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The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath

3.88 · rating details · 103,273 ratings · 5,099 reviews

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 pen

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Paperback, 244 pages

Published October 1st 2006 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published 1963)

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Jun 12, 2007

Sammy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: a-the-best

There are many who have read The Bell Jar and absolutely loved it. I am gladly considering myself one of them. I was a little caught of guard when I read a few reviews of The Bell Jar comparing it to The Catcher in the Rye stating how it's the female version of it. I liked Catcher but I know there are many people who didn't and upon hearing that may be similar to Catcher not have the desire to read it. I assure you, The Bell Jar is a book all on it's own and should not be compared to any other b...moreThere are many who have read The Bell Jar and absolutely loved it. I am gladly considering myself one of them. I was a little caught of guard when I read a few reviews of The Bell Jar comparing it to The Catcher in the Rye stating how it's the female version of it. I liked Catcher but I know there are many people who didn't and upon hearing that may be similar to Catcher not have the desire to read it. I assure you, The Bell Jar is a book all on it's own and should not be compared to any other book... even as a compliment.

When I first started reading the book I was a little put off, feeling it was an extremely pretensious novel. Her descriptions were crisp and precise, often using words that one rarely hears spoken or even read. I went into the novel knowing that Plath was a poet and felt that at first the book was just another form of her poetry and her showing off her writing abilities. But that only remained within the first two pages, because after that I became absorbed. The writing that I was a little sketchy about at first helped me visualize the setting and get to know the characters. And though Plath never really described many characters as to their personality, I began to feel I knew them all intimately.

Strangely enough, if you remember in my last review, what bothered me most about The Good Earth did not bother me in The Bell Jar. Because the Esther, the character we are following, is slowly descending into madness, time no longer matters. There are a few times I was confused about the timeline, but it did not upset me.

The book really spoke to me because of my own personal experiences with depression and suicide. It spoke to me as a woman and my views on sex and the confusion I'm sure most other girls out there face. It's amazing that this book was written and published over 30 years ago, really, when a new woman was coming out into the world. I have a feeling that this book helped women realize that they're not alone, and brought things to light that most people have commonly shoved aside; women and men. But what else is amazing is how relevant these topics still are today. Specifically with suicide, and specifically about the virtue and pureness of women compared to men.

So I guess that is why The Bell Jar is often compared to The Catcher in the Rye, with it's discussions and writings of often controversial titles. Setting off a new generation of writers, styles, and people. Another book also came to mind as I was reading, and that was The Perks of Being a Wallflower. There are moments when I could make a few direct comparisons between the two. With Esther slowly seperating herself from socialization and sinking deeper into her own thoughts and depression. Analyzing things that go on around her and her surroundings. Very reminscent of Perks.

If you feel you're suffering from depression, madness, confusion about topics pertaining to society and sex, or just looking for a good read, The Bell Jar is definetly the book for you. I also advise, if you're seriously suffering from depression, to get help for yourself. There is no shame in it, and getting help is better than ending your life. Even if you need to go on medication, DO NOT feel ashamed, especially if it's going to help you even more. (less)

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Mar 16, 2008

Randy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

It's weird how dated books often get remembered for completely different reasons than the author could've possibly intended. I doubt Sylvia Plath thought to herself, "This semi-autobiographical novel will be a poignant look into my adolescence once I attain a cult following for sticking my head in an oven." Or, "I hope my book becomes regarded as a seminal work of postwar ennui and oppressive gender roles."

In The Savage God, A. Alvarez says Sylvia spoke of The...moreIt's weird how dated books often get remembered for completely different reasons than the author could've possibly intended. I doubt Sylvia Plath thought to herself, "This semi-autobiographical novel will be a poignant look into my adolescence once I attain a cult following for sticking my head in an oven." Or, "I hope my book becomes regarded as a seminal work of postwar ennui and oppressive gender roles."

In The Savage God, A. Alvarez says Sylvia spoke of The Bell Jar "with some embarrassment as an autobiographical apprentice-work which she had to write in order to free herself from the past." I can forgive her for being so severe on herself. When you're writing the poems that later become Ariel, it's hard not to consider everything you've written before a steaming pile of crap. But there's an element of truth to her self-criticism.

I give it three stars on its own merits. The woman clearly knew how to write, and the imagery is utterly mind-blowing. With so much misinformation about depression being a primitive pity-fest--and the fact that there are so many pills you can take for it now--not many people realize what an expansive and inexplicable experience depression can be. You can't demean or diminish depression after you've read The Bell Jar.

I give it another star for cultural and historical relevance. This book could be read in a history class on the 1950s. While Betty Freidan was writing about "the problem that has no name," Sylvia Plath was creating a character that was acting it out. And Plath's poetic rendering of depression has taken on increased significance given the explosion of incidence rates since 1980.

But the book is very dated, in social setting, cultural references (she mentions the Rosenbergs in the first sentence to set the mood), and to a lesser extent language. These limitations wouldn't necessarily be problematic if the themes were more universal (cf. The Catcher in the Rye), but to some extent the resonance of the book is limited by its roots in specific social contexts (e.g., the gender roles) and its emphasis on describing a state of mind that is very hard to communicate and to which few people can relate directly (e.g., the depression). Although she does an amazing job translating such a specific experience into a novel that can be appreciated by anyone, she's right to point out that it's too rooted in specific themes and events to be as universally applicable as some of her later poems.

