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To read a chapter by chapter summary of The Bell Jar, please click here. Publication History William Heinemann Ltd. in London published The Bell Jar on 14 January 1963 under the name Victoria Lucas. Over the next few months, it received mostly favorable reviews. Unfortunately, Sylvia Plath never had the chance to read many of them. Within a few weeks of her death, Hughes gave Heinemann permission to reveal Plath's identity as the author of the novel. The name Victoria Lucas was a pseudonym Plath used for several reasons. She did not want to be associated with the novel as she knew the book would hurt people she cared for in America. She even asked Heinemann to never have the book published there. Additionally, she did not want the novel, if received badly, to deflect the reception of her poetry, and vice versa. The Bell Jar is an unusual book as it has three different first editions: two in England and one in the United States. The true first edition is the Heinemann edition. Heinemann published a subedition under the Contemporary Fiction imprint of Heinemann in September 1964. On 1 September 1966, Faber published The Bell Jar crediting Plath as the author. This is what I call the second, first edition. If you have this book, and it is missing the dedication to Elizabeth and David Compton, you have a first printing. Faber corrected this oversight in later printings. Through much controversy, The Bell Jar was published in the United States by Harper & Row on 14 April 1971. The demand for the novel was so high, the Estate of Sylvia Plath feared a pirated edition would come out as copyright on The Bell Jar was to expire imminently. Correspondence between Olwyn Hughes and Aurelia Plath is held in the Sylvia Plath Collection at the Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College. The story In the late August of 1953, in Wellesley, a suburb twelve miles outside of Boston, Sylvia Plath had a breakdown and attempted suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. She kept a journal when she was growing up and abruptly, in July 1953, the journal entries stop. They were resumed several months later and it is generally assumed that she did not keep a journal for much of that fall or winter while she recuperated. For the person who admires Plath, be they obsessed or just a casual reader, those months of not knowing what she did are a great void. The Bell Jar is a loosely autobiographical novel which recounts the events leading up to the breakdown and the recovery. Plath changed the names of some people and merged others into a single identity for the sake of her novel. There are some well known facts that are easily recognizable in the novel. We know that Plath had a guest editorship much like Esther's. We know that Plath's first suicide occurred after the guest editor experience and that the attempt was an overdose of sleeping pills. And, Plath's boyfriend Richard Norton appears in the novel disguised as Buddy Willard. The list can go on and on. Plath's personal papers from her guest editorship are held by the Lilly Library, Indiana University. These papers reveal much about her schedule, events, and assignments. The Lilly Library also holds some letters to Plath from Richard Norton. The Bell Jar provides the reader and fan with many answers to the horrible summer of 1953. I have seen a copy of the August 1953 Mademoiselle for which she guest edited. It is most interesting to see who the actual Doreen and Betsy are based on, and it is fascinating to read Plath's contributions. Also printed for the first time in the issue was Plath's wonderful villanelle "Mad Girl's Love Song." If you can obtain a copy of Nancy Hunter-Steiner's A Closer Look at Ariel, I strongly recommend reading it. Nancy lived with Plath the summer after her breakdown. They rented an apartment in Cambridge and took classes at Harvard. Plath weaved many events of that summer into the novel and Hunter-Steiner paints a wonderfully informative (though not always pretty) picture of 1954 Sylvia Plath. The Bell Jar is a novel about babies, disappointments, expectations, doubles & liars. It is not just about a girl who goes to NYC, tries to commit suicide and recovers slowly but surely. Ending your synopsis there would take away from the novel. It is richly humorous, and a sharp commentary on social values for the time period. Esther, though she says she is stupid and sick, is really a very proud character. Esther writes this novel as a survivor, as being "born twice--patched, retreaded and approved for the road (BJ 20)." The novel is in 20 Chapters. The main subjects presented all revolve around Esther, making her the only fully realized character in the novel. The other characters, with exception to Buddy Willard, are mostly flat and incomplete. A careful reading of Plath's journals letters from 1950-1953 can lend some understanding to Plath's novel. To read a chapter by chapter summary of The Bell Jar, please click here.
