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Contributors | November 10, 2009

Zachary Lazar: IMG Evening's Empire



Without knowing it, I'd always had two unspoken arrangements with the world. The first was that I would not trouble it with unpleasant conversation... Continue »
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The Bell Jar (P.S.)

by Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar (P.S.) Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under — maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Synopsis:

This extraordinary work--echoing Plath's own experiences as a rising writer/editor in the early 1950s--chronicles the nervous breakdown of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful, but slowly going under, and maybe for the last time.

About the Author

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Massachusetts. Her books include the poetry collections The Colossus, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, Ariel and The Collected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. A complete and uncut facsimile edition of Ariel was published in 2004 with her original selection and arrangement of poems. She was married to the poet Ted Hughes, with whom she had a daughter, Frieda, and a son, Nicholas. She died in London in 1963.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
crowyhead, July 18, 2008 (view all comments by crowyhead)
I hadn't read this autobiographical novel since high school, so I figured maybe it was time to re-read it. It was actually quite different from what I'd remembered; I'd forgotten that more than half of the book takes place BEFORE Esther goes to the hospital. I'd also forgotten -- or just hadn't picked up before -- how mordantly funny the book is. Esther's observations about the people around her and her reactions to them are incredibly witty, and even her description of a depressive's twisted thinking is tinged with the humor of someone looking back wryly. The book is sad and serious as well, but since I had missed the humor before, that was what I ended up concentrating on.

There was much that I found confusing the first time I read this book. Plath's description of the slow slide into depression and the incredible inertia involved is SO spot-on, but I think in some ways it would be confusing and somewhat incomprehensible to someone who doesn't have more intimate knowledge of the experience. I could be wrong, though; it may just be that it resonated much more deeply this time around than it did when I first read the book.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780060837020
Author:
Plath, Sylvia
Publisher:
Harper Perennial
Illustrator:
PLATH, SYLVIA
Foreword:
McCullough, Frances
Author:
PLATH, SYLVIA
Author:
by Sylvia Plath
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Classics
Subject:
Depression, mental
Subject:
Women college students
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
Suicidal behavior
Series:
Modern Classics
Publication Date:
August 2005
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
244
Dimensions:
8.02x5.30x.70 in. .48 lbs.

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