The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath · 1963
Esther Greenwood's descent into depression, told with Plath's terrifying precision. Published under a pseudonym in 1963, a month before Plath's death, it named what had no name for a generation of women. The bell jar metaphor (suffocating inside your own transparent enclosure) has entered the common language of mental illness.
The case against
Esther's voice carries casual 1950s racism (the hospital attendant scene is hard to read past), and the novel's second half thins into episodic case history as the New York satire falls away. Plath's biography also sits on every page; separating the book from the life takes more effort than the book itself sometimes repays.
Literary Fiction · the Pro canon
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