Sylvia Plath’s shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanity
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 … 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.
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It disturbed me.
An important read.
This book inspired me and provided me with the skills I have needed to understand mental illness and why sometimes individuals do not want treatment for their illness.
You can’t go wrong with Sylvia Plath, particularly if you know her background and the way it flows through her writing, Truly a classic and one you should read.
Well.
I’ve always meant to get around to reading The Bell Jar. It used to pop up on my high school reading lists and each time I passed it up for some other title that seemed less depressive. However, seeing that Maggie Gyllenhaal was narrating this, I thought it was time to take the dive.
Turns out it was more of a wade. There is no diving into the deep end of The Bell Jar. The story stays at a fairly constant and calm pace. Even in the midst of Esther Greenwood’s mental breakdown. It was all so odd to me. So anticlimactic. I kept waiting for a big break of some sort and it just never came.
That’s not a judgement on mental disorders of any sort, I do realize some work that way. It’s not even a judgement on Plath’s writing, which was quite beautiful and imaginative. But the slow steady pace just makes for somewhat of a boring book.
Honestly, I had a real struggle to understand Esther at all. Her biggest problem seemed to be some inane thought that she would forever end up under the rule of a man. Which seemed off to me because she was raised by a very independent mother and she was off at college in New York with some fairly progressive women. And her illness just sort of went from strange little musings that most minds wouldn’t conjure (but were harmless enough) to full on wanting to die – almost overnight.
I didn’t connect with that. I didn’t like the way her journey unfolded.
I did love those strange little musings though. Quite a lot, actually.
So – what are my feelings about The Bell Jar? I’m not sure I know. I hated it and I loved it.
I can say that Gyllenhaal was an amazing narrator. A+ on that front.
This was a story of a young girl, Esther, in the 1950s who was interning at a junior editor for a NYC magazine. She does the internship, and then finds out that a story she submitted to get into a special writing class has been rejected and that seems to be the beginning of her downfall. She slowly has a mental breakdown and has to return to living with her mother after the internship instead of returning to school. She attempts suicide and lands herself in a mental institution. She has electroshock therapy while she is there and a friend of hers is also admitted. Her friend ends up killing herself and this seems to turn something in Esther and help lead her to recovery.
I liked this book well enough. It was a little confusing at times. To me it seemed the Esther went from being perfectly fine to attempting suicide rather quickly. But the overall book was well written.
The notes at the end of the book were the most helpful and understanding the book. Sylvia Plath, the author, killed herself at a very young age. Many people speculate that the story of Esther rivals Sylvia’s own path with depression. This is the only book she ever wrote.
I read this book many years ago. The descent into madness is so haunting
In my opinion, it’s an unofficial autobiography, and we know how tragically Plath’s life ended prematurely. . It’s sad in many ways to understand she is suffering from mental illness including depression but she writes so witty and honest that you laugh out loud sometimes. Very keen and intelligent writer. Her perception of other people and situations is so precise This book will stay with me.
Love, love, love this book. Was my introduction to her poetry; such a tragic story of a talent gone too soon.
Depressing
Ground-breaking in its time; still an explanation for much of the women’s movement. We haven’t moved the bell jar yet for many women.
one of the greatest novels of all time
It shows the realities of mental illness in the ’60’s but it’s something that would be hard to read again. Fiction sometimes needs to be a way to escape and this could’ve benefited from being a little more inspirational. It doesn’t always have to be edgy, but it did inspire me to want to write and learn more about mental illness.