The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar is the only novel by the American poet Sylvia Plath. It was first published in England in 1963 by Heinemann under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, a month before the author took her own life. It appeared under Plath's own name in 1966, but was not published in the United States until 1971, in line with the wishes of her husband, Ted Hughes, and her mother. There it became an instant bestseller, and it has since been translated into more than forty languages.

The novel follows Esther Greenwood, a nineteen-year-old undergraduate from the outskirts of Boston who wins a summer internship at the fictional magazine Ladies' Day in New York City. Esther feels neither stimulated nor excited by the work, the fashion, or the big-city lifestyle that her peers seem to adore. Her life has revolved around academic success, and she has no idea what to do once her studies end: none of the options society offers her, from motherhood to traditionally female jobs, appeals to her. After a traumatic episode in New York, she returns home, where her insomnia and depression deepen, and she eventually attempts suicide.

The story alternates the present with many memories, above all of her relationship with Buddy Willard, who takes it for granted that they will marry. The narrative often lingers on reflections about death, violence, and the place of women in the society of the 1950s. After her suicide attempt, Esther passes through several psychiatric hospitals, where she receives harsh treatment, until she reaches an elite clinic where she is cared for by Dr. Nolan. There she describes her suffering as feeling trapped under a bell jar, struggling for air. Electroconvulsive therapy, which first frightened her, ends up relieving her, and her relationship with the doctor helps her confront her fears about sex and pregnancy.

The book is usually read as a roman à clef, close to autofiction, since the protagonist's trajectory mirrors Plath's own experience of what may have been clinical depression. Its candour about mental illness and the condition of women soon made it a touchstone for feminism and confessional literature, and it remains one of the most widely read novels of the twentieth century.