Classics Without All the Class discussion

Post your first impressions on the book. (We have been quite quiet)

Hi. This is my first comment with this club, and I'd like to wish everyone seasons greetings from merry old Miami, Fla. I've reached Chapter X on my Kindle, which evidently places me 41% inside the bell jar. I haven't read Sylvia in over 20 years; it feels a bit like I'm reconnecting with a college friend. She plays with words in ways that only a poet can. With a simple observation through her eyes, even a passing description of the city sky, I find myself suddenly considering the meaninglessness of it all. It's the smallest offering of foreshadow in a story that is so tightly edited, much like the prim and proper outline of its protagonist. Looking forward to the remaining 59%.

I love this book. This was my second time reading it, and it is even more beautifully written than I remember. I finished it last week, just waiting on the discussion. :)

Plath certainly liked using metaphors and similes. There's at least one on every page!

I'm wondering where the admins are. Why has no discussion thread been started? And why does it look like this book is being skipped completely in the bookshelf??

I'm not going to be able to get to this book until next year. I went to find it and its lost somewhere on my shelves. I think I have a copy. At any rate, hope you'll post your thoughts on the read.

I've started reading but am only chapter three so far.

I'm a non-native speaker, so the first couple of pages have frightened me with sophisticated vocabulary. I spent too much time looking at the dictionary, so I couldn't really enjoy it. But after the first chapter it sucked me, and now I feel like it is worth the pain :) I've just finished chapter three.

I have read this book last month. The beginning for me wasn't so interesting. I didn't like the setting and all, but the second half of the book was realy interesting and I did enjoy the book a lot :)

I've just started, but I'm really liking it. Her writing is really evocative ("a dressing gown the colour of sin") and it's really tense too. Reminds me a bit of Age Of Innocence ...

The Bell Jar is an interesting insight within the mind of a young woman trying to find her way in the world, but at the same time lost in the fog of perception and reality. Plath makes the reader want to reach into every sentence of Esther's and help her through this story, but then Esther comes back in the very next sentence with a clear understanding of the choices she is making. Her rational sits the reader right back down. There was really nothing the reader could have done. Plath just keeps you hooked within Esther's story and unfortunately unable to look away. God, I hate reality tv, but i just can't seem to look away.
Or this is just what i got from the book. I could be wrong?

Just finished this -- a rather melancholy way to spend the day after Christmas! She does have a poet's knack for language, and her descent into depression is described powerfully. I wouldn't say I "liked" this book, exactly, but it was a quick read and a fascinating insight into Sylvia Plath's mind.

Finished chapter five. Not particularly enjoying this book, but I will finish it. Maybe it will get better as I read further.

So far I'm liking it, but this is probably not the best time of the year to enjoy it. But Plath's writing is really good.

I think there is an undeniable added bias to this novel because of Plath's life and poetry. Overall, it was good-- the writing was definitely better than the story. In Paulo Coelho's Veronika Decides to Die you can't help but see some validity to the main character's rationale in attempting suicide. I wish the story let the reader more into Esther's psyche in that regard, something more than her obvious neurosis with the trivial.

I loved this book as a teenager and I love it now! Plath's imagery and metaphors grab the reader and paint a picture of a woman spiraling into depression.

Sylvia Plath was only a few years older than me, and I was instantly pulled back to that prissy, stifled period ; I could smell the atmosphere in that office. How I hated the neat little outfits, the ladylike pumps that you never would be able to run in. And nobody, even yourself, really expected you to do anything but find a husband.

Finished it, and though I thought it was beautifully written, it was certainly the most un-Christmassy book I've ever read through Christmas ...

Gail wrote: "the neat little outfits, the ladylike pumps that you never would be able to run in."

I appreciate your comment. I once saw a picture, taken in the 50s, of a friend of mine, gardening in pumps and a dress. She looked spotless.

Throughout this book it was really interesting to read about Esther's impressions on everything she was experiencing. The other characters are peripheral and it was interesting to see how she dealt with her depression but never worrying about the others. It was always her point of view. But there are some details in the book that gives a slight glimpse of how hard it must have been for the rest to put up with Esther - as in the tightness with her mother.
I felt a lot of empathy towards Esther, and it was nice to learn about her emotions and experiences. But she doesn't talk about her behavior and attitudes towards the rest of the people. That part remains veiled in the book. Unfortunately, people that go through a nervous breakdown like Esther hurt their loved ones, but they are often not able to see it. By reading this book I think I can see why.

Maricarmen wrote: "Throughout this book it was really interesting to read about Esther's impressions on everything she was experiencing. The other characters are peripheral and it was interesting to see how she dealt..."

Very true, it is very inward-focused. But maybe that's the point, in dealing with depression? Or exactly the opposite, that maybe one remedy is getting outside oneself? And her mother seemed like a very caring person to me, but Esther just seemed determined not to see that.