Clopotul de sticlă

Esther Greenwood, a talented college student from a small Massachusetts town, wins a guest editorship at a fashion magazine in New York in the summer of 1953. Instead of enjoying the glamour, she feels increasingly detached, unable to read, write or sleep. Back home, she sinks into depression, has a failed suicide attempt and is sent to a series of hospitals, including a psychiatric facility where she receives electroconvulsive therapy. The novel is semi-autobiographical, based on Plath's own breakdown, and is narrated in sharp, ironic prose.

It is a frank portrait of mental illness and the limits placed on women in the 1950s. Readers interested in confessional writing or in how depression feels from the inside will find it both painful and clear.

Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Mindful Reader. Which reader are you?