The Bell Jar (Modern Classics)

『ザ・ベル・ジャー』 by シルヴィア・プラスシルヴィア・プラスの自伝的要素が強いこの作品は、うつ病や自殺未遂のリアルな描写が特徴です。主人公の内面的な苦しみや精神的な崩壊が生々しく描かれています。

ティーンの女の子の精神的な不安定さやもろさがテーマになっています。その代表として主人公が普段の優等生な立場から精神的に追い詰められて病院送りになってしまう話。そしてそんな主人公が特別におかしくなったわけではなく、彼女のように人生が落ちていってしまうことは誰にでも可能性があることをこの本から学びました。私は英文科で、この本はアメリカ人の先生から薦められて読んだ本です。主人公も大学生なので大学生にお勧めです。ちなみに映画、『１７歳のカルテ』の原作らしいですよ。映画は内容がけっこう違います。映画より原作のthe bell jarの方が私は全然好きです。

Good!

Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar is a gem. The heroine, if we can employ that term, is nothing if not an attractive figure. Smart and inquisitive, yet also prone to a dangerous sensitivity and sensibility. The story of her fall is heartbreaking because Plath has given her life. The girl is of course Plath herself, a person of great sensitivity and probing intelligence, making her the greatest female poet of the twentieth century. I genuinely love this book.

The price is low and attractive but kindle edition's full of typos. In numerous places the supposed-to-be "the" is somehow turned into "die" and the lack of period is everywhere. You can still read the story but if you are a serious reader, I guess you'd better go for one of the print versions.

Very disappointing. This is not the original published book. Just a photocopy . Bad quality . Regret buying

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.

When I ordered The Bell Jar it felt like I was paying to be tortured. It has a reputation of being a depressing book, but one well written, so in my quest for a good book, the order was made.When I began reading The Bell Jar my initial thought, was 'this isn't as depressing as I thought' as even though the protagonist is depressed, she's in New York doing something that she was pleased to be doing. But as I read on, the life of this young woman seemed to implode. Her own beliefs and upbringing brought her into a situation that she couldn't cope with, and the way she kept others at a distance meant that she had nowhere to go for help. She fantasises and becomes excessively unsociable. The world becomes too tortuous for her. The protagonist is electro shocked in a state asylum which Plath writes so well that it leaves even you feeling violated, and fearful of a repeat.Fortunately a benefactor gets her into a better hospital where the world is quite different. Here we see the protagonist make judgements on others in the same or similar situations and we see a world that those who never enter into an hospital for depression never see. We also see her judge and excuse herself. The entire book is like a window into the mind of a depressed young woman who should have the world at her feet, but instead finds herself trapped within a bell jar of her own design.Of course the book is written based on Plaths own experience in an asylum, originally writing the book under a pseudonym she felt that the work drew so much on her life that she needed to protect certain characters and family. But this is what makes the book so enthralling and real life. As a poet she has a command over the English language that makes this work so thought provoking, so vivid, that it's thoroughly engrossing. Is it depressing? Yes, OK it is. But it's a wonderful piece of literature and expression of psychology that it's well worth the emotional upheaval.

Un clásico que todos deberían leer por su excelsa forma de narrar. En verdad que cambia la forma de ver las condiciones de salud mental, lo recomiendo ampliamente

It's a classic for a reason. Sylvia Plath is in a league of her own, especially when it comes to poetic expression - every human being should read this essential work of 20th Century literature.

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.