But there's no question that it's still worth everybody's time, and it's held up for me over multiple readings. She was a hell of an author.
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Mar 29, 2008

Mister Jones rated it

Recommends it for: Peppy Sorority Girls who like Betty Crocker oven recipes

Recommended to Mister Jones by: a self-absorbed pedantic prof of gender-studies

[groan] when I was in my twenties, I read this book and liked it immensely; I related to Esther; I empathized with her angst and anxiety about what life had handed unfairly to her, and how she had enabled all of that woe to alienate her from a world she felt she had no part. The prose was clear; well-written; and was steeped in persecution and isolation as Esther spiraled into the darkest recesses of depression.

In grad school, all I heard was how great Ms. Plath was, how her writing-...more

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Aug 27, 2007

Nadine V. rated it

I feel kind of bad for not liking this book. I guess as a Gender/Culture/Society major with a minor in English Lit, this is supposed to be my JAM. Unfortunately (?), I hated this book. The Bell Jar is the classic privileged-white-girl-has-nervous-breakdown story; I'm probably supposed to relate to it. Plath wants us to see her stand-in Esther as a victim: driven insane by the dismal options afforded her as a privileged-white-girl in her particular time & place. Esther's breakdown seems precipita...more

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Feb 19, 2010

Choupette rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Choupette by: Mr Pryke, but I'd heard of it before

Shelves: to-be-re-read, classics, own-or-access

Last time I read this, which was also the first time I read this, I was quite unhappy because I was seventeen and I'd just had a stroke. Reading this at that time made me feel more depressed than I ever have been before or, I think, since. I felt emptied, hollowed-out, as if all of my internal organs had been removed. I felt completely crushed, like all the air had been sucked out of my lungs - annihilated. It was a physical sensation.

At some stage during the two-and-a-half years si...moreLast time I read this, which was also the first time I read this, I was quite unhappy because I was seventeen and I'd just had a stroke. Reading this at that time made me feel more depressed than I ever have been before or, I think, since. I felt emptied, hollowed-out, as if all of my internal organs had been removed. I felt completely crushed, like all the air had been sucked out of my lungs - annihilated. It was a physical sensation.

At some stage during the two-and-a-half years since then, I realised that I'd forgotten major parts of the plot - in fact, most of the book was a blank. This was pretty darned annoying, because it's the sort of book that comes up in conversation quite frequently, and suddenly Sylvia (oops, I mean Esther, of course) was supposed to have lost her virginity via haemorrhaging and I remembered nothing.

But I was always scared to reread it because I didn't think it was a good idea to be as depressed as I was the first time, ever again. I couldn't think of any time that was more convenient for depression than any other. Basically I think there is no good time for it. But then a couple of days ago I picked it up and started reading, though I had another book alongside me the whole time, even on public transport - just in case. And I was reading gingerly the whole time, waiting for the fall to come.

It never did - this time I found it only mildly depressing. Which was a huge relief. It did remind me of all sorts of strange things: of how insane I was for a while there, of how I hated talking to a group of people because I could never decide which person to fix my eyes on, of how people used to treat me so weirdly until sometimes I had to shout at them before they would stop. It reminded me of the perverse pleasure I took out of this book the first time around, because I seemed to be doing so much better than Esther. Maybe I wasn't doing so much better.

Rather than being depressing, actually, it was a bit scary. Because the first part of the book - before she returns home from New York - is almost normal. Esther could be many young women: Plath does a beautiful job of it. Young, overachieving, naive, idealistic women, and the process of their disillusionment. Their tame, pathetic neuroses, their abandoned dreams, the squalor and dirt of the world which gradually reveals itself to them. There's truth in the turky gizzard and turkey neck, anyway. At least in the first part of the book, it's difficult to see how Esther is different from the countless other people for whom life turns out not to be quite what they expected. Given what happens afterwards, that's a little bit scary.

The way she talked about sex was both fascinating and frightening - the cold, calculating way she went about losing her virginity, the way she saw her own body, her fears about the future, her obsession with getting married, Buddy Willard's awful self-centred chauvinism. I wish it wasn't like this, I wish it was never like this, I wish it wasn't still like this. It was horrible. Generally I don't think men are as bad as all that.

Also she writes really well, something which I didn't really realise before because I could never really get into her poetry. In this book, at least, she mixes the colloquial with the beautiful to make something sublime and profound. I really like it.

"The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence.
I knew perfectly well the cars were making a noise, and the people in them and behind the lit windows of the buildings were making a noise, and the river was making a noise, but I couldn't hear a thing. The city hung in my window, flat as a poster, glittering and blinking, but it might just as well not have been there at all, for all the good it did me."

"From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and off-beat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out.
I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig-tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."

I really like this. I really like the image of the bell jar: "wherever I sat - on the deck of a ship or at a street cafe in Paris or Bangkok - I would be sitting in the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air." I do think, I really do think, that Sylvia Plath was a bit of a genius. A small genius, maybe, but there was something there.(less)

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Aug 17, 2011

Beth rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-reads, classic, august-2011

I don't know.

I can enjoy the bleakest of books. Living Dead Girl, for example, is one of the most brutal, unforgiving books I've ever read, and yet I still managed to find a kind of small, sick enjoyment - presumably in flipping the pages in a frenzy, panicking, never knowing what was going to happen next and not being sure if I wanted to know. I am using Living Dead Girl as an example because it's truly one of those helpless books, where a happy ending is just not possible.

...moreI don't know.

I can enjoy the bleakest of books. Living Dead Girl, for example, is one of the most brutal, unforgiving books I've ever read, and yet I still managed to find a kind of small, sick enjoyment - presumably in flipping the pages in a frenzy, panicking, never knowing what was going to happen next and not being sure if I wanted to know. I am using Living Dead Girl as an example because it's truly one of those helpless books, where a happy ending is just not possible.

