The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath

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... (read more)

Top tags: fictionclassicdepressionmental illnesscoming of age (all tags)

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Jamie E
  • Rated 4 stars

Reading The Bell Jar, I have uncomfortable moments where I see whispers of Esther’s insanity in myself. Plath has created a character (or maybe recorded herself) that is eminently believable, and begins the book with a personality that doesn’t hint at what is to come later. Her apathy and distraction grow so gradually, normality and madness blend into each other so finely, that it is disconcertingly jarring to realize how hazy and meaningless the word “normal” really is. For some reason we...

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  • Rated 4.051558 stars
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  • mostlyspoons

    mostlyspoons said:

    personally, this is my favorite kind of book. An autobiographical account that claims to be fictional. gives real insight to plath's struggle.

    posted Wednesday, July 18 2007
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