The Bell Jar

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

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includes a new foreword by the book's original editor, Frances McCullough; biographical notes; and eight previously unpublished drawings by Plath.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.