The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar traces the slow, shattering unravelling of Esther Greenwood—young, brilliant, beautiful, and achingly ambitious—as the weight of her own mind begins to pull her under. With piercing clarity, Sylvia Plath draws us so deeply into Esther’s descent that her fears and obsessions feel not only rational, but inevitable, as ordinary as buying a movie ticket—until they aren’t.

In mapping the jagged terrain of mental collapse, Plath exposes something larger: the suffocating loneliness of modern life, and the silence that surrounds it. The result is a novel as harrowing as it is hypnotic—an American classic that lingers like a shadow long after the last page.

This P.S. edition features extra insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.