To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, we’ve recruited reading groups to share their thoughts about the book. Here, Louise Fox shares her thoughts.
I first read the The Bell Jar some twenty years ago and was pleased to have the opportunity to revisit this novel for it’s 50th anniversary.
Laying my bones bare, I can now admit to a failed suicide attempt in my youth so feel a big affiliation with Plath’s text.
Depression in the 1950s and 1960s was a serious default for the sufferer, not enough was known about the illness and left it with a stigma which I feel still exists today. The Bell Jar was Plath’s very own cry for help. Death fascinated her but I feel it held no fear for her at all.
Knowing that The Bell Jar held so many truths and hidden secrets makes the text all the more relevant. Feeling her instability within the lines makes this novel as acclaimed as it’s deserved. Maybe knowing Hughes would be reading the first draft and hoping he would read between the lines makes the book even more haunting. It was a brave attempt by Plath to be understood in a time when ignorance conquered.
I would have liked to have had the opportunity to read more of her novels, sadly not to be.