The Bell Jar is like that but, then again, not. It involved me. It involved me in the worst possible way. While reading it, I felt like I was being slowly dragged under tepid water. There is a heavy inevitability to all that happens to Esther. I began to feel depressed myself, to be affected by Esther's "what's the point?" attitude towards everything. While I am immensely sympathetic to people who suffer from depression, I also think that depression is one of the worst emotions in the world. I hate any kind of involvement in that feeling whatsoever. In spite of Plath's talent, I began to hate reading The Bell Jar. Yet I couldn't stop.

Maybe this book should get five stars. Maybe it deserves them. But I can't bring myself to give them. There was no relish in The Bell Jar. There was no enjoyment. That is obviously the point -- Esther is seriously depressed and mentally ill, but still, Plath's depiction of her mental illness was so palpable that I couldn't see a light at the end of the tunnel, even when the (view spoiler) rolled around. I could write a lot of standard critiques, like "the characters were unlikeable", but I only feel that unlikeability truly counts if we're supposed to sympathise with and love the characters. Obviously not Plath's intention. There were "no driving questions" - true, because it was all to mirror Esther's increasingly lifeless and hopeless outlook.

Brief rant: however, I cannot see why this book is called a 'feminist' text. Why, because it revolves around an intellectual woman who isn't sure about getting married and having a family? Seriously, those are the only two components of Esther's character that I could really call 'feminist.' Maybe I have a skewed view of feminism, but to me, a feminist text is one that celebrates or depicts female triumph, success or, failing that, strength. To me, even the bleakest of books can be feminist if they revolve around a woman's strength (the movie Volver is my favourite example of this.) Yes, Sylvia Plath depicts the hypocrisy and incomprehension of men, particularly through Esther's first doctor, to the point where the novel borders on misandry; however, Esther also has a dislike of all people (with the exception of Dr. Nolan, who might be one of my favourite supporting characters ever), which makes it difficult to see this, and Esther's determination not to help herself, although I am well aware that this was probably a feature of Esther's depression and she should not be blamed for it, does undermine the whole "one woman against a corrupt and brutal system" conflict that feminists seem to play out. Also, to me, The Bell Jar is a novel about one woman's fundamental weaknesses and failures. Is it called feminist because it dealt with a very taboo subject? Granted, Plath/Esther (the two blur for me, since The Bell Jar is so blatantly autobiographical) has a horrible time in her first round of (view spoiler), but her condition seems to improve after the first round. There's no real scathing take on mental institutions here. This isn't a novel about feminism. This is a novel about a woman. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Four stars for excellent execution.
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Aug 20, 2010

Bird Brian rated it

Shelves: the-mind, literature-20th-century

I am not a mental health professional, and I claim no expertise in that field. I know this book speaks to many people about gender issues, and I'm sorry to give that short shrift, but I read this book from the standpoint of somebody who's had a person close to me commit suicide. It has been a while since I thought about this book, but I saw a friend's Goodreads review recently, and just coincidentally the Human Resources dept where I work has lately been active addressing suicide prevention. I...moreI am not a mental health professional, and I claim no expertise in that field. I know this book speaks to many people about gender issues, and I'm sorry to give that short shrift, but I read this book from the standpoint of somebody who's had a person close to me commit suicide. It has been a while since I thought about this book, but I saw a friend's Goodreads review recently, and just coincidentally the Human Resources dept where I work has lately been active addressing suicide prevention. I can't help wondering what this book says about the experience of depression. ...That statement may be simplistic; depression may not be a single entity, but a constellation of different conditions with similar symptoms. I've read some distinctions between "psychological" and "biochemical" depression. The biochemical category makes sense, but the more I read about "psychological" depression, the harder it is to believe anybody really knows what is meant by that term. Maybe it just represents forms of biochemical depression that haven't been elucidated yet. Maybe what seems like a "psychological" component is just incidental. Legitimate grieving or life stressors may lower the threshold for biological depressions to declare themselves, but may not actually cause depression. From my lay perspective, this seems to make intuitive sense, because we read about people like Anne Frank or Loung Ung, who faced horrible and prolonged psychological assaults, but did not seem to be clinically depressed. I presume it's because they had no biochemical disposition towards depression. If Anne Frank isn't a case against the existance of psychological depression, I don't know who is.

One form of biologic depression involves insufficient Serotonin. That's a neurotransmitter, a chemical responsible for signal transmission in the brain. Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors like Prozac or Zoloft treat depression by increasing the concentration of Serotonin at brain nerve endings. Plath's metaphor for her depression as a bell jar makes perfect sense in this context. She compares her life experience to the rarified atmosphere under the sealed glass dome of a vacuum pump. It seems like she was trying to tell us that her depression wasn't situational at all, it was a perception of some kind of insufficiency. I have to believe this distinction was important to her. After all, the title of the book is "The Bell Jar", not some reference to any of the situational stressors in her life. As I look at the suicide prevention materials from work, it bothers me that there is no mention of this anywhere. I'm sure what is listed here has some merit: risk factors, warning signs, recommendations, etc. But there's nothing here about comparisons to suffocation, or a vague sense of smothering or insufficiency. I wonder whether anybody has ever investigated that as a warning sign or risk factor for suicide.(less)

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Oct 11, 2007

Greg Carmichael rated it

Going into The Bell Jar I expected immediate immersion into a world of gloom followed by the incessant whining that often accompanies that world. Those of you who have read Prozac Nation know exactly what I mean. What else should I have expected from a woman who committed suicide by putting her head in an oven?

