The Bell Jar
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo first 3 months
Buy Now for $26.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Maggie Gyllenhaal
-
Written by:
-
Sylvia Plath
About this listen
READ BY THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED ACTRESS MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL
'A modern classic.' Guardian
'A near-perfect work of art.' Joyce Carol Oates
I was supposed to be having the time of my life . . .
Working as an intern for a New York fashion magazine in the summer of 1953, Esther Greenwood is on the brink of her future. Yet she is also on the edge of a darkness that makes her world increasingly unreal. Esther's vision of the world shimmers and shifts: day-to-day living in the sultry city, her crazed men-friends, the hot dinner dances . . .
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath's only novel, is partially based on Plath's own life. It has been celebrated for its darkly funny and razor sharp portrait of 1950s society, and has sold millions of copies worldwide.
ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD'
'As clear and readable as it is witty and disturbing.' New York Times Book Review
You may also enjoy...
-
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
- Written by: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate; she works an easy job at a hip art gallery and lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?
-
-
A waste of your time
- By Jtoronto on 2019-01-02
Written by: Ottessa Moshfegh
-
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
- A Novel
- Written by: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 30 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: When a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all. Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author’s best-selling We Were the Mulvaneys.
Written by: Joyce Carol Oates
-
My Dark Vanessa
- A Novel
- Written by: Kate Elizabeth Russell
- Narrated by: Grace Gummer
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, 15-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful 42-year-old English teacher. 2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: Remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past.
-
-
Horrifying and Brave
- By Courteous Reader on 2020-04-03
Written by: Kate Elizabeth Russell
-
Everything I Know About Love
- A Memoir
- Written by: Dolly Alderton
- Narrated by: Dolly Alderton
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The wildly funny, occasionally heart-breaking internationally best-selling memoir about growing up, growing older, and learning to navigate friendships, jobs, loss, and love along the ride. When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all.
-
-
Dolly who? Amazing!
- By Kitty VA on 2024-09-05
Written by: Dolly Alderton
-
The Idiot
- Written by: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 24 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prince Lyov Nikolayevitch Myshkin is one of the great characters in Russian literature. Is he a saint or just naïve? Is he an idealist or, as many in General Epanchin's society feel, an "idiot"? Certainly his return to St. Petersburg after years in a Swiss clinic has a dramatic effect on the beautiful Aglaia, youngest of the Epanchin daughters, and on the charismatic but willful Nastasya Filippovna. As he paints a vivid picture of Russian society, Dostoyevsky shows how principles conflict with emotions - with tragic results.
-
-
Great book and a great performance!
- By Nelu on 2020-11-08
Written by: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
-
Just like You
- A Novel
- Written by: Nick Hornby
- Narrated by: Ben Bailey Smith, Hattie Ladbury
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucy used to handle her adult romantic life according to the script she’d been handed. She met a guy just like herself: same age, same background, same hopes and dreams; they got married and started a family. Too bad he made her miserable. Now, two decades later, she’s a nearly divorced, forty-one-year-old schoolteacher with two school-aged sons, and there is no script anymore. So when she meets Joseph, she isn’t exactly looking for love—she’s more in the market for a babysitter.
Written by: Nick Hornby
-
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
- Written by: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate; she works an easy job at a hip art gallery and lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?
-
-
A waste of your time
- By Jtoronto on 2019-01-02
Written by: Ottessa Moshfegh
-
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
- A Novel
- Written by: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 30 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: When a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all. Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author’s best-selling We Were the Mulvaneys.
Written by: Joyce Carol Oates
-
My Dark Vanessa
- A Novel
- Written by: Kate Elizabeth Russell
- Narrated by: Grace Gummer
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, 15-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful 42-year-old English teacher. 2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: Remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past.
-
-
Horrifying and Brave
- By Courteous Reader on 2020-04-03
Written by: Kate Elizabeth Russell
-
Everything I Know About Love
- A Memoir
- Written by: Dolly Alderton
- Narrated by: Dolly Alderton
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The wildly funny, occasionally heart-breaking internationally best-selling memoir about growing up, growing older, and learning to navigate friendships, jobs, loss, and love along the ride. When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all.
-
-
Dolly who? Amazing!
- By Kitty VA on 2024-09-05
Written by: Dolly Alderton
-
The Idiot
- Written by: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 24 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prince Lyov Nikolayevitch Myshkin is one of the great characters in Russian literature. Is he a saint or just naïve? Is he an idealist or, as many in General Epanchin's society feel, an "idiot"? Certainly his return to St. Petersburg after years in a Swiss clinic has a dramatic effect on the beautiful Aglaia, youngest of the Epanchin daughters, and on the charismatic but willful Nastasya Filippovna. As he paints a vivid picture of Russian society, Dostoyevsky shows how principles conflict with emotions - with tragic results.
