"The Bell Jar" is a classic of American literature, with over two million copies sold in this country. This extraordinary work chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful - but slowly going under, and maybe for the last time. Step by careful step, Sylvia Plath takes us with Esther through a painful month in New York as a contest-winning junior editor on a magazine, her increasingly strained relationships with her mother and the boy she dated in college, and eventually, ...
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"The Bell Jar" is a classic of American literature, with over two million copies sold in this country. This extraordinary work chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful - but slowly going under, and maybe for the last time. Step by careful step, Sylvia Plath takes us with Esther through a painful month in New York as a contest-winning junior editor on a magazine, her increasingly strained relationships with her mother and the boy she dated in college, and eventually, devastatingly, into the madness itself. The reader is drawn into her breakdown with such intensity that her 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 rare in any novel. It points to the fact that "The Bell Jar" is a largely autobiographical work about Plath's own summer of 1953, when she was a guest editor at Mademoiselle and went through a breakdown. It reveals so much about the sources of Sylvia Plath's own tragedy that its publication was considered a landmark in literature.
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Seller's Description:
Very good Good jacket. Third Printing. Dust jacket is in Good condition, price unclipped. No markings. Tight binding. Nice clean copy. Almost appears never to have been used. Historic Oklahoma Bookstore on Route 66. Packages shipped daily, Mon-Fri.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in fine jacket. A fine, fresh, unused copy. Hardcover in red cloth with spine label in gilt on black. Gold cloth marker ribbon. A new introduction for this edition by Diane Wood Middlebrook, a select bibliography and a chronology of the author's life. No. 212 in the Eveyman's Library series.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good+ in Very Good jacket. First thus. Light rubbing to extremities of dust jacket. Price unclipped, in mylar protector. Red cloth boards in excellent, near fine condition. Light soiling to text block edges.
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Seller's Description:
New in new dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 256 p. Everyman's Library (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ), 212. Audience: General/trade. This is the hardcover stated Everyman's First Edition from 1998. Both the DJ and the book (sith place ribbon) are in positively excellent condition. There are no rips, tears, markings, etc. and the pages and binding are tight. This wonderful, impossible-to-find item is available for purchase now! **Note: All books listed as FIRST EDITIONS are stated by the publisher in words or number lines--or--only stated editions that include only the publisher and publication date. Due to the vagaries of market fluctuations, an item may occasionally seem overvalued. To compensate for that possibility, all serious buyers are welcome to make a best offer on each and every item listed, with the assurance that ALL reasonable offers will be accepted.
A great read--I highly recommend it. Classics never die.
The Pageturner
Oct 28, 2009
Character Trapped in Societal Asylum
The main character of this novel reminds me of the main character in "The Stranger", except that she has emotions. The book reveals society's insanity in trying to create a cookie cutter generation of females. The surrounding character's expectations of Esther Greenwood lead to her nervous breakdown and attempted suicide. The book is not intense, but it will keep your interest until the end.
cassandra
Apr 24, 2008
nothing really special
It was okay. A little mundane. It did keep my attention and completion of the story. Quite depressing and a little confusing at times.
cathiesblogg
Oct 19, 2007
A haunting mental breakdown
I purchased this book after reading Sylvia Plath's life journals and poetry. I was really surprised of how much a perfectionist that she really was. Her brilliant but sensitive mind was unique. She did not handle rejection well and seemed to really have a hard time fitting in at certain times. "very still and very empty" is the way the narrator described herself. It shows the more "real" life of the high fashion and society life. Could benefit teenagers that are considering this life style to read this book.. I recommend reading this book highly!..expecially if you are a Sylvia Plath fan..
Sali
Aug 9, 2007
The Book and the Tragedy
I read the Bell Jar more than thirty years ago. I read it before I knew the real, followup tragedy of Sylvia Plath. The Bell Jar gives a vivid picture of the artificiality of glamour in the fashion world and shows the conflict of values and self-esteem through the perceptions of young girl. In the book, the girl is named Esther, but she is Sylvia Plath's alter-ego. Esther has been an achiever and has won countless prizes for her talents, but in reality she is a fragile, unsure young woman. The book deals with her negativity and self-contempt..It deals with her attempt at suicide and her struggle with mental illness. In the book she has recovered. But Sylvia Plath made a second attempt at suicide a few years later. She succeeded this time.