The Bell Jar

De: Sylvia Plath

Narrado por: Maggie Gyllenhaal

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.

©1971 Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. Copyright renewed 1998 (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Love Sylvia but...

Plath is one of my favorite poets of all time but this book was a chore to get through. I don't feel it shows a slow descent into madness. One day Ester is a conceited college girl and then she's getting electroshock therapy. I struggle with any sympathy for Ester. She has some very progressive ideas and I want her to be a heroine but she isn't. Maybe that's the point of her; I just really struggled with this book and I'm disappointed in that fact.
UPDATE: I've come to the conclusion that the narration really threw me off. I love Maggie but her tone turned the characters sour for me.

Superb story with horrible sounds.

This was my first encounter with Sylvia Plath and I absolutely adore her prose. The narrator was also wonderful.
*BUT*
Between every chapter HarperAudio decided to play a very loud series of piano chords. Many people put on their audio book to fall asleep. So there you are, warm, drifting off to sleep to lovely words and
DING! da_DIN-dingDING DIIING! It may have been tolerable but whoever edited this put the narrator volume at normal but cranked that damned tornado siren of a piano up to 11.

I will be reading more Sylvia Plath but I am gun-shy about HarperAudio ad will read the reviews carefully before getting anything by them, in the future.

Research this Book First

If you could sum up The Bell Jar in three words, what would they be?

Since audible keeps taking down my review, all I'm going to say is, do your research first before you decide to buy this book.

A revelation of beauty in despair

I wondered why I couldn’t remember reading this well-known book. A few paragraphs in it was obvious why. Published in 1963, this marvelous novel would have been thought entirely too frank for my supposedly-tender Southern belle sensibilities. So glad to discover it however late in life. Maggie Gyllenhaal has the perfect voice to embody this brilliant young woman’s cry for air. Bell Jar indeed. Plath’s imagery throughout is stunning. Her poetic artistry shines on every page.

Holden Caulfield meets Randle McMurphy

Sylvia Plath's sad but fascinating semi-autobiographical journey through clinical depression toward suicidal and mental instability is a gripping story. At first it reminded me of "The Catcher in the Rye" then quickly into "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". What captivated me are the thoughts shared by Esther Greenwood along the way and her interaction with the people who she encounters.

Achingly Beautiful & Haunting

I loved the performance of Maggie Gyllenhaal! She is a favourite of mine, and her voice allowed the story to unfold in my mind's eye, feeling as if it had been told to me by a dear friend.

Plath was, in my view, a brilliant writer. Her writing pulls you into the depths of inner hell and back again. For those like me who have experienced a breakdown, it feels like a champion. For those who have not, it is an invitation into a world often seen only by those trapped in it.

This is a must-read.

I didn’t like it

I don’t even know what the moral of the story was. It was very odd and decently horrifying. The main character is awful and doesn’t even really change or have much of a realization at the end. Pointless.

Racism ruined it for me

Mental health issues are challenging, all consuming and not a matter of slight. Perhaps it makes a monster of you, bringing out your worst. But the casualty with which the eloquent writing doles out dollops of racism made this novel barely tolerable for me. I struggled with my empathy towards Esther. Is it worth a read in this time and age when we are coming to grips with the racist history of this country? Not unless you are interested in exploring feminism without intersectionality, not for me this one.

Great novel; listening to Mrs Gyllenhall is a dream

I’ve been a big fan of Mrs Gyllenhall as an actress and The Bell Jar has been on my reading list for a long time. It’s not as dark and tragic as I thought it would be. Mrs Gyllenhall has a beautiful voice and gives it just a bit of characterization but mainly let’s the writing speak for itself. It was really wonderful to put on my headphones and get lost in this introspective book in the fall in NYC.

A fresh voice to the story

An engaging story, not depressing despie the issues raised. A paced narration, clear voice, all the right accents.