Perhaps that is why I put it off reading this classic for so long. Yet to my pleasant surprise, the novel opens on a high note describing a young Esther Greenwood in the mid...moreGoing into The Bell Jar I expected immediate immersion into a world of gloom followed by the incessant whining that often accompanies that world. Those of you who have read Prozac Nation know exactly what I mean. What else should I have expected from a woman who committed suicide by putting her head in an oven?

Perhaps that is why I put it off reading this classic for so long. Yet to my pleasant surprise, the novel opens on a high note describing a young Esther Greenwood in the midst of a summer internship working for a fashion magazine in New York City. We find Esther to be extremely intelligent and analytical if somewhat detached. Plath endears us to Esther through her wit—she takes very little at face value and her whimsical cynicism is strangely charming.

Through the first third of the novel, I couldn’t help but imagine her as Capote’s Holly Golightly before she became a top-shelf prostitute (forgetting, of course, all that we learn about Golightly’s past later in the novel). Smart in looks and mind, she maintains an air of fetching naiveté and entitlement, and I fell for her just like Plath wanted me to.

It is only after Esther has our affection and sympathy that Plath sends her into the downward spiral that she herself experienced. We track Esther’s illness as she contends with a boyfriend she despises, superficial friends, mental institutions and an obsession to lose her virginity. I found this to be a very real depiction of depression, no doubt due to the autobiographical nature of the novel. Often people associate depression with sadness or some upsetting external issue. Yet as we learn through Esther’s descent, apathy and fatigue are very real culprits and are often seen instead as character defects.

The Bell Jar gives us insight into Plath’s particular brand of depression as well as any biography on her could. It is not a cheerful read but has several moments of humor and levity that make it bearable to one not inclined to read a book on this subject.
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Sep 07, 2009

Annalisa rated it

Shelves: classics, psychology

I really wish I had read this book back in college when I could have related so much more to Esther's character. Scenes like where she fed her clothes out to the wind or pondered moving out to Chicago with nothing but a fake identity or more than anything stood invisible in the shadows as she watched her neighbor cross her house, I could see myself (feel myself) in her at that age. If I had read this when I was in college, I would have seen myself in Esther and wondered if I had the potential to...moreI really wish I had read this book back in college when I could have related so much more to Esther's character. Scenes like where she fed her clothes out to the wind or pondered moving out to Chicago with nothing but a fake identity or more than anything stood invisible in the shadows as she watched her neighbor cross her house, I could see myself (feel myself) in her at that age. If I had read this when I was in college, I would have seen myself in Esther and wondered if I had the potential to go mad. I connected to the immensity of Esther's young, somewhat selfish, poignantly observant, and fatalistically driven character. What struck me as odd and yet familiar was the almost obsessive randomness of her actions--rituals that held no emotional attachment but she followed through to attach herself to something as if it made her look normal.

At one point Esther mentioned in passing something about her childhood and it felt so honest and real that I felt that she were real, or that Plath were sharing a part of herself with me. It's what makes Esther's character so three-dimensional and I don't know that I can separate Esther and Plath. I loved the eloquent description and her fabulous metaphors. I wish I had marked them because they happened in the beginning when Esther was lucid and by the end I had forgotten them. The strongest is the image of depression (or mental illness) being like looking at the world through a distorted, suffocating bell jar, very powerful. I took this route with Esther as all hope and ambition failed her and she hung all her self esteem on an acceptance letter and when that failed, she had nothing else holding her up. I could relate to that, to postponing depression to a fixed event.

I was almost disappointed with the second half because I wanted to feel the madness in Esther, but it wasn't crazy, it was depression, cold, languid, mind-numbing depression. Plath stops describing the the backdrop to the scenes, stops analyzing, stops telling us how Esther feels. I felt gypped, that I had connected with Esther and then she didn't feel real to me anymore, until I realized that just like Esther quit showering and changing her clothes, she quit describing her world to me. And when she started feeling again, I knew she would be alright. I love the unknown at the end. I don't need to know what Esther does because Plath already showed me that she was seeing the world again, without the bell jar.

It's a beautifully written novel. I know I love psychology and would have loved it anyway, but that part was so quiet, it was the poetic description and a very real Esther that made me like the book—or maybe the fact that I like to read about crazy people. I tried not to think about Plath committing suicide as I read the book, but it was there, not because it made the book morbidly fascinating, but because it made it raw. I can see Plath writing this novel as her own therapy with Esther as a thinly veiled version of herself. I just don't know what to do with the unemotional description of depression and the hope for recovery other than believe Plath wanted to be better, to be happy and maybe through Esther she could see that for herself even if she never got there.(less)

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Aug 05, 2007

carolime rated it

· review of another edition

i really, really enjoyed this one. i knew i would; everyone recommended it to me and all my bests appreciated it wholeheartedly. i even picked up a paperback copy at a used bookstore years ago and didn't read it until now!

my bad. this is an awesome novel. it traces the mental breakdown of a college-age girl who seemingly has everything right. you know, grades, awards, scholarships, internships, etc. of course, the bell jar enumerates actual events and characters from the life of syl...morei really, really enjoyed this one. i knew i would; everyone recommended it to me and all my bests appreciated it wholeheartedly. i even picked up a paperback copy at a used bookstore years ago and didn't read it until now!

my bad. this is an awesome novel. it traces the mental breakdown of a college-age girl who seemingly has everything right. you know, grades, awards, scholarships, internships, etc. of course, the bell jar enumerates actual events and characters from the life of sylvia plath. so on some levels, it rings alarmingly true to real experience. i never suffered mental dissolution on this level- but i was always guilty of having the surface "perfect academic life" and the internal riots of doubt and neurosis. thus, i think the thoughts and experiences this book intimates are crucially important to understanding young women, the modern era, overachievers, sexuality in intellectuals, etc.

