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The Bell Jar
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful but slowly going under - maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.
Featured Article: 70+ Memorable Sylvia Plath Quotes About Life and Love
Sylvia Plath was an American poet and author known for her gorgeous, visceral confessional poetry and prose that dealt with topics ranging from gender inequality to the anxieties surrounding death. Her brilliance lives on in her writing, which remains poignant and relevant. In this collection of quotes and passages from Sylvia Plath, you may find comfort, solace, or a new way to view life in its endless complexities.
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When first published in 1759, Candide became an instant best seller and is now regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. Voltaire’s preoccupations with evil and with various kinds of human folly and intolerance found a perfect vehicle in this philosophical tale. A master storyteller, he combined often wildly entertaining action with profoundly serious sense, parodying the traditional chivalric and oriental tales with which his public was more familiar.
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Guaranteed to keep you smiling if not LOL
- By Robert on 08-09-12
By: Voltaire
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The Painted Veil
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1925, The Painted Veil is an affirmation of the human capacity to grow, change, and forgive. Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, it is the story of the beautiful but shallow young Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to a remote region of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic.
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What An Unexpected Delight!
- By Mimi on 10-22-08
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Beowulf
- By: Seamus Heaney - translator
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Written a thousand years ago, this long poem is the very first surviving piece of English literature. Join Beowulf, a young warrior, as he achieves glory by fighting and killing three fantastic monsters. This new translation, by the Nobel laureate poet Seamus Heaney, offers modern listeners an accessible, intensely dramatic text. It amply demonstrates why this epic has spread its influence over more than a millennium of literature.
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Almost perfect
- By Tad Davis on 01-28-13
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Peter Firth
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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When John Durbeyfield discovers a family connection to the ancient Norman family, the D'Urbervilles, the fate of daughter Tess is transformed. Sent by her ambitious parents to visit her wealthy D'Urberville cousins, Tess attracts the attention of the unscrupulous Alec. Seduced and discarded by him and alone in the world, she finds work as a milkmaid and the love of Angel Clare. Yet his love cannot accept the truth about Tess's past.
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Peter Firth gets this book
- By Claire on 04-11-10
By: Thomas Hardy
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- 50th Anniversary Edition
- By: Ken Kesey, Robert Faggen - introduction
- Narrated by: John C. Reilly
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Turning conventional notions of sanity and insanity on their heads, the novel tells the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her.
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Fantastic
- By Scott on 08-03-12
By: Ken Kesey, and others
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Treasure Island
- By: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Narrated by: Kevin McNally, Roy McMillan
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Following the demise of bloodthirsty buccaneer Captain Flint, young Jim Hawkins finds himself with the key to a fortune. For he has discovered a map that will lead him to the fabled Treasure Island. But a host of villains, wild beasts and deadly savages stand between him and the stash of gold. Not to mention the most infamous pirate ever to sail the high seas....
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LOVED IT!
- By Matthew F Ditson on 11-23-19
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The Turn of the Screw
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Emma Thompson, Richard Armitage - introduction
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Emmy winner Emma Thompson lends her immense talent and experienced voice to Henry James' Gothic ghost tale, The Turn of the Screw. When a governess is hired to care for two children at a British country estate, she begins to sense an otherworldly presence around the grounds. Are they really ghosts she's seeing? Or is something far more sinister at work?
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Great, but Mightn't be the Best on Audible
- By Gillian on 03-16-16
By: Henry James
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The Virgin Suicides
- By: Jeffrey Eugenides
- Narrated by: Nick Landrum
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This nationally best-selling novel from Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffrey Eugenides was adapted into an acclaimed film by Academy Award-winner Sofia Coppola. A haunting yet wickedly funny tale, The Virgin Suicides has captivated countless readers with its intoxicating portrait of lost innocence. A brilliant fusion of dark humor and tragedy, it is an atmospheric, allegorical masterpiece about five oppressed, suicidal sisters and the boys who dream of rescuing them.
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Read this if you want to enjoy this audiobook
- By Lexi Lou on 11-06-13
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Wuthering Heights
- An Audible Exclusive Performance
- By: Emily Brontë, Ann Dinsdale - introduction
- Narrated by: Joanne Froggatt, Rachel Atkins - introduction
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The unapologetic intensity with which Emily Brontë wrote this story ensures that it will forever be considered one of the greatest works of English literature. A passionate tale of a chaotic and often violent love, Wuthering Heights transcends your average romance and, with its Gothic undertones, takes the listener on a journey through one man's lustful hunt for revenge.
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Almost Peerless
- By Brad Simkulet on 02-04-18
By: Emily Brontë, and others
What listeners say about The Bell Jar
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Keelyn Henning
- 02-05-16
A classic done right
Maggie Gyllenhaal was the best choice to narrate this wonderful classic. Her smooth yet demanding voice made me not want to stop listening. If you loved this book in print you will love listening to Maggie tell you the story as well
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26 people found this helpful
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- M. Ryder
- 04-12-16
Why All The Hype?
I'm still trying to figure out what I seem to be missing because clearly, everybody but me loves this book. Despite the story being based on the author's real life, I honestly found the story itself to be rather boring, with very little ever happening in Esther's actual life. With regard to her psychiatric treatment, even that part was not in the least enthralling. I kept thinking there had to be so much more to come. However, the narration was pretty good, though once again, not what I would call outstanding. There are plenty of great books to choose from that are far more worth your time! 😉👎🏼
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3 people found this helpful
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- Richard Delman
- 07-23-18
A remarkable achievement; the perfect narrator.
