The Bell Jar

[Bright__eyes]

Slyvia Plath.

 

Has anyone read this?

 

At first i found it a little hard to get into because not much happened but after i kept reading i adored it, i think it is very beautiful but also very poignant.

[Kylie]

I read this earlier in the year. I quite liked it but I agree it took a while to get started. I remember thinking at the end that it's the kind of book I would like to have read about 10 years ago (when I was teenager) because I would have been able to identify with the main character more back then.

 

According to the review I wrote after I read it, I also thought that 'This was a thoroughly enjoyable book and very well written. I love Plath's use of metaphor throughout.'

 

I would love to read Sylvia Plath's diaries one day.

[Bright__eyes]

I have Johnny Panic and the bible of dreams by her which are short stories which i tend to read between books so they are much better at engaging throughout.

 

I love her way of writing, with the bell jar i wish at the end she carried on as at the end a lot seemed to be happening and it was very interesting, i didn't want it to end!!

[Echo]

The Bell Jar is a book that is taught at my old high school, and I loved it then. I've read it about three more times since, and I still enjoy it. Mental illness is something that has affected my family and my boyfriend's family, so I can identify with the main character. If you enjoy Plath, I would recommend Wintering by Kate Moses. It tells the story of Plath's last winter, her divorce from Ted Hughes, and the events that led to her suicide.

[~V~]

I read this years and years ago and so can't remember it at all

 

I do remember thinking what a lovely book it was.

[Deirdre]

I read this book when I was in Highschool and I absolutely loved it. I have been meaning to re-read this soon. I also have her unabridged diaries on my bookshelf, but have not come round to reading this yet. I hope to do so next year.

[The Library Nook]

I really didn't enjoy this book, I read it years ago and keep thinking about trying it again to see if my opinions have changed but there are too many books in the world lol!

[Guest ii]

I haven't read the Bell Jar in years but I did love it back in the day when I did read it. And it says a lot that I still remember very clearly how I felt about it. Have you tried her poetry? I find them really fascinating, too... hmm, should probably read the Bell Jar again...

[KAY]

Can't say i enjoyed it. I don't remeber it now but i recall at the time thinking it was depressing ,dull and was just glad to get to the end of it. dont know if i read it again if id feel any different about it.

[Emi226]

I tried reading this a couple of years ago and really struggled with it. In the end i think i got about half way through and gave up. Maybe i'll try and give it another try but i always get distracted by something else.

[kitty_kitty]

I really njoyed this book but i need to gt another copy as the pages dropped out of mine

[writeoff]

I loved this book too, and also her letters and diaries. What I can't get to grips with is her poetry although I love the metaphors in You're.

[Guest ii]

I like You're too. What I like about her poems, is that they always challenge me. They're not ones to be read to clam me down, but to captivate. I don't know if I know how to explain this properly, though.

[Kate]

Synopsis:

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.

I chose to read this book because it is on the Rory Gilmore Reading List. I wasn't sure what to expect as this is a hard subject to sensitively write about. However, I think Sylvia Plath did a super job. Of course, that might be because she did really commit suicide.

The book is about Esther, a girl who moves to New York to work as a junior editor at a magazine. She experiences all sorts in New York, from the realisation that not all men are nice, to extreme food poisoning, by someone set on killing the magazine staff. Her downward spiral starts here, but gets worse when she moves home and can't get a job. She is stuck at home, sharing a bedroom with her always-pleasant mother. It is here that Esther has her breakdown, and tries to kill herself. The result is her ending up in hospital, where she experiences shock-therapy and has to cope with the death of people she knows.

This book is enjoyable - if that is the right word. It is unsettling, and will haunt me for a long time I think. There are some images which will be hard to erase, but that does not spoil the book. It is not an easy topic to read but it is well written and I found myself wanting to keep reading more, to find out what happened.

Esther was a character I found myself liking, and I didn't like watching her slip down the road of depression and suicide. I really wanted her to be OK. There were aspects of her situation I found myself relating to, and a few years ago I would not have been able to read this book. I wasn't bothered by the other characters - it was all about Esther and what happened to her for me.

This is a very sensitive issue and I would approach this book with caution if mental health issues are close to you. That said, in my current mindset I enjoyed this book.

4/5

[Kimmy619]

I really love this book and I appreciated it a lot more after learning a little about Sylvia's life.

[bookworm44]

I really enjoyed this book. Very interesting read!

[Elin]

I love this book! Especially the beginning and the descriptions of how she slowly looses it all. Preferred the way of writing in the beginning though, it wasn't as poetic and powerful later on, more like she was eager to get it finished and done with. Haven't read any of her poetry but the book feels quite like Emily Dickinson's poems, I think.

[Brida]

This is a book I wanted to read for a while, and finally did get round to it a while back. I have mixed feelings about it, which is why I didn't even write a review for it - I couldn't figure out what to say.

 

I was looking forward to this book because of the subject it deals with. BUT. For some reason, the main character annoyed me. I know she was (supposed to be) mentally unstable and all, but to me it just seemed like she was being a rude young girl (most of the time). I like the way the progression of her 'unwell' state was described (it was very believable and smooth, just like such a state would appear and evolve), but the character itself is what was bothering me. She didn't seem insane enough for the state she was apparently in. Again, she mostly seemed rude. Ok, so she was feeling empty and couldn't care about anything, but it wasn't described as such a drastic state (in the beginning, when explaining how she got there in the first place). The thing that made it convincing (for me) was her being helpless in all that, and not being able to get well without the help of others (in the hospital). And also, how simple it was to get from feeling a bit empty to suicide, such a huge transformation and yet tragically so easy to make. Maybe it's because Plath was focused on a certain feature of the character, which was the most important issue for her, and that didn't seem as important to me. Basically, I think I needed a bit more convincing.

Or maybe I just like drama

 

As for the writing style, I liked that very much, it was very 'fluent' and engaging. If the subject wasn't this grim I'd even say entertaining.

[LTR]

I read this as a teenager and didn't liek it although my friend loved it. Read it a year or two back again and actually liked it, weird how things change as you get older