very old language - the description I've always had for the classic genre. This book has a very contemporary writing style, and despite it being written in the 1960s, The Bell Jar's topic of mental illness certainly transcends the generations and can be related by many people no matter when they read the book. I absolutely loved it!

The Bell Jar tells the story of a young Esther Greenwood at the beginning of her mental decline. She first recognizes its oncoming during a summer of interning at a magazine company in New York City. Trying to fit in with the other interns, as well as dealing with boys and co-workers prove to be a struggle at times for Esther. And later, when the real depression and suicidal thoughts set in, readers are invited into a dark and scary world, one created realistically and with honesty by Ms. Plath.

This book ranks high on my list of all-time favorites. I'm so glad I read it. From now on, if people want to read a classic (or a darn good book for that matter), I won't hesitate to suggest The Bell Jar. It's fantastic!

42 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I've always felt this book is misunderstood. May 27, 2000

By Steffan Ziegler

Format:Paperback

Frequently, when I read about The Bell Jar, reviewers caomment on the parallels between Esther, and the author. Then they proceed to describe the book's harrowing descent into madness.

I almost hate to burst the bubble, but after reading the book, I find it to be widely misinterpreted. The book is not about Esther's problems, but the problems of the world about her.

When Plath wrote the book, she did so under a pseudonym. Not only, (as many suggest,) to avoid the ire of her friends, whose loosely drawn chariactures pepper this book, but also because of it's biting censure of her male oriented society. I have NO DOUBT in my mind that when Plath wrote the Bell Jar, she had no intentions of killing herself. I think the work should be viewed in that light, and when one does, it takes on a different, and far more profound meaning. Plath still needed to work in her time, so (In my opinion,) she wrote the Bell Jar to attack the restricted role of a woman in society, and she conveniently provided an out for any harsh critic, namely, that the main character is insane. To read it now, and interpret the main character as an insane, or unreliable narrator does a great disservice to what Plath intended for this work.

Plath, like Esther, was perhaps the smartest woman in America during her time. She won countless scholarships, and like Esther, a guest editing slot at Mademoiselle. Now a woman of her talents would be at Harvard on a full ride, but during her day, Esther, and Plath could only hope to someday become the editor of a glamor mag, forever telling women how to tell if their lover is cheating. Not much of an existance for a bright young woman.

Plath vents this frustration in the Bell Jar.... Esther sees men all about her that will always be accepted, that will not be held back if they desire to become something irrational, or take on large career goals.

I'm thinking specifically of the birth sequence in the middle, when Buddy and Esther watch Mrs Tomolino give birth to her child. A fat intern says that women shouldn't be allowed to watch a birth, otherwise there'd never be any children. (I am paraphrasing.) Implying their unfitness to be a doctor, (while his own obvious physical limitations are of course, ignored.) What a ridiculous notion. The men assume that Esther will not be able to stand watching the birth but she does well, noting the use of the drug. When she is told that it doesn't kill the pain, but only makes the woman forget it, Esther thinks that this is a perfect example of a man's drug. One that allows the pain to exist, but shuts it away in a dark tunnel, where someday it will rise to swallow the woman. (Again with the paraphrasing.)

Other signs of this exist throughout the work. In fact, one can go as far as to say that every time her life is on track, or Esther is suceeding, the event is derailed in actuality, or symbolically, by man. (I've checked, and it is so.) The image of a bottled baby arises again and again, and Esther later states that she hates the role of mother, because of the restrictions it implies. To give in to the maternal impulse is to chain yourself to a child, to trap yourself, to become the bottled baby. Esther remarks that it is almost as if nature knew about the restrictive world of men, and it agreed, conspiring against her biologically as well.

I think that perhaps the single most telling line in the book is delivered by Buddy, whom I saw as a representative of men in Esther's life. When Esther, and Buddy's earlier girlfriend both end up committed, Buddy asks if there is something about him that "drives women crazy. "

If you read carefully, you'll note that Esther's doctor refutes the question, and dismisses it as a sort of casual "Of course not." Esther simply pushes some foam from the edge of her cup back into the coffee, and says nothing. Not because she agrees with the doctor... Else she would add her comments, but because he speaks the truth, and she knows affirming this will keep her in the asylum.

There is much much more that the enlightened reader may discover on his or her own, and I recommend that everyone who has read this book in their adolescent fits of suicidal fantasy, should return to the work with an eye towards its social commentary. I think you'll find the work to be stimulating, and still (sadly) relevant today. I only wish that Plath had found the strength to live though her troubles. We would still be reading her book, and revering it as a classic, but uncolored by her own experiences, the book could be freed of our society's focus on Esther's suicide attempt, and more on the conditions that created it, which definitely were NOT in her head. Read more ›