The Bell Jar, Revisited

Would you believe it if I said I'd never read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar until now? I almost don't believe it.  Part of the reason I always shied away from The Bell Jar was the idea that reading about a protagonist like Esther Greenwood would hit too close to home.  After all, just like Esther, I was an English major in the Honors program at a Northeast liberal arts school, I loved poetry and D.H. Lawrence, and had a similarly charged, challenging experience interning in Manhattan.  And like Esther, I often contemplated the conflicts of being a young woman with competing ambitions and desires.  There's one beautiful passage in which Plath writes:

"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."

Esther's observations sum up this acutely quarterlife uncertainty better than anything I've read as a 20something.  Plath wrote The Bell Jar nearly 50 years ago, but it is as fresh and relevant as a piece of new fiction.  Her voice is bravely, unerringly honest and the writing itself is direct and visceral--gorgeous language paired down to its essential parts.  

Have you read The Bell Jar? What was your impression of it? If you're a 20something who would like to review the book, shoot me an email at roaring20s at harpercollins dot com and I'll send you a complimentary copy.    

Comments

[Josh Gaylord]

This is one of those books that gets better on each reading. And I think it has such a reputation for being grim that people tend to forget how much humor there is in it (albeit frequently very dark humor). I'll never forget her boyfriend's pathetic (and oddly asexual) attempts to woo her after having taken her to watch a woman giving birth. Sylvia Plath has an almost Cronenberg-esque fascination with and revulsion toward the body. It's one of the classic smart girl books in the American canon. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[Ben Rubinstein]

You know, I HAVEN'T! I actually did read the first 20 or so pages on a lunch break several years back. A coworker had brought it in and I took it with me. But then I had to give it back, and never read more -- but I loved those first 20 pages!

Oh, and here's my favorite Plath poem.

http://www.eliteskills.com/analysis_poetry/Aftermath_by_Sylvia_Plath_analysis.php

[Kathy R (Bermudaonion)]

I haven't read The Bell Jar either, but I know it's one of those books I should read. I'll get to it one of these days.

[stephanierose]

One of my favorite books of all time! I think maybe it's because I read it when I was fairly young (17 or 18)that I was so taken by it. I was completely blown away by Esther. She was so complex and I just couldn't comprehend how someone could be so miserable and lost. I couldn't put it down. I read it not long ago again and I still loved it!

[Aarti]

Is it too late to comment on this and request a copy to review? I LOVE the new cover! I have never read this book, either, but I plan to read it for a feminist reading challenge I'm participating in this year. I can't promise that I'll be able to read it in the next two months, though, so if that's too late, I am sure I can find an older copy for myself :-)

Great review- it sounds much less weird and terrifying here than it usually does.

[Timberland 6 Pollice]

Entrambi hanno in comune le scarpe con un tacco in pelle bianca e ingiallite suola vulcanizzata, visto questa serie di leggere un singolo prodotto principalmente a corredo due sensazione marchio vicissitudini.