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Guests | October 15, 2009

Michelle Wildgen: IMG A Few Initial and Not-Comprehensive Meditations on Group Novels



I am a sucker for a book about a group. What reminded me of this was Joanna Smith Rakoff's A Fortunate Age, her homage to Mary McCarthy's endlessly re-readable... Continue »

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1 Beaverton Literature- A to Z

Other titles in the P.S. series:

  1. 1421: The Year China Discovered America
  2. 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance
  3. 26a
  4. 86'd
  5. A Broom of One's Own: Words on Writing, Housecleaning, and Life
  6. A Common Pornography: A Memoir
  7. A Computer Called Leo
  8. A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
  9. A Death in Belmont
  10. A Father's Law
  11. A Golden Age
  12. A Life Full of Holes
  13. A Perfectly Good Family
  14. A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
  15. A Secret Alchemy
  16. A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler
  17. A Ship Made of Paper
  18. A Storm in the Blood
  19. A Ticket to Ride
  20. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599
  21. Abundance, a Novel of Marie Antoinette
  22. Accidentally on Purpose: The True Tale of a Happy Single Mother
  23. Adverbs
  24. Ahab's Wife: Or, the Star-Gazer
  25. Alexander and Alestria
  26. Amberville
  27. America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines
  28. American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps
  29. Anansi Boys: A Novel
  30. Animal Liberation: The Definitive Classic of the Animal Movement
  31. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
  32. April 1865: The Month That Saved America
  33. April Fool's Day
  34. Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light
  35. Arthur Rimbaud Complete Works
  36. As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl
  37. Ask the Dust
  38. Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad
  39. Assorted Fire Events: Stories
  40. Astonishing Splashes of Colour
  41. Augustine: A New Biography
  42. Back to Wando Passo
  43. Bad Monkeys
  44. Beasts of No Nation
  45. Beet
  46. Being Written
  47. Bel Canto
  48. Betsy and the Great World and Betsy's Wedding
  49. Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology
  50. Black Boy
  51. Black Boy
  52. Black Girl/White Girl
  53. Black Power: Three Books from Exile: Black Power/The Color Curtain/And White, Man, Listen!
  54. Blind Faith
  55. Blonde
  56. Blue Angel
  57. Bodies in Motion: Stories
  58. Bonjour Tristesse
  59. Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods
  60. Boy Still Missing
  61. Brave New World
  62. Brave New World
  63. Brave New World Revisited
  64. Brazzaville Beach
  65. Brida
  66. Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories
  67. Bright Shiny Morning
  68. Broken
  69. By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: A Novel of Forgiveness
  70. Callisto
  71. Candy Everybody Wants
  72. Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
  73. Checker and the Derailleurs
  74. Chicago
  75. Choosing My Religion: A Memoir of a Family Beyond Belief
  76. Chump Change
  77. Citizen Vince
  78. City of Refuge
  79. City of the Beasts
  80. Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back
  81. Confessions of a Falling Woman: And Other Stories
  82. Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper
  83. Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age
  84. Continental Drift
  85. Coraline
  86. Coronado: Stories
  87. Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney
  88. Crooked Little Vein
  89. Dandy in the Underworld: An Unauthorized Autobiography
  90. Daughter of Fortune
  91. Daughter of Fortune
  92. Daughter of Fortune
  93. Daughters of the North
  94. De Niro's Game
  95. Death Be Not Proud
  96. Democracy in America Abridged Edition
  97. Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States
  98. Dog Years: A Memoir
  99. Down and Out on Murder Mile
  100. Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography
  101. East Wind, Rain
  102. Eight Men
  103. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne
  104. Empress
  105. Enemy Women
  106. Every Visible Thing
  107. Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever: Stories
  108. Eyeless in Gaza
  109. Families of the Vine: Seasons Among the Winemakers of Southwest France
  110. Family Planning
  111. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
  112. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
  113. Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution
  114. First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood
  115. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
  116. Five Quarters of the Orange
  117. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
  118. Forest of the Pygmies
  119. Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
  120. Freakonomics Revised Edition
  121. Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda
  122. Further Adventures
  123. Futureproof
  124. Game Control
  125. Gates of Eden
  126. Genealogy:
  127. Gentlemen and Players: A Novel
  128. Girl Trouble: Stories
  129. Girlfriend in a Coma
  130. Go with Me
  131. Gods and Monsters: A Novel
  132. Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bib
  133. Good Family
  134. Good-Bye and Amen
  135. Gulag Archipelago Volume 2
  136. Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans Are Looking Forward to the End of the World
  137. Haweswater
  138. Head Case: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain
  139. Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself
  140. Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle
  141. History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier
  142. Holy Skirts: A Novel of a Flamboyant Woman Who Risked All for Art
  143. House Rules: A Memoir
  144. House Thinking: A Room-By-Room Look at How We Live
