Name: The Bell Jar LP
Rating: 4.054979253112033 (1687 reviews)
ISBN: 9780060573096

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar LP

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 experience 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.
(back cover)

The Bell Jar

incredible depiction of mental illness and resilience 

nina

Lara Delaye

this book was super ahead of its time and beautifully written especially the infamous fig tree page and when shes talking about motherhood and how she feels about being a women in the time, i think its super interesting and intriguing and should definitely be seen as a classic but, I really don't think it should be glorified as this "feminist" masterpiece because at the end of the day it isn't feminist only bringing light to pretty white middle-classed women and being incredibly racist and disgusting towards anyone of colour and esther was annoying as fuck bro and maybe thats why she was seen as relatable but overall pretty sadly incredible book ‼️

Bell Jar

bought it for the gag so i could larp feminist literature but it was beautiful. the writing was great. the prose was so pretty. the story was so atmospheric. i love the fig tree metaphor. 

Ahmer Nadeem

I was supposed to be having the time of my life. When Esther Greenwood wins an internship on a New York fashion magazine in 1953, she is elated, believing she will finally realise her dream to become a writer. But in between the cocktail parties and piles of manuscripts, Esther's life begins to slide out of control. She finds herself spiralling into serious depression as she grapples with difficult relationships and a society which refuses to take her aspirations seriously. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath's only novel, was originally published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The novel is partially based on Plath's own life and descent into mental illness, and has become a modern classic.

Josephine Cammarano

I felt the darkness, but nothing else, and my head rose, feeling it, like the head of a worm. Someone was moaning. Then a great, hard weight smashed against my cheek like a stone wall and the moaning stopped.
The silence surged back, smoothing itself as black water smooths to its old surface calm over a dropped stone.
A cool wind rushed by. I was being transported at enormous speed down a tunnel into the earth. Then the wind stopped. There was a rumbling, as of many voices, protesting and disagreeing in distance. Then the voices stopped.
A chisel cracked down on my eye, and a slit of light opened, like a mouth or a wound, till the darkness clamped shut on it again. I tried to roll away from the direction of the light, but hands wrapped round my limbs like mummy bands, and I couldn’t move.

This eBook edition of "The Bell Jar (Unabridged)" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Esther Greenwood, a young woman from the suburbs of Boston, gains a summer internship at a prominent magazine in New York City, under editor Jay Cee; however, Esther is neither stimulated nor excited by either the big city or the glamorous culture and lifestyle that girls her age are expected to idolize and emulate. She instead finds her experience to be frightening and disorienting. From hereafter her mental state keeps deteriorating until she starts feeling helpless as if being kept inside a glass bell jar! The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical, with the names of places and people changed. The book is often regarded as a roman à clef because the protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression or bipolar II disorder. Plath died by suicide a month after its first UK publication. The novel was published under Plath's name for the first time in 1967 and was not published in the United States until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of both Plath's husband, Ted Hughes, and her mother.

The Bell Jar (Unabridged)

Unpopular opinion. I started this book, and I HATED it. The plot was starting and they like went to a party or something (it was about 6 months ago I tried to read it), and even then I was acutely aware of the over description of imagery. Then she gets in a bath, and God, it's awful. I understand it's a style of writing, that intense deep imagery to put you into her perspective, but God it just came off as want to be edgy and deep. I feel like Sylvia Plath was the pomegranate, deer in headlights, TikTok poem equivalent of the 1940s. I just genuinely could not take it, and I've never put down a book so fast--especially when it's as hyped on as The frickin Bell Jar because it WAS The frickin Bell Jar! It was just genuinely unbearable and as an orphan who is a really big advocate for mental health, I thought I would align with her writing. No. Just came off as fake deep. 

Jill

emily alver

Greg Talbot

More than any literary artist I’ve encountered, Plath’s work is inseparable from her personal life. Plath herself says in the end of book interview (published in the Harper Perennial Modern classics edition), that the “Bell jar” is a collection of personal stories, with colorful additions and literary add-ins. The troubling events of self-harm, deterioration, electroshock therapy and suicide, are all events documented as having occurred to Plath. The “Bell Jar” is well written, and not rapturously mad, suggesting the work of a diligent and efficient mind; but in all honesty, it strikes me as a work produced by someone profoundly disturbed. There is a peculiar haunted sense with the novel that I’ve encountered with some albums such as Joy Division’s “Closer” or Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon”. All of these are the work of an artist who has touched something that pulls them away from life and self-preservation. I really didn’t expect the first half to be so colorful. Esther’s character is so modern. Feminist, intelligent, and a little hipster in a 1950s way. Quiet but deep minded. The partying, drinking, flirtations all give us an understanding of who she is. In many ways, it is a coming of age novel. How does she square her career ambitions, her interest in a man, and guide her own way from college. Seems pretty relevant today. You could imagine Esther and her collegiate friends a tv show like “Girls” or other hip tv show. Prepare to be blindsided by turn that the book takes halfway through. Okay, yes, I kinda knew we were headed for darker territory, but Plath takes us to bleakness and desolation so quickly. It’s truly one of the most dark literary experiences I’ve experienced. Esther’s suicide attempts, the perversion of nature, the anxious/schizophrenic observations. The tone is nonplussed, sharp, it disturbs. Was not really sure if the character Joan was real or a hallucination for a while. When I imagine her character sitting on the beach, looking out to the ocean as a gigantic grave, with whalebones… it gives me the creeps still. The book is cold to the end. But we are left with the idea that Esther can change, she is given the chance to present herself. We are reminded that she is surrounded by people trying to help her, even if her character is largely self-absorbed and uncommunicative. Plath’s work as a writer is better exemplified in her soaring and gut-wrenching poetry (see “Ariel”), but the Bell Jar is a worthy accomplishment. It’s confessional tone, it’s brutal unsentimental and willingness to walk the reader through a devastating mental breakdown, requires the work of a great writer. That Plath can gave so much earnestness and never flinches demands our gratitude and respect.

cass

i’m obsessed with the way she writes. it truly feels like i am just reading the thoughts of a girl who doesn’t understand. this book is really great, so so so clever. however, whilst i think it's not a bad book, her poetry is much more full and possesses this brilliance that this novel seems to fall short of reaching.

Jennifer

This was a five star book until the end. It did not go as I thought it would. I loved most of this story. 

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 experience 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.

Source: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060886646/

So sharp!it really is a bad bad dream!!and I need a brainwash now urgently!!!

The Bell Jar LP

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