The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath

Recommended in 10 interviews and reading lists

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Who recommends it

1. The Best AudiobooksReading list

   Maggie Gyllenhaal’s audiobook narration of The Bell Jar is nothing short of stunning. Her clear, measured delivery brings the novel’s protagonist, Esther Greenwood, to life in a way that is both compelling and relatable.

2. The Best Books Set In New YorkReading list

   The Bell Jar is a novel set in New York City, and it tells the story of a young woman’s descent into mental illness. The protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is a talented student who has been awarded a prestigious internship at a magazine. However, she soon begins to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety, and she…

3. Maya AjmeraInterview
4. Megan CollinsInterview

   I think I’ve stopped believing in there being a hierarchy of impressiveness when it comes to books. When I was younger, I might have said Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, or something just as heavy and classic. But I’m done with the idea that a book’s length or age or genre or presence in the literary canon ascribes it…

5. Tyler KeevilInterview

   I re-read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, since I was teaching it, and was struck anew by its beauty, its power, and its courage, right from the opening page. I’m drawn to writers who say what most of us are too afraid to. On my copy of The Bell Jar, there’s a Joyce Carol Oates quote: ‘A near perfect work of art.’ She’s…

6. Amy Andelson and Emily MeyerInterview

   For as long as we can remember. But our friendship formed when we bonded over all the classic angsty adolescent books like Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Maggie Cassidy by Jack Kerouac, and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

7. The Best Classic Novels For BeginnersReading list

   Plath published this, her only novel, under a pseudonym. It chronicles a young woman’s descent into suicidal depression without flinching, sugar-coating or pandering to the miserable 50s feminine ideal beneath which the heroine slowly strangles. Like all of Plath’s work, it’s a study in clarity and economy of language.

8. Joseph LoughboroughInterview

   I’m going to pinch my girlfriend’s copy of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I’m still new to her writing and keen to discover!

9. Benjamin MurphyInterview

   Money by Martin Amis, The Fall and The Stranger by Albert Camus, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Molloy by Samuel Beckett and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

10. Emma BennettInterview

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