I believe that most people, at least most of the Boomer generation, know this book as a true classic of the 20th century. Few books have tackled the harsh realities of a suicidal decline by the author. This alone, the fact that the book is largely autobiographical, is an important part of what makes it such an overwhelming accomplishment. The first half of the book is much lighter than the second half. During the first half Esther Greenwood, the protagonist/stand-in for Ms. Plath, has some enjoyable moments, particularly in a month that she spends in New York City, working as a kind of student intern at a fashion magazine. There are maybe twenty of these "girls," in the program, all of them staying at a hotel that is called the Amazon but is, I believe, a very thinly disguised version of the Barbizon, a proper hotel for women in which no men are allowed in a woman's room at any time. This part of the book is not light-hearted fun: Esther clearly demonstrates the very early signs of the depression that eventually claims her life. However, she and a couple of girlfriends enjoy the city and its amazing gifts in ways that are occasionally fun, if rather grim fun. One particularly grim fun episode is a luncheon at which the girls all eat a cocktail made from an "avocado pear" (I believe that here on the Left Coast we just call this an avocado). The cocktail features a scooped-out avocado half that is filled with crabmeat, mayonnaise, paprika and so forth. Either the crab or the mayo or both is "loaded with ptomaine," and the poor girls throw up their insides for an entire night. If comedy is tragedy plus time, then this episode is a good example of how we can laugh at something which was truly horrendous in the moment.
The second half of the book is much rougher. Esther begins to come apart, and there is no room for denial on anyone's part. Her mother tries very hard to provide for Esther, and to get the "right" kinds of treatment for her. Some of what she gets is the perfectly wrong treatment, i.e., hospitalization and shock treatments at a private hospital run by a psychiatrist named Dr. Gordon. While it is true that electroshock treatment can be helpful in the cases of treatment-resistant severe depression, the experience that Esther endures is so painful and so intimately described that one can just barely listen to the words without yelling "Stop!" at the callow psychiatrist. During my training I actually administered EST at a Veteran's Hospital in Salisbury, North Carolina. Nothing will make you think a thousand times about its so-called efficacy as having to administer this awful procedure to a patient. Even when the process was improved to the point where a grand mal seizure was suppressed, no one could mistake the profound shock, literally and figuratively, that the patient was going through. Needless to say, the treatments didn't work for Esther, and so she continued down the slippery slope into the abyss.
The good news about this audiobook is Maggie Gyllenhaal. She is one of my favorite actors on the screen. I didn't know that she narrated audiobooks, but I am thrilled about it. If you saw her and James Spader in the deeply troubling movie "Secretary," you hold the image of Maggie portraying one of the most challenging parts anywhere in either literature or movies. I won't go on about this except to say that the relationship between the two leads (Spader is a lawyer who is his usual extremely creepy self, and Maggie is his secretary) quickly progresses from brand new to a spanking connection. Quite literally. Maggie Gyllenhaal pulls this off perfectly, with her extraordinarily expressive face and her stellar abilities as an actor. She applies these same skills, without the visuals, in The Bell Jar, and I think that I will remember this performance for as long as I will remember the tortured young woman in "Secretary." From this point forward, I will gladly listen to almost anything that Maggie narrates. Jake may get more work, but IMHO Maggie is the superior sibling by leaps and bounds. As Esther descends, Maggie's depiction of the awful metamorphosis is spellbinding. Even though we know that the end is coming, somehow the nutty optimist in all of us keeps hoping that she will by some miracle be saved. We think: she's just too good and sensitive a person to die like this.
Buy this book. Although it is quite difficult in some parts, the sheer talent on view, so to speak, is towering.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Alex Troy
- 04-23-18
Esther Greenwood, unforgettable hero
An exquisitely poignant tale. This novel touched me as few others have. The hero, Esther Greenwood, is both bard and hero of her own epic. She tells the tale of her descent into madness, her journey through its dark landscape, and her possible reemergence to the light. When the book ended, I was hopeful for Esther, and also craving more of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s voice. Ms Gyllenhaal’s sensitive performance gave life to the tale’s many voices and especially Esther’s.
The prose is lyrical, the work of a great artist.
Outstanding
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1 person found this helpful
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- Brittany Stephanie
- 11-03-17
Poetic in nature, well done like a oven top Salmon
She went though, step by step almost, of a nervous break down, reflecting on her life though the glass of a bell jar.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Oriana
- 03-29-23
THE ANNOYING MUSIC
Maggie did a good job. She wasn't the problem. But what the hell was that music? And why was it so loud?! The most annoying thing was to have that music in the middle of the chapter while I'm listening to this in bed trying to relax before bed, and it doesn't help how loud it is. Horrible.
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- Christina Bridges
- 04-03-23
Everything was great except… that music?
What? Why? I don’t understand. It was so unnecessary and I had to turn my volume down every time.
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- Kim
- 02-08-17
I felt I coul felt I could see the world through her eyes!
Each chapter drew me in wondering what would happen next.
Loved Maggie' reading.
Wonderfully written. I chuckled, I felt sad, I didn't know what to think sometimes.
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- KJG
- 12-28-18
Perfection
Please have Maggie Gyllenhaal perform more novels - the performance is engrossing, the novel made better by her reading it
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- chagley
- 10-05-18
Only Sylvia Plath Book I've Ever Read
Was not sure what to expect from this classic - but Maggie Gylienhaal had the perfect voice to guide you through the time period. Plath's matter of fact writing style made this book and the story easy to visualize. Too bad she left us before her time.
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