The Bell Jar

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels

"A coming-of-age masterpiece. . . . Sylvia Plath has become one of the influential writers of her time." --Boston Globe

Sylvia Plath's masterwork--an acclaimed and enduring novel about a young woman falling into the grip of mental illness and societal pressures

Esther Greenwood is a bright, beautiful, enormously talented young woman, but she's slowly going under--maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her neurosis 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.

Author: Sylvia Plath
Publisher: Harper
Published: 06/11/2013
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.96lbs
Size: 8.52h x 5.66w x 1.07d
ISBN: 9780060174903

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 7.2
Point Value: 11
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 8651 / Bell Jar


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 01/01/2001 pg. 978
Library Journal 10/15/1996
People Weekly 04/14/2008 pg. 45

About the Author
Plath, Sylvia: -

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Massachusetts. Her books include the poetry collections The Colossus, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, Ariel, and 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.