 Adams, Phoebe. Atlantic Monthly. May 1971: 224. Baurerle, Ruth. "Plath, at Last." Plain Dealer. April 23, 1971: H-7. Benedict, L. "Short List." Sunday Telegraph. January 27, 1963: 9. Best Sellers. May 1, 1972: 71. Boulanger, Ghislaine. "Other new books to know about." Book-of-the-Month Club. May 1971: 5. Burgess, Anthony. "Transatlantic Englishmen." The Observer. January 27, 1963: 22. Butler, Rupert. "Three disappointing novels--but one good one." Time & Tide. January 31, 1963: 34. Butscher, Edward. "On the late Miss Plath's Bell Jar." University Review. February 1971: 32. Byrd, Scott. "Poet Draws Sad, Baleful Portrait of a Breakdown." Charlotte Observer. April 18, 1971: F-8. Cabourn, James. "Are you our sort of person?" Isis. October 19, 1966: 28. Claire, William F. "A Summer of Her Discontent." Washington Post. April 13, 1971: C1, 5. Coats, Reed. Library Journal. February 15, 1972: 791-2. Cox, C. B. Critical Quarterly. Autumn 1966: 195. Davenport, Guy. "Novels in Braille." National Review. May 18, 1971: 538. De Feo, Ronald. Modern Occasions. Fall 1971: 622-7. "Dilemma of the female choice." International Socialist Review. May 1, 1971. Duchene, Anne. Guardian. February 1, 1963: 7. Dudar, Helen. "From Book to Cult." New York Post. September 2, 1971: 3, 38. Duffy, Martha. "Lady Lazarus." Time. June 21, 1971: 86-88. Ebbitt, Wilma R. "Creative crackup." Boston Herald Traveler. May 9, 1971: 4. Fane, Vernon. Sphere. January 26, 1963: 143. Faulconbridge, Faith. "American Surprises." Glasgow Herald. January 17, 1963: 9. Gaines, Gwen. "Autobiography of a Suicide." Fresno Bee. May 30, 1971: D-6. Gilbert, Celia. "Would the Jar Descend Again?" San Francisco Examiner. June 6, 1971: 41-42. Gottlieb, Annie. "Book Review." Juris Doctor. April 1971: 41. Hamlin, William C. "The Fragmentation that Precedes Suicide." Kansas City Star. June 6, 1971: G-3. Hardy, H Forsyth. Scotsman. January 26, 1963: 6. Harris, Mason. West Coast Review. October 1973: 34-8. Hayes, Brian. "When the World Itself is Just a Bad Dream." Sun. April 11, 1971: D-7. Hill, William B. America. November 20, 1971: 432. House, Jack. "If you are squeamish don't read this book!" Evening Times (Glasgow). January 18, 1963. Hurlbert, Joyce. West Coast Review. January 1973: 82. Joslin, Stacey. "Female Insanity & Women's Oppression." International Socialist Review. June 1971: 28-30. Kilroy, James. "Power and beauty mark novel by young suicide." The Nashville Banner. June 1, 1975. Kirsch, Robert. "First Novel Also Her Last." Los Angeles Times. April 26, 1971: 7. Kissel, Howard. "Book Making." Women's Wear Daily. Kowinski, William. "Books." Boston After Dark. November 30, 1971: 44. Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. "An American Edition--At last." The New York Times. April 16, 1971: 35. Lenson, D. R. "Book Review." Panache. May 24, 190551-3. Lerner, Laurence. Listener 69. January 31, 1963: 215. Locke, Richard. "The Last Word: Beside the Bell Jar." New York Times Book Review. June 20, 1971: 47. Maddocks, Melvin. "A Vaccuum Abhorred." Christian Science Monitor. April 15, 1971: 11. Maloff, Saul. "Waiting for the voice to crack." New