  145. How to Paint a Dead Man
  146. I Didn't Do It for You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation
  147. I Know This Much Is True
  148. I Love You, Beth Cooper
  149. I Love Yous Are for White People: A Memoir
  150. I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison
  151. If Today Be Sweet
  152. If You Follow Me
  153. Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas
  154. In His Sights: One Woman's Stalking Nightmare
  155. Ines of My Soul
  156. Inside Out Girl
  157. Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky
  158. Island
  159. It's All Right Now
  160. Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts
  161. Jonah's Gourd Vine
  162. Jubilee City: A Memoir at Full Speed
  163. Just Say NU: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do)
  164. Karma and Other Stories
  165. Keeping Faith
  166. Kill Your Friends
  167. Kingdom of the Golden Dragon
  168. Kockroach
  169. Land of the Blind
  170. Lapham Rising
  171. Last One In
  172. Leave the Building Quickly: True Stories
  173. Leaving Cecil Street
  174. Leeway Cottage
  175. Legend of a Suicide: Stories
  176. Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name
  177. Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France
  178. Light of Day
  179. Little Star of Bela Lua: Stories from Brazil
  180. Little, Big
  181. London Born
  182. Lost City Radio
  183. Lost Girls and Love Hotels
  184. Love Begins in Winter: Five Stories
  185. Love Falls
  186. Love Medicine
  187. Love Medicine
  188. Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind
  189. Lucky Girls: Stories
  190. Lullabies for Little Criminals
  191. Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
  192. Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands
  193. Michael Tolliver Lives
  194. Microserfs
  195. Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds
  196. Mistress of the Vatican: The True Story of Olimpia Maidalchini: The Secret Female Pope
  197. Montenegro
  198. Mooch
  199. Moral Minds: The Nature of Right and Wrong
  200. More of This World or Maybe Another
  201. Moses, Man of the Mountain
  202. Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
  203. Mules and Men
  204. My Fathers' Houses: Memoir of a Family
  205. My Goat Ate Its Own Legs: Tales for Adults
  206. My Lives: A Memoir
  207. My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro
  208. My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike
  209. Names on a Map
  210. Native Son
  211. Natural Flights of the Human Mind
  212. Northline (Harper Perennial P.S.)
  213. Nothing Is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn
  214. Now You See Him
  215. On Boxing
  216. On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood
  217. One Big Damn Puzzler
  218. One Day the Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War
  219. Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China
  220. Out Backward
  221. Outer Banks: Three Early Novels
  222. Over Tumbled Graves
  223. Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine
  224. Pagan Spain
  225. Pain Killers
  226. Papillon
  227. Paula: A Memoir
  228. Pelican Blood
  229. Polly
  230. Pop Apocalypse: A Possible Satire
  231. Pop Salvation
  232. Population: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time
  233. Postcards from a Dead Girl
  234. Pound for Pound
  235. Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties
  236. Profiles in Courage
  237. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them
  238. Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing: Stories
  239. Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System
  240. Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, from Wall Street to Dubai
  241. Right of Thirst
  242. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze
  243. Rousseau's Dog: Two Great Thinkers at War in the Age of Enlightenment
  244. Run
  245. Sacred Games: A Novel
  246. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy
  247. Secrets of the Sea
  248. Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar
  249. Seraph on the Suwanee
  250. Serena
  251. Serpent Box
  252. Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics
  253. Shadow of the Silk Road
  254. Shakespeare's Wife
  255. Sharp Teeth
  256. She Was
  257. Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima
  258. Sights Unseen
  259. Slow Motion: A Memoir of a Life Rescued by Tragedy
  260. Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions
  261. Soul Catcher
  262. Spike: An Intimate Memoir
  263. Spitting Off Tall Buildings
  264. Stardust
  265. Stormy Weather
  266. Strange Skies
  267. Summer People
  268. Sunday Money (06 Edition)
  269. Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity
  270. Suspension
  271. Taft
  272. Tales of H. P. Lovecraft
  273. Tales of the City
  274. Taming the Beast
  275. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
  276. Ten Storey Love Song
  277. Tete-A-Tete: The Tumultuous Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre
  278. Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman's Quest for an Orgasm
  279. The Art of Loving
  280. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
  281. The Autumn of the Patriarch
  282. The Ballad of West Tenth Street: A Novel
  283. The Bean Trees
  284. The Beet Queen
  285. The Believers
  286. The Bell Jar
  287. The Best People in the World
  288. The Bingo Palace
  289. The Birth House
  290. The Black Death
  291. The Black Tower
  292. The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year
  293. The Book Borrower
  294. The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury
  295. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind -- and Almost Found Myself -- on the Pacific Crest Trail
  296. The Camel Bookmobile
  297. The Cardboard Universe: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank
  298. The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters
  299. The Collected Poems
  300. The Complete Stories
  301. The Condition
  302. The Dancing Girls of Lahore: Selling Love and Saving Dreams in Pakistan's Pleasure District
  303. The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries
  304. The Death of Vishnu
  305. The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation
  306. The Devils of Loudun
  307. The Dissident
  308. The Dolphin People
  309. The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell
  310. The Drowned Life
  311. The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, JR., and the Reign of American Taste
  312. The Enthusiast
  313. The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas
  314. The Falls
  315. The Family on Paradise Pier
  316. The Female Eunuch
  317. The Female of the Species
  318. The Fifth Mountain
  319. The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century
  320. The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America
  321. The Genius and the Goddess
  322. The Giant's House: A Romance
  323. The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients
  324. The Girl from Charnelle
  325. The Girl I Left Behind: A Personal History of the 1960s
  326. The Girl with No Shadow
  327. The Good Fight: Why Liberals---And Only Liberals---Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again
  328. The Good Rat: A True Story
  329. The Gospel of Food: Why We Should Stop Worrying and Enjoy What We Eat
  330. The Grass Is Singing
  331. The Gravedigger's Daughter
  332. The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800
  333. The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation
  334. The Hour I First Believed
  335. The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story
  336. The House on Fortune Street
  337. The Jewel Trader of Pegu
  338. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
  339. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
  340. The Last Season
  341. The Last Witchfinder: A Novel
  342. The Learners: The Book After "The Cheese Monkeys"
  343. The Life of Andrew Jackson
  344. The Lightning Keeper
  345. The Lost Heart of Asia
  346. The Madonnas of Leningrad
  347. The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World
  348. The Man Time Forgot: A Tale of Genius, Betrayal, and the Creation of Time Magazine
  349. The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
  350. The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
  351. The Matchmaker of Perigord
  352. The Mathematics of Love
  353. The Monkey Wrench Gang
  354. The Moonflower Vine
  355. The Motel Life: A Novel
  356. The Night Listener
  357. The Odyssey of Homer
  358. The Outcast
  359. The Outlander
  360. The Outsider
  361. The Oysters of Locmariaquer
  362. The Pact: A Love Story
  363. The Pact: A Love Story
  364. The Painted Drum
  365. The Pale Blue Eye
  366. The Patron Saint of Liars
  367. The Perennial Philosophy
  368. The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
  369. The Philosopher's Apprentice
  370. The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse
  371. The Plague of Doves
  372. The Poisonwood Bible
  373. The Post-Birthday World
  374. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions
  375. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  376. The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008
  377. The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal
  378. The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece
  379. The Reserve
  380. The Scenic Route
  381. The Secret Lives of People in Love: Stories
  382. The Secret Sisters
  383. The Septembers of Shiraz
  384. The Seven Days of Peter Crumb
  385. The Sky Isn't Visible from Here: A Memoir
  386. The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through a Century of Biology
  387. The Sound of Butterflies
  388. The Space between Us
  389. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
  390. The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice
  391. The Stylist
  392. The Sum of Our Days
  393. The Summer of Naked Swim Parties
  394. The Tattooed Girl
  395. The Testing of Luther Albright
  396. The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
  397. The Torn Skirt
  398. The Weight of Heaven
  399. The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It
  400. The Winter of the World
  401. The Witch of Portobello
  402. The Wrecking Ball
  403. The Writing on My Forehead
  404. The Yacoubian Building
  405. The Yiddish Policemen's Union
  406. The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession
  407. The Zero
  408. Their Eyes Were Watching God
  409. These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901
  410. Traveling Light
  411. Truck: A Love Story
  412. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories
  413. Twenty Grand: And Other Tales of Love and Money
  414. Two Truths and a Lie
  415. Ugly Man: Stories
  416. Uncle Tom's Children
  417. Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894
  418. Under the Volcano
  419. Unless
  420. Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption
  421. Vinegar Hill
  422. Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip -- Confessions of a Cynical Waiter
  423. Wasted
  424. Water from the Well: Women of the Bible: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah
  425. We Disappear
  426. We Need to Talk about Kevin
  427. Where God Was Born: A Daring Adventure Through the Bible's Greatest Stories
  428. White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era
  429. Who by Fire
  430. Why I'm Like This: True Stories
  431. Wild Nights!: Stories about the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway
  432. Willing
  433. Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival
  434. Wonderful World
  435. Working Stiff: The Misadventures of an Accidental Sexpert
  436. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
  437. Zombie
  438. Zorro: A Novel