you know how you always try to identify with the main character? or even the narrator (if they're separate.) you align some aspect of your personality, your features, even your goals. it always makes the story more real, and i think that for myself it allows me to completely block out my own world and join the story-world. how could you cry at the end of the book if you weren't in story-world? the bell jar, for me, required no effort at all to indentify with the protagonist.

she's smart, observant, driven, snarky, emotional, creative, introspective; and eventually, neurotic, timorous, questioning, judgemental. she faces all sorts of the same questions i (and most of my peer group) faces. intellectualism or self-satisfied family life? sex or love? the outside world or my mental space? caring about everything or caring about nothing? it is the way esther, the main character, treats these questions that makes her fabulously real and alarmingly close to home. she isn't consistent. she identifies her goals but also recognizes her own behaviors as subverting them. she's her own sharpest critic-- and it that what brings about her mental breakdown?

i think, too, that i was really touched by her realizations about place-- that the city (new york OF COURSE) is overwhelming. full of people and things and maybe not all of them are worth caring about. but how can one sort out that challenge? the suburbs, by comparison, are small-minded and sleepy, capable only of choking one's brain. other places in the novel-- cities that aren't new york, the mental institution, various hospitals and doctor's offices-- these places seek to enrich the basic dichotomy. they counterpoint and fine-tune, often offering respite or challenges of their own. i think that i'm pretty influenced by places and that my own mentality often aligns place with mental state. would i go crazy if i had to move back and live with my parents in their northern virginia bedroom community? crazy is a relative term, i suppose.(less)

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Aug 13, 2007

Chris rated it

I'm really not sure what to say about this book. It was a fascinating read, but I didn't really love it. And yet at times I could really relate to Esther...to almost a scary degree, actually.

Early in the book, she seems like the poster child for the so-called quarter life crisis, and (unsurprisingly) that's the part of the book where I really felt like I was over-relating to her. I actually had trouble getting through that section, and I wonder if it's because I found myself rec...more

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Jul 02, 2008

Logan rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Logan by: Charity

Shelves: classics, fiction, 1001-list, i_am_in_love

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 29, 2010

Adrienne rated it

Shelves: my-classics

Ok you should know that when I started this I knew very little about Sylvia Plath, her writing or her personal story. I think reading the Bell Jar without all the 'baggage' that comes with knowing too much was a good thing. The story I read was fascinating! I felt as though I were in the story as Esthers companion as she slipped into her dark place. The first third of her story was written like a regular novel, I thought maybe this would be a high class/literary predecessor of Valley of the Dol...more

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Oct 14, 2007

Christina barry rated it

Interview
1.) Why are you in New York?
I’m currently here for a month. I’m working as a guest editor for a fashion magazine.

2.) Why did you leave Doreen alone with a guy that she had just met, especially if she was drunk?
Well, I saw that Doreen and her date were having fun, joking around and playing. Besides that I was starting to get bored and a little irritated with them so I figured I’d just go home.
3.) Why did Doreen miss the luncheon?
She jus...more

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Feb 10, 2009

Jennifer rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone.

Shelves: memoirs, classics, tmi

I read this a couple of times in my teenage years. It was really the perfect book when you are a teenager being ravaged by hormones and feeling like quite the outsider - not to mention depressed.

I read a review of this book that said this book was dated. I think I understand what they mean by that - but I never felt that way. Just like when you read any book written in another time period you have to allow yourself to be transported into the time the book was written in. So I guess ...moreI read this a couple of times in my teenage years. It was really the perfect book when you are a teenager being ravaged by hormones and feeling like quite the outsider - not to mention depressed.

I read a review of this book that said this book was dated. I think I understand what they mean by that - but I never felt that way. Just like when you read any book written in another time period you have to allow yourself to be transported into the time the book was written in. So I guess I would have to say, a book isn't dated if it is written in another time - it just takes place in the past. (Unless of course it's a non-fiction book for Business or Health or something.) I understand the treatment for and behavior toward depression as portrayed in the book is rather disturbingly primitive by modern pill popping standards, but it was the reality of the illness at the time.

It's hard to separate the iconic hugeness of Sylvia Plath from her book. To write a book about depression and alienation and suicide and then later kill yourself - that's hard to shake off as you read it. I am actually glad I read this before I really knew anything about Ms. Plath (in the 80's in a small town in Wisconsin - we didn't talk much about Sylvia Plath at the local Perkins.) I almost feel like I got to experience The Bell Jar before all the mess of her real life tainted the experience. (I hate spoilers - I like to walk into something and have my opinion be formed on my thoughts and not be lead into my perception - which I find is way to easy to do - yes I am a sheep.) That all being said I should read this again when I come across my old tattered copy - it would be fun to read it through 37 year old eyes rather than 17 year old eyes.

There is an image I think of very often from this book - Esther is at a bar and she doesn't know what to order for a drink. So she orders a glass of vodka neat because she saw it in an ad in a magazine and the image stuck in her head - it looked so cool and crisp and refreshing. I am not sure why but of all the things in this book that is one of the images that sticks so crisply in my head.

