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Cover of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

  • 262 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 1963
  • 177 editions
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1 About this book

The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is supposedly semi-autobiographical, with the names of places and people changed. The book is often regarded as a roman à clef because the protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression. Plath died by suicide a month after its first UK publication.

The novel was published under Plath's name for the first time in 1966. It was not published in the United States until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of both Plath's husband Ted Hughes and her mother Aurelia Plath. In the United States, the book became an instant best-seller, and has since been translated into more than forty languages.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Classics
  • Psychology
  • Mental health
  • Psychological fiction
  • Medicine
  • Women college students
  • Summer
  • Feminism

2 What to expect

A young woman's summer in 1950s New York, and her breakdown afterward. Sharp and darkly funny, about depression and suicide attempts.

Good for readers who want: a classic, mental health, and a short read.

3 About Sylvia Plath

1932–1963

Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and her works include The Colossus and Other Poems (1960), Ariel (1965), and The Bell Jar (1963), a semi-autobiographical novel published one month before her suicide. The Collected Poems were published in 1981, which included previously unpublished works.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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