Bell Jar (P.S.)

by Sylvia Plath

Bell Jar (P.S.) Cover

ISBN13: 9780061148514
ISBN10: 0061148512
Condition: Standard
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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.

Synopsis:

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.

About the Author

To this day, Sylvia Plath's writings continue to inspire and provoke. Her only published novel, The Bell Jar, remains a classic of American literature, and The Colossus(1960), Ariel (1965), Crossing the Water(1971), Winter Trees(1971), and The Collected Poems(1981) have placed her among this century's essential American poets.

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, the first child of Aurelia and Otto Plath. When Sylvia was eight years old, her father died--an event that would haunt her remaining years--and the family moved to the college town of Wellesley. By high school, Plath's talents were firmly established; in fact, her first published poem had appeared when she was eight. In 1950, she entered Smith College, where she excelled academically and continued to write; and in 1951 she won Mademoiselle magazine's fiction contest. Her experiences duringthe summer of 1953--as a guest editor at Mademoiselle in New York City and in deepening depression back home--provided the basis for The Bell Jar. Near that summer's end, Plath nearly succeeded in killing herself. After therapy and electroshock, however, she resumed her academic and literary endeavors. Plath graduated from Smith in 1955 and, as a Fulbright Scholar, entered Newnham College, in Cambridge, England, where she met the British poet, Ted Hughes. They were married a year later. After a two-year tenure on the Smith College faculty and a brief stint in Boston, Plath and Hughes returned to England, where their two children were born.

Plath had been successful in placing poems in several prestigious magazines, but suffered repeated rejection in her attempts to place a first book. The Colossus appeared in England, however, in the fall of 1960, and the publisher, William Heinemann, also bought her first novel. By June 1962, she had begun the poems that eventually appeared in Ariel. Later that year, separated from Hughes, Plath immersed herself in caring for her children, completing The Bell Jar, and writing poems at a breathtaking pace.

A few days before Christmas 1962, she moved with the children to a London flat. By the time The Bell Jarwas published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, in early 1963, she was in desperate circumstances. Her marriage was over, she and her children were ill, and the winter was the coldest in a century. Early on the morning of February 11, Plath turned on the cooking gas and killed herself.