Finally - This is one of those books that everyone should read. It's referenced all over the place and it's really a part of the 20th century literature Cannon of books "you should read". Last night I was watching a Family Guy episode and Meg was laying on the bed reading "The Bell Jar". Seriously - if this book is in a Family Guy episode then this book is all over the place. Ya gotta read it at least once.
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Jul 05, 2008

Taylor rated it

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I've never shied away from depressing material, but there's a difference between the tone serving the story, and a relentlessly depressing work that goes entirely nowhere. I know it can be viewed as a glimpse into Plath's mind, but I would rather do a lot of things, some quite painful, than read this again. It hurt to get through it, and I think it's self-indulgent and serves no real artistic purpose. Which is truly a shame, as I love a lot of Plath's poetry.

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Feb 02, 2012

Ikra Amesta rated it

· review of another edition

Saat Esther Greenwood mengawali narasinya sambil memikirkan pasangan kriminal yang hendak dieksekusi listrik, maka pembaca bisa mengidentifikasi arah cerita di buku ini adalah menuju jurang depresi. Dan dalam halaman berikutnya, si tokoh utama sudah memberikan prolog karakternya yang “tidak menyetir apapun, bahkan diriku sendiri,” dan juga “hening dan hampa seperti pusat pusaran tornado yang bergerak dungu di tengah-tengah kebisingan,” lalu dari sana kita meluncur bebas ke dalam pikiran Esther y...moreSaat Esther Greenwood mengawali narasinya sambil memikirkan pasangan kriminal yang hendak dieksekusi listrik, maka pembaca bisa mengidentifikasi arah cerita di buku ini adalah menuju jurang depresi. Dan dalam halaman berikutnya, si tokoh utama sudah memberikan prolog karakternya yang “tidak menyetir apapun, bahkan diriku sendiri,” dan juga “hening dan hampa seperti pusat pusaran tornado yang bergerak dungu di tengah-tengah kebisingan,” lalu dari sana kita meluncur bebas ke dalam pikiran Esther yang tidak hanya berliku tapi juga pecah-belah.

Esther memiliki semua hal untuk dicemburui. Sebagai gadis remaja, ia pintar secara akademis, memperoleh beasiswa bergengsi, menerima berbagai penghargaan, bekerja di majalah mode, berpesta dan bertemu dengan para sosialita di malam hari. Namun di balik semua keistimewaan hidupnya tersebut, Esther merasakan guncangan dalam setiap jejak napasnya yang terasa tanpa arah yang pasti. Ia menampilkan dirinya selalu berada dalam kecamuk batin yang hebat mengenai segala hal. Lalu akhirnya Buddy Willard, sang kekasih, menunjukkan jalan terang bagi Esther. Lewat sifat munafik Buddy yang polos, Esther menderita mental breakdown yang membimbingnya ke tempat rehabilitasi mental di mana sesekali ia mendapatkan terapi kejut.

Namun sebenarnya ini bukan kisah mengenai cinta yang menghancurkan hidup seorang perempuan muda. Dari awal, Esther memang pribadi yang rumit. Masalah hubungan percintaannya itu hanya seperti buah cheri yang diletakkan di puncak kue tart, yang menjadi titik akhir akumulasi kisah hidupnya yang mendorong Esther untuk mencoba bunuh diri (perdebatan batin mengenai cara, bagaimana, dan kapan bunuh diri dilakukan adalah proses yang tidak kalah kompleks). Masalah Esther, lebih dalam lagi, adalah masalah yang berkaitan dengan isu eksistensi manusia dalam hidup dan bersosialisasi. Esther menyebutkan bahwa dirinya “tidak bisa hidup di pedesaan atau kota” yang menyiratkan ketidakmampuannya untuk berada di dalam batas kenormalan atau norma yang diakui oleh masyarakat atau bahkan menjadi bagian dari peradaban sosial. Esther terlalu sibuk mencari jati diri di dalam dirinya sendiri namun ia menutup kemungkinan untuk bisa melihat “dirinya” dari orang-orang yang berada di sekitarnya sehingga ia menjadi seperti planet kecil yang berputar dengan kacau balau pada orbitnya sendiri.

Esther sebagai seorang perempuan, bisa dilihat sebagai kritik terhadap posisi perempuan di dalam dunia ini yang selalu menjadi korban. Keputusannya untuk tidak mau menikah atau memiliki anak justru malah menyudutkan takdirnya sebagai perempuan. Kebebasan untuk menjalani hidup menjadi hal yang dipertanyakan bagi perempuan. Dunia sastra sudah lama mempersonifikasikan masalah tersebut dari mulai dilema Anna Karenina, delusi Madam Bovary, represi gadis-gadis keluarga Lisbon, sampai yang termodern, sifat antisosial Lisbeth Salander.

Karya semi-otobiografis dari Sylvia Plath ini memang memiliki gaung yang keras. Terlepas dari kisah tragis yang mengikuti sang penulisnya (bunuh diri beberapa minggu setelah buku ini diterbitkan), konflik mengenai kebingungan dan kegalauan seorang perempuan dalam menjalani hidup ini merupakan sebuah echo yang akan terus berpantulan dari masa ke masa.
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Apr 18, 2008

Tracy Elizabeth rated it

Recommends it for: my ex

I only had to read it once. I never read it for or with pleasure. I prefer childbirth.

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Jan 14, 2009

Maggie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-classic, audiobooks

The writing is perfect. The story will leave you hungry for Prozac.

