The Bell Jar

The book arrived torn and broke at the back and spine. Terrible

👍🏻

Leí The Bell Jar con muchas ganas y no me decepcionó. Es un libro que remueve bastante, especialmente si alguna vez has pasado por momentos difíciles a nivel emocional. Sylvia Plath escribe con una claridad brutal, sin filtros, y eso hace que todo se sienta muy real. Hay partes incómodas, tristes, incluso agobiantes, pero también momentos de observación aguda y una forma muy especial de mirar el mundo. La protagonista no busca caer bien, simplemente es honesta, y eso me gustó. No es una lectura ligera ni bonita en el sentido clásico, pero sí importante. Me pareció muy valiente. En cuanto a la edición, esta de Faber es sencilla pero bonita. La portada es llamativa y el papel tiene buena calidad. El tamaño de letra es cómodo para leer. Lo recomiendo, sobre todo si te interesa la literatura escrita por mujeres o los libros que exploran la salud mental desde dentro.

The Bell Jar (1963) by Sylvia Plath is a semi-autobiographical novel (roman à clef) that chronicles the mental breakdown, hospitalization, and tentative recovery of Esther Greenwood, a bright, ambitious young woman, recognized for its raw, unflinching, and often witty portrayal of a woman’s struggle for autonomy and mental health, remaining a significant text in both feminist and mental health literature.

Came in good condition but smells terrible.

This is an amazing book and easy to read. Sylvia Plath has entered my life at a very crucial time, and in fact, her voice is spoken with an essence of raw honesty. It makes sense that I would prefer to receive the best advice from the viewpoints of authors from what they experienced rather than only receiving an opinion, which is all of what other people have to provide in current time. Sylvia Plath has the intellectual skill of finding a way into the reader’s head, and speaking up about topics one would not want to share with another soul. In her confessional poetry, it’s for the reason of giving your deepest desires, a genuinely profound insight that makes The Bell Jar positively haunting. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Esther Greenwood is a student from Boston and the first half of this slim modern classic is a rather pedestrian coming of age story centering around the search for purpose and direction in life. Knowing The Bell Jar is semi-autobiographical is part of the appeal and part of the problem. Sylvia Plath famously committed suicide just a month after The Bell Jar was published - under a pseudonym - by gassing herself in the kitchen with her children in the next room. The Bell Jar is a coming of age story that takes place in 1953 and centers around main character Esther Greenwood, a 21 year old college student. She is bright, but has a difficult time reconciling with the stifling world of the 1950’s. Esther works for a fashion magazine in NYC during the summer of 1953 and is fascinated with the news headlines of the day, including the execution of the Rosenbergs and a man’s suicide. It appears that Esther may be on the track to bigger and better things. But Esther is not as stable as she presents herself. This is a coming of age story, like The Catcher In the Rye, but it is through rebirth and pain. Esther begins a slow decline into mental illness, so slowly it’s almost impossible to remember what the “trigger” was for her. In her rejection of conventional models of women, like purity, relationships with men, and the fashion world of NYC, she finds herself on the outside looking in. I found myself, when reading of Esther’s first suicide attempt, wondering “Well, where did that come from?” Esther had no reason to try to kill herself, she even says that she wants to see if she can do it. Plath’s use of language, imagery, and tone in The Bell Jar allowed the reader into the mind and life of Esther Greenwood. Plath is simply a genius when it comes to weaving a story. A slim 264 pages, it was easy reading. Finding this book has inspired me to read even more of her poetry, a biography, or maybe some of her published journals. It historically common in my perspective that fame is often something short-lived. Sylvia Plath only made it to the young age of 30 but left behind her a timeless legacy.

Great