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Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9780061148514
ISBN number: 0061148512
Label: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: October 01, 2006
Publishing house: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Release Date: October 17, 2006
Sale Popularity Level: 2618
Studio: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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.
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.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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They took money out of my account, and NEVER sent me the book. I ordered in Mid-november and it is now December. I ordered the book as a christmas present and They never delievered me the book. THEY STOLE MY MONEY and Didn't give me anything in return.
Rated by buyers 
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How did I go 34 years without picking up and reading this gem? I'll tell you...It is not included on any public school reading list that I have ever seen and every college literature course that I took (just for fun) never examined Sylvia Plath's writing. Instead I had the misfortune of several lit. courses that focused on less talented modern poets/writers.
In 1963, this book would have been shocking. The main theme is mental disturbia, suicide, losing virginity, (an all out attack on the quiet suburban status quo.)
As I read this book with the jaded perspective of a modern day American citizen, I couldn't shake the overwhelming feeling of innocence this 40 year old story emits.
This book is like a three year old child attempting to shock her parents with something "provocative" but falling short of the parental outrage so desired and ending up with parental amusement.
It is only a sign of the times. In 1963 this story of Esther Greenwood most likely provided the 1-2 punch. (Only a feeling on my part, as I was not around in those days.)
Don't think I am putting this book down in my review. I enjoyed every minute I spent reading this story. There was a time that I would read a book in two days. I haven't done that in several years. Too busy, too tired, too distracted.
I couldn't stop reading the Bell Jar. My laundry, dishes, and vacuuming took a hit on this one. I was tempted to take it to work with me. Thankfully it was not a 1000 page book. I am back to full capacity once again.
I suggest you read this classic and keep one thing in mind, Sylvia Plath based this on her own crack-up in college. It is a heavy thought to me,the reader, knowing that she eventually lost her battle to her mental demons years later while living with her two young children.
Rated by buyers 
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I thought the beginning was excellent; I really liked the very first paragraph. Very tight writing, but then it started to falter. I know it's due to the emotional unraveling of Esther, but it just fell apart for me. Still worth reading.
Rated by buyers -
As many other reviewers have stated, this book is filled with poetry. When I finished reading the last line, I flipped right to the very first page and re-read it. I have only done that a few times in my life (most recently with "The Terror" by Dan Simmons). In High School I was required to Read "Catcher in the Rye" several times. Never once was this book even suggested. I have always enjoyed CITR, and have read it many times both for pleasure and requirement. I had heard of Plath, but had no idea that she wrote such a book. I only recently heard about it from my Mental-Floss mag. I am so glad that I read it, a classic, a gem!
Rated by buyers -
Sylvia Plath has in many circles been something of the poster child for modern nihilism, almost to the point of a cultural in-joke (see Fight Club), but the very first thing I was struck with was how witty and humorous The Bell Jar starts. For example, this passage:
"I'd discovered, after a lot of extreme apprehension about what spoons to use, that if you do something incorrect at table with a certain arrogance, as if you knew perfectly well you were doing it properly, you can get away with it and nobody will think you are bad mannered or poorly brought up. They will think you are original and very witty."
Second, it didn't take long to figure out how much modern "chick lit" owes to Plath. Before shopaholics and Prada-wearing Devils, Plath had already been there and done that, all the way down to the poor girl working in the NYC fashion magazine angle.
Third, I was touched by the humanity that Plath brings to some tricky subjects: coming of age, sexuality, career-setting, societal pressure, care for the mentally ill, homosexuality, and social shallowness, just to name a few. Her descriptions of Esther Greenwood's trip into madness isn't like watching a specimen under her famous bell jar; you get the feeling that you're watching a living, breathing human being who is trying to find a way out of the mental and emotional box canyons in which she feels trapped.
I felt myself connected to Esther in ways that I didn't feel in that other work of 60's young adult angst, The Catcher in the Rye. Where Esther Greenwood is smart, creative, troubled, and desperate, Holden Caulfield is merely smug, whiny, spoiled, and self-obsessed. It's not hard to see why Caulfield resonated with many 60's social elites, since they share some of the same characteristics. In my opinion, Sallinger and Plath shouldn't even share shelf space--The Bell Jar is a deeper, more emotionally involved, and ultimately better written work.
Plath's very first calling was as a poet; The Bell Jar was the only novel she ever published. Her poet's background served her well, as her prose flows along the pages. I think the book starts a bit better than it ends, but her writing style throughout is a wonder.
As for The Bell Jar being a scathing commentary on her personal acquaintances, I didn't get that vibe. It's hard to know what those personal relationships were like, but I got these sense of a person writing about what she knew (Plath had her own mental breakdown in 1953). I can see where some of those people would have been offended, but The Bell Jar was supposed to be the very first half of a two volume work, the other half of which was never produced due to Plath's untimely death.
Lastly, it's good to remember that The Bell Jar was written in the early sixties and largely prefigures the feminist movement. It's often waved around as a feminist novel, and it certainly takes up some of those themes, but The Bell Jar predates political feminism, and in one of the more poignant passages, foresees the arguments of feminism and their ultimate rejection. Part of the passage is:
"Of course, the famous woman poet at my college lived with another woman--a stumpy old Classical scholar with a cropped Dutch cut. And when I told the poet I might well get married and have a pack of children someday, she stared at me in horror. `But what about your career?' she had cried.
My head ached. Why did I attract these weird old women? There was the famous poet, and Philomena Guinea, and Jay Cee, and the Christian Scientist lady and lord knows who, and they all wanted to adopt me in some way, and, for the price of their care and influence, have me resemble them."
In the end, The Bell Jar is a remarkable work--not merely just important, but also a good read. If you haven't read it yet, you should. It's amazing to think what Plath might have written had she lived longer.
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