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Summary: Defining a new literature...
Review: I first encountered Sylvia Plath fresh out of my tumultuous high school years, during which I dropped out and went back. I've suffered from bouts of depression since the beginning of adolescence. Throughout adolescence, these manifested themselves in myriad ways, from the typical rebelliousness to a two-month period around the age of seventeen wherein I couldn't even manage a smile and cried seemingly for hours nearly every day.At around age twenty I began to take my writing seriously (so dangerous and giddy a moment for any writer!). I discovered her poetry, and this wrenching and bitter and beautiful novel, at a point in which I began to have more frequent episodes, as well as a time in which I fell in love, did my Kerouac thing, started college. Here was a writer who not only went ahead into these horrors herself, but had the unwavering courage to document them and share them with others. As a literary work, the novel seethes with immortality, making a perpetual watermark in fire on the mind with its images: Esther trailing her finger along the wall of the building to help her keep her balance and bearing, the ends of the hair in the vomit like tree roots in a bog, Esther peering at Buddy from behind her hair (a mask utilized to illustrate the double standard and hypocrisies of both sets of behavior), Constantin's apartment, the lunch on the cold day when Esther and Mr. Willard drive up to the Adirondacks to see Buddy. As a work of psychological prowess and permanence, I don't know that I've ever read anything that more skillfully paints a portrait of such a descent. As a work of catharsis, I think, it is without parallel in this century. Sylvia Plath has become a kindred spirit to many writers out there, and many, as well, who suffer similar perils. This novel has marked the beginning, the first terrifying steps into the emotional devastation possible in the hands of contemporary culture. There is no other work yet like it, and there may never be.
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Summary: I am an 18 year old female, I can relate!
Review: This book is a heart wrenching account of an emoitional and mental breakdown experienced by a female trying to succed. Highly reccomended!
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Summary: Being trapped under that same bell jar...
Review: The Bell Jar shows brilliance and misery that is meant to be savoired and loved by the millions of miserable fans wanting a good read. Besides writing the most beautiful metaphors and similes, Syliva Plath has a genuine misery that mists her words that makes you fill a vacant spot in your soul for her. You become the character Esther Greenwood, you feel her insecurities, her anger, and her despair. She drags you under the bell jar she is trapped under, to where you can feel only the stale breath from your lungs and nothing fresh or good. It is an absolute must read, along with her poetry!
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Summary: amazing
Review: When I finished this novel for the first time, I took a deep breath, tried to collect myself, and began to read it agian. Plath tells her story (and it is her own story) manner-of-factly, but she never loses the reader in a sea of detachment. The novel is stirring and disturbing; it would be impossible to read it and to feel nothing. It is an excellent choice for anyone and would be especially moving for a young woman who is caught in the struggle of trying to find out who she is.
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Summary: It's unavoidable to identify yourself with E. Greenwood
Review: After reading this book you start wondering why did it get your attention like that. You feel you're in the very same skin of Esther Greenwood, going through the Asylum paths, seeing all your friends drown in the distance. It'll definitely influence you in some way, it might be a good way as well as it might be a bad way, whatever your mind tells you. And that's why it's five stars.
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Summary: An unforgetable book.. a sad reality check
Review: Sylvia Plath has always managed to chill me and amaze me with her awesome talent with words, but until you have read The Bell Jar, you haven't experienced the full mastery of Sylvia Plath. I received The Bell Jar last year on my 14th birthday and when I first read it, it was like yet another slap in the face delivered by Sylvia. This book is a huge reality check and yes, like Sylvia's other works, it can be quite disturbing at times. The Bell Jar doesn't try to amuse you by saying that the world is a big happy place like many other novels do. It deals with reality - real issues and real fears surrounding a young woman searching for an identity in a harsh, unrelenting world. Sylvia Plath isn't afraid to tell you what the world is really like and how it can break a woman who's future seems a bright one. But the character's (Esther Greenwood) transitions from sanity to insanity are so subtle that it is difficult to distinguish the two at times. The Bell Jar is a look into the human mind that is dark and sadly cynical at times, but it is a novel that anyone can relate to. Everyone is searching for an identity just as Sylvia's Esther Greenwood was. And anyone can cross the thin line that separates sanity from insanity, just as Sylvia Plath did.
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Summary: favourite book
Review: I couldn't believe how amazing this book was. I related so much to it. Everyone should read it.
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Summary: Plath takes brilliance to a new level!
Review: Never has there been a novel so intelligently written and understood! Sylvia Plath, through details of her own terrifying life, conveys a story so immaculate it makes the classics look like Dr. Seuss. This one is sure to be loved by all!
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Summary: A Truimph !!!!
Review: Sylvia Plath's novel is her only one and after reading it one can understand why. Bell Jar explores the human mind through Esther Greenwood (who is Plath herself, indeed) and the society around her. Bordering on a delicate balance between sanity and insanity, Bell Jar is probing, questioning, dark and at times scary. But so very real at all times. Plath pours out a lifetime through Esther in Bell Jar. It's a pity there aren't too many novels like Bell Jar, but then it's a greater pity there was only one Sylvia Plath.
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Summary: Reality at its harshest
Review: Although this book was harsh reading, it was a slap in the face of reality. It was real, and it was depressing, but it gives society something to understand. We are all not perfect people and not everyone is going to go to college. It just shows us that there are so many pressures out there that it is hard for a young man or woman to survive. I thought it was very depressing, but very poetic at the same time. It really just makes you think.
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