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Bell Jar, The
Bell Jar, The, a novel by S. Plath, published 1963 under the pseudonym of Victoria Lucas, and under her own name in 1966.
It opens in New York in the summer of 1953 as the narrator, Esther Greenwood, a highly ambitious intelligent college girl from Boston, spends time working on a training programme for a women's magazine and throws herself recklessly into the dangers of city life. Her story is interwoven with recollections of her boyfriend, Yale medical student Buddy Willard, who represents in part the threats of the flesh, in part the dullness of the provincial existence she fears will engulf her. She returns home, suffers a nervous breakdown, undergoes ECT, attempts suicide, is kept in psychiatric care, and in the penultimate chapter succeeds in losing her virginity to a mathematics professor. At the end of the novel she prepares to leave the asylum and return to college. The subject matter of the novel is highly autobiographical. |
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Cite this article
MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Bell Jar, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Bell Jar, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-BellJarThe.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Bell Jar, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-BellJarThe.html |
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Bell Jar, The
Bell Jar, The, novel by Sylvia Plath, published (1963) under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, and under her own name in 1966. The story is based on the author's own experiences.
Esther Greenwood, a 19‐year‐old Smith College student, during a summer internship working for a fashion magazine in New York undergoes a series of experiences that leave her unable to cope with competition, professional and personal, and cause her to attempt suicide. Assisted to a private institution by Philomena Guinea, the woman who had provided her college scholarship, she recovers, makes peace with a high‐school boyfriend, is liberated by a sexual experience, and returns recovered to college. |
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Cite this article
James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Bell Jar, The." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Bell Jar, The." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-BellJarThe.html James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Bell Jar, The." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-BellJarThe.html |
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