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Dec 02, 2008

Beverly rated it

Excerpted from my blog review:

If, like me, you've missed The Bell Jar, then I say, pick it up fast. This is the story of Esther, a bright young woman who has made a life of winning scholarships and academic prizes, who is in danger of breaking under the pressure of expectations. Her narration is articulate and often truly funny. Her love of words comes through as she writes with precision about the sense of being under the bell jar. The most frightening line of the book occurs af...more

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Aug 19, 2011

Manny rated it

Shelves: too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

Warning: this review contains major spoilers for the movie Melancholia

The paradox at the heart of The Bell Jar is that Esther, the narrator, comes across as an engaging and indeed admirable person. She's smart, funny, perceptive and seems to have everything going for her. But she feels less and less connected with life, and in the end just wants to kill herself. Evidently, there must be something wrong with her. Perhaps she would have been okay if only she'd been prescribed the appro...more

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Sep 10, 2008

Melissa rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

Okay, I know this is a classic, well-written, etc. My rating is not based on the writing, but solely on how much I enjoyed reading the book…and I didn’t enjoy it at all. From the very beginning, even before her breakdown, I found very little to care for or associate with about Esther. She seemed cynical, disdainful, self-important, and manipulative. I just flat out didn’t like her. So when she really began to have some trouble mentally (actually, even before that) I, as a reader, wanted to ...more

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Apr 06, 2009

Molly rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Molly by: Kate & Mom

Shelves: fiction

I know I have enjoyed a book if, upon completion, I find myself searching out more information about it and the author so that the experience does not end - which is exactly what I did here.

You would think I would want the story of depression and suicidal thoughts to leave me as soon as the last page was over. But this book is really more about the spirit of survival when you are trapped inside yourself and fearful because the rest of the world expects something completely different...more

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Oct 08, 2007

Núria rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anybody, specially those who know what sadness is

Shelves: mios, 2006, 5-favoritos, literatura-en-ingles, siglo-xx, para-la-isla-desierta

No es que alguna vez pueda ser objetiva, pero con este libro lo puedo ser aún menos, porque habla de tantas cosas que me las siento cercanas que da miedo. Esther Greenwood es una chica de 19 años que tiene un expediente académico brillante y ha conseguido algunos premios literarios. Cuando empieza el libro, ella está en Nueva York, porque ha ganado una especie de beca de una revista de modas. Ella es la encarnación de la perfecta joven americana con un prometedor futuro por delante. El problema ...moreNo es que alguna vez pueda ser objetiva, pero con este libro lo puedo ser aún menos, porque habla de tantas cosas que me las siento cercanas que da miedo. Esther Greenwood es una chica de 19 años que tiene un expediente académico brillante y ha conseguido algunos premios literarios. Cuando empieza el libro, ella está en Nueva York, porque ha ganado una especie de beca de una revista de modas. Ella es la encarnación de la perfecta joven americana con un prometedor futuro por delante. El problema es que los caminos que están diseñados para ella no le acaban de convencer. Tiene la sensación que todas las opciones la limitan. Y la que más repelús le da es tener que ser virgen hasta el matrimonio para casarse con Buddy Willard, el perfecto joven americano que le ha sido asignado. El problema es que Buddy Willard es un hipócrita (como hipócrita es la obligación de mantenerse virgen hasta el matrimonio que le imponen) y, además, también es un personaje que no puede entender ni lo más mínimo a Esther y que siempre está preparado para ningunear sus logros (como hombre castrador que es). Esther está perdida y no encaja. No encaja ni con las chicas buenas ni con las chicas malas, ya que las dos opciones son arquetipos cuadriculados (creados por los hombres). La lectura feminista es evidente, pero hay mucho más.

Esther acaba cayendo en la locura. Pero, aunque se nos muestra que el mundo que le rodea es una locura, no es exactamente ésta la causa. La locura está dentro de la misma Esther. Es como una enfermedad latente a punto de aparecer en cualquier momento. Es por esto que da tanto miedo. Primero es simplemente una chica perdida y confusa, pero de pronto todo lo que siente le lleva a una depresión de verano, sin que podamos apreciar qué ha sido lo que ha producido este cambio. Y finalmente, en el tercer estadio, la depresión se convierte en locura. No es tanto que esté loca sino que la tristeza no la deja vivir, la anula. Y otra vez, el paso de la depresión a la locura es tan sutil que asusta. No hay nada que lo provoque y es por esto que asusta, porque no puedo evitar pensar que las probabilidades de pasar de la segunda a la tercera fase existen. Cuando está en la fase depresiva, Esther intenta ver un psicólogo, salir con amigos, con hombres, acercarse a la religión... pero nada de esto la puede salvar, porque la tristeza está dentro de ella y no puede escapar de ninguna forma.

Es una obra fascinante. Esther es un personaje fascinante. Es inteligente, inconformista y lúcida, y es capaz de ver la hipocresía y la absurdidad que hay en el mundo, aunque también tiene defectos, el principal es ser terriblemente egoísta. Es una obra muy muy muy dura. Te deja con una sensación de impotencia porque te das cuenta de que no hay nada que pueda ayudar a Esther. Y el final abierto es desolador. Me encanta como en la primera parte, la que pasa en Nueva York, todo es claro, pero una vez está en su casa y las ganas de no hacer nada la invaden, la narración se vuelve cada vez más ambigua, predominan las elipsis y todo va adquiriendo cada vez más y más un aire de pesadilla de la que no se puede escapar. Es una obra tremenda. Y buenísima. Perfecta, diría. No le sobra ni le falta nada. Una de las obras que más me ha impresionado. Una de mis favoritas entre las favoritas. (less)

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Jun 09, 2007

Gary rated it

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This is a poem by Sylvia Plath included after the book

Mad Girl's Love Song
A villanelle

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane. ...more

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Aug 06, 2007

Lisa Vegan rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: young women, everybody who enjoys really good fiction

