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Title details for The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - Available

The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

Performed by Maggie Gyllenhaal

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels

"A coming-of-age masterpiece. . . . Sylvia Plath has become one of the influential writers of her time." —Boston Globe

Sylvia Plath's masterwork—an acclaimed and enduring novel about a young woman falling into the grip of mental illness and societal pressures

Esther Greenwood is bright, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her neurosis becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 2, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780060886646
      • File size: 213587 KB
      • Duration: 07:24:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • ATOS Level: 7.2
    • Lexile® Measure: 1050
    • Interest Level: 9-12(UG)
    • Text Difficulty: 6-9

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The title of this iconic novel by the poet Sylvia Plath, who ultimately died a suicide, refers to the claustrophic depression that overcomes her protagonist, Esther Greenwood, one summer during her college years. Maggie Gyllenhaal must create the voice of a young woman who feels utterly cut off from the colors and warmth of the world, imprisoned under a glass dome, but somehow connect with the reader while doing it. She pulls it off beautifully, giving Esther a sympathetic quality that the reader can feel, even when Esther cannot. Plath thought of this book as a potboiler, but it is better than that, full of acute observation and sorry truth, especially in this fine version. B.G. 2004 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      October 15, 1996
      This 25th-anniversary edition of Plath's posthumous autobiographical novel includes a new foreword by the book's original editor, Frances McCullough; biographical notes; and eight previously unpublished drawings by Plath. Bravo to HarperCollins for putting all this together at a reasonable price.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The only novel by troubled American poet Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar tells of a young woman's descent into madness and her emergence back to reality. It is frank, witty, earthy, scatological, yet remarkably poetic. Also autobiographical. The author ended her own life a month after the book's publication. Perhaps a bit angrier and certainly more mature than the first-person narrator, Frances McDormand, nonetheless, gives a fine, intermittently inspired reading--sensitive to both the author's language and the protagonist's inner life. However, the sound quality leaves much to be desired, and numerous technical glitches mar an otherwise superb performance. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:7.2
  • Lexile® Measure:1050
  • Interest Level:9-12(UG)
  • Text Difficulty:6-9

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