Republic. May 8, 1971: 33-5. Meynell, Laurence. "New novels." Express & Star. January 19, 1963: 19. Millar, Ruby. "In the good old days." Derbyshire Times. February 15, 1963: 17. Morse, J. Mitchell. "Fiction Chronicle." Hudson Review. Autumn 1971: 526-40. Moss, Howard. "Dying: An Introduction." New Yorker. July 10, 1971: 73-5. Murray, Michele. National Observer. May 31, 1971: 18. New York Times Book Review. June 6, 1971: 3. "New Fiction." The Times of London. January 24, 1963. Nichols. Christy. "Bell Jar Sensitive, truthful." State Journal. April 3, 1971: D-8, 9. Nilsen, Alleen Pace. "Death and dying: Facts, fiction, folklore." English Journal. November 1973: 1188. Oates, Joyce Carol. "When Death Called, a Lady Answered." Detroit News. June 6, 1971: E-5. O'Hara, J. D. Washington Post Book World. April 11, 1971: 3. P., C. "The Tragic Prophecy." Times-Picayune. May 4, 1972: 6. Paterno, Domenica. Library Journal. October 1, 1971. Peterson, Clarence. Washington Post. April 30, 1972: 8. Pettingell, Phoebe. "The Art of Dying." New Leader. June 28, 1971: 19-20. Pitt, Valerie. "Isolated Case." Sunday Telegraph. September 25, 1966: 11. Pochoda, Elizabeth. "The Only Novel of the Dead Poet, Sylvia Plath." Glamour. June 1971: 119. Powell, Deborah. "When the Mind Becomes a Place of False Images." Detroit Free Press. June 27, 1971: B-5. Pratt, Linda Ray. "The spirit of blackness is in us..." Praire Schooner. Spring 1973: 87-90. Raven, Simon. "The trouble with Phaedra." The Spectator. February 15, 1963: 202-3. Reed, Kit. "A Frightening Apologia." 8. Rosenthal, Lucy. Saturday Review. April 24, 1971: 42. Rosenthal, M. L. "Blood and Plunder." Spectator. September 30, 1966: 418. Scholes, Robert. "Esther came back like a retreaded tire." The New York Times Book Review. April 11, 1971: 7. Scott, Ellen. "Themes: Revolt and Breakdown." Times-Union. April 18, 1971. Sievers, Shirley. "Recent Books for Hot Weather Reading." South Bend Tribune. June 27, 1971: 11. Spacks, Patricia Meyer. "A Chronicle for Women." Hudson Review. Spring 1972: 157-70. Spillman, Richard. "Book revue." San Francisco Examiner. October 20, 1971. Stanier, Maida. "The disturbed generation." Oxford Mail. January 17, 1963. Taubman, Robert. "Anti-heroes." New Statesman. January 25, 1963: 127-8. Taubman, Robert. "Uncles' War." New Statesman. September 16, 1966: 401-2. Taylor, Robert. "Bright Journey into Night." Boston Globe. April 16, 1971: 17. "Tyndaraues." Time and Tide. January 17-23, 1963: 35. "Under the skin." Times Literary Supplement. January 25, 1963: 53. Virginia Quarterly Review. Summer 1971: xcvi. Wall, Stephen. "The confessions of Nemo." The Observer. September 11, 1966: 27. Washington Post. December 5, 1971: 5. Wells, Susan M. "Poet Tells Tragic End with Novel." Times-Picayune. July 11, 1971: 9. Willy, Margaret. "New Fiction." Birmingham Post. January 29, 1963. Wolff, Geoffrey. "The Bell Jar." Newsweek. April 19, 1971: 118 D. Wright, Marilyn. "The Bell Jar." Changes?. September 1971: 4(?). |
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© 1998-2008, Peter K. Steinberg
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