The Bell Jar

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.

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Plath was a genius - Rated
The Bell Jar is definitely Plath speaking from her own experiences, in 1950s America and the tigma of mental illness that she experienced and how her family and friends coped.
It charts the journey of her bi polar illness and is very heavy in places but a worthwhile reading in understanding her poetry and other works.

Suicide as career move - Rated
A reviewer below claims, as a 'fact', that "Plath's genius is not being taught in schools". Not only is it a fact that The Bell Jar is on the AQA A2 syllabus, I am teaching it in my school. I am dismayed that someone who can make such elementary errors of fact feels at liberty to disseminate their ill-informed opinions. Not only is Plath a vastly inferior poet to her husband, The Bell Jar is vastly inferior to The Iron Man.

boring! - Rated
I read this book after hearing great things about it. What a waste of time it was. The book is incredibly dull, it picks up slightly in the last half. But i was not impressed, dont waste your time with it

Harrowing - Rated
"The Bell Jar" is definatly one of the most impressive books I have ever read. Sylvia Plath talks about how she gets depressed and eventually tries to kill herself.

This book is bound to leave it's mark on you, and it is definatly recommended for anybody who liked "Girl, Interrupted" by Susan Kaufman; "I Never Promised you a Rose Garden" by Joanna Martin(?), "Lisa, Bright and Dark", and Sylvia Plath fans.

The story starts in New York City, where we meet Esther (Sylvia Plath). Esther has been chosen by a magazine to work for a month at the magazine to learn about writing. Esther has "adventures" in New York, and after her month with the magazine is up, she returns home.

There she learns that she has been rejected by a university for a writing course that she wanted to take, and she doesn't know what to do with herself. It is here that she realizes that there is something wrong with her, and many other events unfurl, such as her visits to a psychiatrist that performs shock-treatment on her incorrectly, until finally she overdoses on sleeping pills. After this she ends up in a mental institution, and she finally "gets better".

Towards the end of the book, she says that she hopes that the bell-jar of despair does not fall over her again. The sad thing is, that it did fall over her and that is how she died.

This book is incredible, and there is nothing bad to say about it. Sylvia Plath is a great writer, especially because she speaks from experience. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is considering buying it.

A fantastic, haunting insight - Rated
Sylvia Plath's semi-autobiographical novel is a harrowing, thought provoking insight into the mind of a woman who is almost synonymous with mental illness.

Indeed, the mental health issue runs through the novel and the main character, who is based on Plath in a number of ways, spends a significant amount of time in a mental institution, dealing with the effects this has on her and her condition. The work provides a haunting insight to the reality of a mental illness, and how this affects the sufferer and their immediate family and friends.

From studying Plath's poetry, it can be clearly seen that the central character is based on the author. The most obvious representation comes from their conditions in the novel (bi-polar disorder, abandonment issues, a hint of an Electra Complez) and if you know anything about Plath, many short quotations in the novel take on a much more significant meaning than they would on their own. In fact, it is probably best to understand the writer's basic background before approaching the novel.

So far, I've painted a picture of a heavy, depressing read. Whilst I cannot deny that it is a heavy book dealing with a massive subject, I did not find it depressing in any way, but rather fascinating.

"The Bell Jar" is a crucial work of American literature, and is an essential purchase for any fan of Plath's work, or any fan of literature in general. Be warned, however, that it is a heavy book, particularly if you do not understand the background.