Shelves: fiction, reviewed, novels, favorites

I first read this book when I was 19 and I loved it; it immediately became one of my favorite books, even though I went through a long bout of writers’ block that I attribute to my reading of it. I think that it’s a truly brilliant novel (and I really felt for Sylvia Plath when I found out that upon publication it got scathingly poor reviews). It’s hilarious and tragic and I so empathize with the protagonist. Like many first novels, it’s a thinly veiled biographical work. I know that a lot of pe...more

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Dec 25, 2007

Greg rated it

Wow. This is one of those books I've heard about for years and kept putting off reading until I started discussing it with one of my students. I told her I'd seen it on one of those awful "Our Employees Recommend" shelves at Barnes and Noble and the reader had called it a "feminine version of Catcher in the Rye." My student laughed and told me that was totally off-base and I should read it for myself. So I did. And was completely caught off guard. Raw, funny and heartbreaking...more

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Jun 05, 2007

Mauri rated it

Shelves: own

Written in the first person, therefore, if the main character dies, the book ends, right? Right? Right?!

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Jun 04, 2009

Laurel rated it

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Shelves: fiction, psychology

I recently listened to an audio recording of Sylvia Plath's poetry (spoken in her own voice), which I found beautifully expressed, though not surprisingly also quite dark and melancholic.

The same can be said of her semi-autobiographical book The Bell Jar. Set in the 1950's, it is the story of the intelligent and gifted young Esther Greenwood who slowly experiences a psychological breakdown. This breakdown occurs following a short period of interning as an editor at a magazine company...more

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Dec 29, 2008

Matt rated it

On February 11, 1963, Sylvia Plath turned on the gas and stuck her head in an oven. This information is oddly missing from the back cover of The Bell Jar, which gives only her date of death, as though she'd gone quietly at the end of a long, untroubled life. I found this omission glaring, because Plath's death haunts every page of this beautifully written semi-autobiographical story of a woman going insane. Indeed, there were times I felt her sitting on my shoulder as a ghostly angel.

...moreOn February 11, 1963, Sylvia Plath turned on the gas and stuck her head in an oven. This information is oddly missing from the back cover of The Bell Jar, which gives only her date of death, as though she'd gone quietly at the end of a long, untroubled life. I found this omission glaring, because Plath's death haunts every page of this beautifully written semi-autobiographical story of a woman going insane. Indeed, there were times I felt her sitting on my shoulder as a ghostly angel.

The Bell Jar starts in New York City, "the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs." The narrator, Esther Greenwood, has a prestigious internship with a fashion magazine. The book starts as she breezily recounts this time, and its hard not to conjure up an image of The Devil Wears Prada: beautiful young woman on the make, martini in one hand, a pashmina shawl in the other, propped up on tall stilleto heels. As the book moves forward, the reader is introduced to a quirky, self-deprecating young woman. The farther into the story, the quirkiness turns to something darker.

The power in this book is the fact that Esther, narrating in the first-person, never comes out and says, "then I went crazy." Indeed, except for a brief reference Esther makes to her future as a sane, married woman (if only...), events unfold in real time, with Esther as unsure about her present and future as the reader.

The mid-section of this book is Esther's scrupulously detailed breakdown: a succession of doctors; a mother who doesn't understand and wants her to snap out of it; life in an asylum; electro-shock therapy; insulin therapy; a "Negro" nurse's aid who feeds her two types of beans.

Plath is blisteringly honest. She details the loss of her virginity with candor that is surprising even today, not to mention the date when it was first published.

The book carries a lot of reverberations. It is poignant, honest, unflinching. It also clings to a shred of hope. Of course, the reader knows that there was no hope, and in the end, the demons won. I would suggest this book, and highly; I would not suggest reading it on Christmas Eve, as I inexplicably chose to do. (less)

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About Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer.

Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The book's protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is a bright, ambitious student at Smith College who begins to experience a mental breakdown while interning for a fashion magazine in New York. The ...moreSylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer.

Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The book's protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is a bright, ambitious student at Smith College who begins to experience a mental breakdown while interning for a fashion magazine in New York. The plot parallels Plath's experience interning at Mademoiselle magazine and subsequent mental breakdown and suicide attempt.

Along with Anne Sexton, Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry initiated by Robert Lowell and W.D. Snodgrass. Despite her remarkable artistic, academic, and social success at Smith, Plath suffered from severe depression and underwent a period of psychiatric hospitalization. She graduated from Smith with highest honours in 1955 and went on to Newnham College, Cambridge, in England, on a Fulbright fellowship. Here she met and married the English poet Ted Hughes in 1956. For the following two years she was an instructor in English at Smith College.

In 1960, shortly after Plath and Hughes returned to England from America, her first collection of poems appeared as The Colossus. She also gave birth to a daughter, Frieda Rebecca Hughes’ and Plath’s son, Nicholas Farrar, was born in 1962.

Plath took her own life on the morning of February 11, 1963. Leaving out bread and milk, she completely sealed the rooms between herself and her sleeping children with "wet towels and cloths." Plath then placed her head in the oven while the gas was turned on.

It has been suggested that Plath's suicide attempt was too precise and coincidental, and that she had not intended to succeed in killing herself. Apparently, she had previously asked Mr. Thomas, her downstairs neighbour, what time he would be leaving; and a note had been placed that read "Call Dr. Horder" and listed his phone number. Therefore it is argued that Plath must have turned the gas on at a time when Mr. Thomas should have been waking and beginning his day. This theory maintains that the gas, for several hours, seeped through the floor and reached Mr. Thomas and another resident of the floor below. Also, an au pair was to arrive at nine o'clock that morning to help Plath with the care of her children. Upon arrival, the au pair could not get into the flat, but was eventually let in by painters, who had a key to the front door.

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