Plath was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for her Collected Poems.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 6 comments:
Shawnda, May 2, 2009 (view all comments by Shawnda)
Imagine yourself, caught up in a whirlwind of overwhelming emotions and anxieties, watching the world pass you by and not being able to escape the bell jar you are sealed in. Unable to shake these feelings, you are slowly suffocating, waiting for the jar to be opened, releasing you into a new and transformed atmosphere. This series of events is developed in Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar. It is a depiction of a young woman’s descent into a crippling depression, attempted suicide, and eventual rebirth. Plath created a gripping novel that leaves the reader questioning, despite its lack of psychological detail.
Plath created an autobiographical novel in which Esther Greenwood is a mere depiction of herself. The events within the story are loosely disguised and mirror the major events in Plath’s own life. The Bell Jar was published in the 1950’s, at a time when the ideas in the book were seen as extremely controversial. Plath addressed issues ranging from women’s roles in relationships and society, sexuality, depression, and suicide. She tied all of these subjects into one tragic and dark story about a young woman’s battle with life and mortality.
The novel takes off in New York, where Esther is one of twelve women who received a month-long internship for a fashion magazine in the city. An overachiever, Esther worked exceedingly more than her peers, balancing college, the internship, and honors classes on her agenda. As the pressures of her work and her swelling insecurities began to heighten, Esther sank deeper into an unfamiliar slump. Soon, overwhelmed with emotions and inadequacy, Esther became less aware of who she was, where she was going, and if she even wanted to go wherever that was. Trying to find her identity and desires, Esther descended even farther into her anxiety and apathy.
As all this was happening, Esther was informed that she was denied admissions into a summer writing program at her college. Returning home, Esther found herself without work, and in turn without much purpose. She soon began to stay in bed all day, and did little to address her newfound depression. After receiving inadequate care and a botched shock treatment, her thoughts about suicide increased, and led to several attempts. She tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists in the bath tub, but only got as far as cutting her knee as a test. She also contemplated hanging, but concluded that the ceilings in her house were insufficient. Finally she decided on overdosing on pills, and hid herself in the basement of her house.
Esther was found by her brother several days later, and was sent to a local hospital. She was then sent to a private asylum where she was to recover. After a prolonged time in treatment, Esther began to emerge from the bell jar keeping her masked from reality, and her recovery was her rebirth into the world.
Overall, Plath addressed many controversial issues and followed an accurate description of one’s battle with depression. My main disappointment lies in the detail Plath decided to use describing Esther’s emotions. I had expected the book to have many more psychological undertones, addressing the causes of Esther’s depression and describing her therapeutic process. The only possible hint at the source of Esther’s depression was her father’s death. When Esther visited his grave, she explained “I saw my father’s gravestone…I couldn’t understand why I was crying so hard. Then I remembered that I had never cried for my father’s death” (167). Immediately after this, Esther concluded her final attempt of suicide. It is possible that Esther had many other situations similar to this, in which she never confronted the issue. Still, there was little remaining evidence of what drove her to such drastic measures. I guess what I was expecting was a Freudian influenced novel full of psychological evaluations and analyses, which is rather unrealistic. Upon further thought, I have come to appreciate the novel as a whole.
Thinking back at what Plath was facing at the time she published her novel, I realize she had a great amount of courage and ability. You come to acknowledge her straight forward style and the realism she implements in her writing. The book brought up several crucial arguments; whether or not a woman had a choice over her sexuality, if she would marry, and her career. Also, there was even less literature addressing gender roles along with depression and suicide. The issues she brings up motivate the reader to question their own beliefs and preconceived ideas. Even today these subjects are prevalent and multi-faceted. Throughout the novel, you are connecting the events to your own life, your ideas about mortality, and current issues in society. Esther is such an ordinary person, it makes you wonder if you could take her spot and be trapped in a bell jar of your own. Today, it brings up even more pressing questions. The fact that some readers are not even fazed by the serious topic of suicide is controversial in itself. It poses the concern that maybe we are so desensitized to violence and grim subjects because of daily overexposure to them.
