The Bell Jar

Name: The Bell Jar
Brand: Harper Audio
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.22 (129 reviews)
Author: Sylvia Plath
ISBN: 9780060886646

Author: Sylvia Plath

Narrator: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Unabridged: 7 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 02/02/2016

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Synopsis

Performed by Maggie GyllenhaalOne 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 GlobeSylvia Plath’s masterwork—an acclaimed and enduring novel about a young woman falling into the grip of mental illness and societal pressuresEsther Greenwood is bright, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but 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.

About Sylvia Plath

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.

About Maggie Gyllenhaal

Maggie Gyllenhaal's stunning performance in the film Secretary garnered her a Golden Globe nomination, an Independent Spirit Award nomination and awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Boston Society of Film Critics, and the National Board of Review. She recently appeared in the Oscar-nominated film Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sammy on June 12, 2007

There are many who have read The Bell Jar and absolutely loved it. I am gladly considering myself one of them. I was a little caught of guard when I read a few reviews of The Bell Jar comparing it to The Catcher in the Rye stating how it's the female version of it. I liked Catcher but I know there a......more

Goodreads review by emma on December 15, 2022

i did not know that if you're mentally ill you're allowed to be mean and annoying. i wish i had done things differently. i do get why this is a classic. some reasons it is, in order of niceness to not niceness: -it is very beautifully written -that fig paragraph is probably one of the best passages on......more

Goodreads review by karen on June 20, 2018

there once was a girl from the bay state who tried to read finnegan's wake. it made her so ill, she took loads of pills. james joyce has that knack to frustrate. come to my blog!......more

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on August 16, 2024

Addictive Yet Haunting This book actually leaves me speechless. The prose. The storytelling. The metaphors. And I found myself holding my breath. The Bell Jar reads like a very interesting diary. It feels real – as though you are experiencing the story. One of the reasons that it feels real is that the......more

Goodreads review by Karen on March 11, 2018

My dad went mad in the early seventies when my mom filed for divorce and took up with another man after 12 yrs of marriage. He ended up in a place called Glenn Eden here in Michigan and went through a dozen or more electric shock treatments, I remember visiting him through a window from outside the......more