The Bell Jar.

PLATH, Sylvia.

Item Number: 24079

New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1971.

First edition of Sylvia Plath’s only novel. Octavo, original half cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of wear. Jacket design by Amy Isbey Duevell. Biographical note by Lois Ames. Drawings by Sylvia Plath.

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under -- maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic. "In looking at the madness of the world and the world of madness [this book] forces us to consider the great question posed by all truly realistic fiction: what is reality and how can it be confronted"(New York Times Book Review). “I TOOK A DEEP BREATH AND LISTENED TO THE OLD BRAG OF MY HEART. I AM, I AM, I AM": FIRST EDITION OF SYLVIA PLATH'S CLASSIC THE BELL JAR The Bell Jar. The Bell Jar. Plath, Sylvia. $475.00 Item Number: 24079 New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1971. First edition of Sylvia Plath’s only novel. Octavo, original half cloth. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of wear. Jacket design by Amy Isbey Duevell. The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under -- maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic. "In looking at the madness of the world and the world of madness [this book] forces us to consider the great question posed by all truly realistic fiction: what is reality and how can it be confronted"(New York Times Book Review). It was the basis for Larry Peerce's The Bell Jar (1979) starring Marilyn Hassett as Esther Greenwood, the protagonist and featured the tagline: "Sometimes just being a woman is an act of courage."