Along with these matters and Plath’s style of writing, the reader is constantly thinking and drawing out connections. There are metaphors throughout the novel that are so cleverly drawn out, the most significant being the bell jar. Plath takes an ordinary object, something that anyone can see every day, and turns it into a manifestation of Esther’s depression, breakdown, and recovery. Something so simple can have so many meanings. To Esther, the bell jar was her deprivation. She was trapped behind the glass, unable to interject, and watched the world as it passed her by. Slowly, she retreated further and further into its shadow while the air began to run out. As soon as she began to improve, the jar began to turn itself over. Soon she explained “The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head. I was open to the circulating air” (215). This jar had such a profound effect on her life, and still loomed over her head with a pending possibility of return. The implementation of this symbol leaves the reader wondering if what they see everyday is really what it seems. Are the ordinary and mundane actually the dying and broken-down?
These questions present themselves throughout the novel. First impressions are often broken, and upon further thought you come to appreciate Plath’s style of writing and the messages she was trying to incorporate into Esther’s story. I have always believed that a good novel leaves the reader questioning and forming conclusions of her own, and this book accomplishes that.
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condonv, May 1, 2009 (view all comments by condonv)
Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar displays a profound understanding of the fall into deep medical depression and the drastic, rapid mental decline experienced as Esther Greenwood lives in her own bell jar of suicidal thoughts. Her fierce writing style and psychological understanding of the complex emotions individuals feel when they are apart of this level of deterioration leaves her audience in awe.
Plath’s comprehension of this mental struggle is reflective of her own psyche. This novel is a representation of her daily battle with suicidal demons. On February 11, 1963, in her British home, Plath killed herself by allowing gas to suffocate her. Before her untimely death, and still today, she is viewed as an outstanding poet. Before The Bell Jar was written, Plath’s major works were the collections of poems, The Colosssus and Ariel. These poems even awarded her the honor of being told these poems were worthy of a Pulitzer by the popular critic A. Alvarez. Plath’s work in The Bell Jar also earned ravings (and criticisms as well) for her themes and unique style.
This novel arises the enveloping theme of obsession. The beginning of the work allows Esther Greenwood to characterize her life through the lens of herself and society by her expectance “to be the envy of thousands of other college girls”(2). Yet within her supposed-to-be world, she felt “very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo”(3). This sensation of emptiness drives her into denial over her obsession with Buddy Willard and the upfront obsession with death. The repetition of Willard’s affair leads to an obsession with Greenwood’s own virginity and her feeling of inadequacy. In turn, this sensation of inadequacy creates her longing for death.
Plath’s vivid elaboration of Greenwood’s suicidal mentality allows an outstanding description of the ability to sharply turn into clinical depression. Her pointed diction stabs as Greenwood depicts the bluntness of death. This painful view of ending is witnessed as she describes the eastern samurai’s tradition of seppuku. Her diction of the passage:
“they disemboweled themselves when anything went wrong…before they had time to think twice, they would jab the knives in and zip them round, one on the upper crescent and one on the lower crescent, making a full circle. Then their stomach skin would come loose, and they would die”(138)
allows fluid visualization of the painful death. These descriptions within the novel allow the readers to be transported into the character’s mind and view the obsession of death that plagues the clinically depressed’ minds. The syntax of run-on sentences displays the rapid thought process and excitement of the pleasures of suicide. Because there is no break in the sentence, as it is read there is one long thought without a sufficient pause. This is then followed by an abrupt truth, such as “it would take two motions”(147) after Greenwood describes her developed plan for cutting her wrists. The simplicity of the fact reflects the simplicity of the idea in the suicidal perspective. This brilliant technique to gain understanding is one that sets this novel apart from others.
The Bell Jar is a work that will be preserved through time. Plath’s developed themes through the novel are the world’s constant. It is transports the thought process of the struggling individual to those who may not fully comprehend the challenges and will continue to do so for eons to come.
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KatieEW27, May 1, 2009 (view all comments by KatieEW27)
“To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream”(237). Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar captivates readers with the story of a young woman’s unexpected spiral into depression. Esther Greenwood falls apart when she seems to have the whole world at her fingertips. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the unexpectedness of psychological disorders and to prove they can affect even the most privileged people. Everyone can appreciate this work, but women may find it more intriguing as it comes from a female’s perspective and one of the triggers for her downfall is the relationships with and the expectations of men. Overall, this is a fascinating novel, but leaves the reader with unanswered questions.
The novel opens with Esther in New York City. “We had all won a fashion magazine contest by writing essays and stories and poems and fashion blurbs, and as prizes they gave us jobs in New York, expenses paid, and piles and piles of free bonuses”(3). As she seems to be living a fabulous life of a young socialite, moments of unhappiness are revealed. After talking to her boss one day she states, “I felt very low… and I felt now that all the uncomfortable suspicions I had about myself were coming true, and I couldn’t hide the truth much longer”(29). She has multiple flashbacks about her “boyfriend” Buddy Willard and other men she encountered. While recalling Buddy she thinks, “I discovered quite by accident what an awful hypocrite he was, and now he wanted me to marry him and I hated his guts”(52). Her breakdown begins in New York but intensifies as she comes back home to the Boston suburbs for the summer. She is taken to an unfeeling and traumatizing psychiatrist where her depression only worsens. She is then sent to another psychiatric hospital where she is under the care of a kind female doctor, Dr, Nolan. Even with the loving understanding of the new doctor, Esther still feels like she is trapped, watching the world instead of joining it. “The air of the bell jar wadded round me and I couldn’t stir”(186). Throughout the novel she has flashbacks of Buddy, her family, and other instances that occurred during her life. These memories reveal some possible reasons for her psychological breakdown. The events that happen to Esther define the themes of the work.
The themes of this novel are particularly important because they are the reasons for Esther Greenwood’s depression. The major themes of this novel are the pressure of expectations of others, particularly pressures put upon women, and undefined depression. There was pressure put on Esther, a lot of it coming from herself, to be successful in school, to get the best grades, and to take the hardest courses. There was also a contrasting pressure to give it all up to become a wife and mother. At one point, she is talking to Buddy about how she did not want to have to choose just one thing, and he then calls her neurotic for her desire. She responds with, “If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time then I’m neurotic as hell!”(94). She hated the double standard between men and women and was upset by the tendencies of men to do whatever they pleased while she was expected to remain pure until marriage. “Now I saw he had only been pretending all this time to be so innocent”(70). All of these expectations and pressures built up until she fell into a deep depression. This depression is undefined because there is no one singular event that triggers it. Her downfall is almost casual and it is only by looking into her past that some events could be seen as causes, such as the death of her father or her unpleasant experiences with men. Back home in Boston, she comes to a realization about her father’s passing. “Then I remembered that I had never cried for my father’s death”(167). This adds to her already broken emotional state. Here was a girl that seemed to have everything, but was unhappy because she could not escape her past and was unsure about reality. These powerful themes create an extremely intriguing work.
Overall, this novel is very interesting. The nonchalant way she slips into depression is striking and addicting. This story is relatable because many people have been overwhelmed by pressures and expectations at some point in their lives. At one point she thinks about moving to Chicago and changing her name to shake her judgmental surroundings. “Nobody would know I had thrown up a scholarship at a big eastern women’s college and mucked up a month in New York and refused a perfectly solid medical student for a husband”(132). This is just one incident where it is obvious the pressure of expectations becomes overwhelming. However, this work can be hard to follow because the timeline jumps around a lot, and there are pieces of time that are missing altogether. The flashbacks reveal a lot of necessary background information, but can be confusing as to when they occurred. For example, Esther talks about how much she hates Buddy Willard, but then she is visiting him at his college.“I had kept begging Buddy to show me some really interesting hospital sights, so one Friday I cut all my classes and came down for a long weekend and he gave me the works”(63). The one drawback is that the ending leaves the reader wanting more. There are multiple questions raised in the final pages but there are no real answers. This novel suggests that psychological disorders can happen to anyone, even those with seemingly endless opportunities. The author’s use of a sympathetic tone throughout the text makes Esther seem not as crazy as her ideas are almost rationalized because the reader can see the pain she has experienced.
The idea of undefined depression that Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar exhibits is fascinating because a young woman with so much going for her completely breaks down. Though the book is at points confusing, it keeps the reader interested. The only disappointing part is the unfinished ending, but it should not stop someone from reading this profound work.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780061148514
Author:
Plath, Sylvia
Publisher:
HarperCollins Publishers
Illustrator:
PLATH, SYLVIA
Foreword:
McCullough, Frances
Author:
by Sylvia Plath
Author:
PLATH, SYLVIA
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Classics
Subject:
Depression, mental
Subject:
Women college students
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
Suicidal behavior
Edition Description:
Paperback
Series:
P.S.
Publication Date:
October 2006
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
, Y
Pages:
244
Dimensions:
798x568x78 66

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