-
-
Great book and a great performance!
- By Nelu on 2020-11-08
Written by: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
-
Just like You
- A Novel
- Written by: Nick Hornby
- Narrated by: Ben Bailey Smith, Hattie Ladbury
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucy used to handle her adult romantic life according to the script she’d been handed. She met a guy just like herself: same age, same background, same hopes and dreams; they got married and started a family. Too bad he made her miserable. Now, two decades later, she’s a nearly divorced, forty-one-year-old schoolteacher with two school-aged sons, and there is no script anymore. So when she meets Joseph, she isn’t exactly looking for love—she’s more in the market for a babysitter.
Written by: Nick Hornby
-
The Lost Story
- A Novel
- Written by: Meg Shaffer
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived. Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
-
-
Terrible
- By Leigh on 2024-07-20
Written by: Meg Shaffer
-
Motherthing
- Written by: Ainslie Hogarth
- Narrated by: Adina Verson
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give—to Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works. But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.
-
-
Fresh & lightly funny
- By CWickstrom on 2024-09-15
Written by: Ainslie Hogarth
-
Life for Sale
- Written by: Yukio Mishima
- Narrated by: Kotaro Watanabe
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After botching a suicide attempt, salaryman Hanio Yamada decides to put his life up for sale in the classifieds section of a Tokyo newspaper. Soon interested parties come calling with increasingly bizarre requests and what follows is a madcap comedy of errors, involving a jealous husband, a drug-addled heiress, poisoned carrots - even a vampire. For someone who just wants to die, Hanio can't seem to catch a break, as he finds himself enmeshed in a continent-wide conspiracy that puts him in the crosshairs of both his own government and a powerful organized-crime syndicate.
-
-
Thought provoking and interesting
- By Kindle Customer on 2021-02-17
Written by: Yukio Mishima
-
Lolita
- Written by: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Awe and exhilaration—along with heartbreak and mordant wit—abound in Lolita, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsession for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America.
-
-
Lovely and grotesque
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-02-26
Written by: Vladimir Nabokov
-
The Sound and the Fury
- Written by: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
-
-
Engaging on multiple levels
- By Michael Coulis on 2022-05-27
Written by: William Faulkner
-
Clown in a Cornfield
- Written by: Adam Cesare
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start. But what they don’t know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.
-
-
terrible
- By Kindle Customer on 2023-10-31
Written by: Adam Cesare
-
The Bishop and the Butterfly
- Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
- Written by: Michael Wolraich
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names—businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else—a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Written by: Michael Wolraich
-
The Secret History
- A Novel
- Written by: Donna Tartt
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
- Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.
-
-
Wish someone else narrated
- By chipsmum7 on 2023-10-07
Written by: Donna Tartt
-
They Both Die at the End
- Written by: Adam Silvera
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Robbie Daymond, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They're going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they're both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There's an app for that. It's called The Last Friend, and through it Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure - to live a lifetime in a single day.
-
-
Not worth all the hype
- By Emily Pereira on 2021-09-18
Written by: Adam Silvera
-
Boy Parts
- Written by: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
-
-
Interesting as a piece of literature, but not for everyone
- By Cori on 2022-08-22
Written by: Eliza Clark
-
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
- A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
- Written by: Anne Fadiman
- Narrated by: Pamela Xiong
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When three-month-old Lia Lee arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos.
-
-
Great listen except for the narrator
- By Victoire M. on 2017-11-08
Written by: Anne Fadiman
-
Cleopatra and Frankenstein
- Written by: Coco Mellors
- Narrated by: Kit Griffiths
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank’s life is full of all the excesses Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint and the opportunity to apply for a green card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could’ve predicted.
-
-
LOVE IT
- By emma on 2024-05-29
Written by: Coco Mellors
What listeners say about The Bell Jar
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sandi
- 2020-02-13
Wonderfully Read!
This book is timeless. Yes it was written of and in another time but what it says is just as true today. Ms. Plath's semi biographical fiction speaks of depression. Which she suffered most of her adult life.
The Bell Jar is still relevant as any one of us could be Esther. Yet as depressing as this book sounds, it isn't. Esther is young and witty and you really begin to care and become more hopeful and some of us even identify with her.
A powerful and well written book that should be on your to listen list.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JohnS
- 2021-05-25
Worth the time
This is a book that deserves the reviews it gets. It is a study of class division and personal growth and pain. Highly recommended.
The narration by Maggie Gyllenhaal is excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sarah
- 2025-01-15
What a book.
The main character is not always a good person. Some people see this and the sympathy for the narrator as something that makes this book bad. This book is… well. It feels real. Almost too easy to put yourself in the main character’s shoes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2024-08-16
Excellent
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s narration brings this story to life.
Beautifully written novel with rich, vivid language.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R.Redd
- 2019-07-17
The Bell Jar
This is one of my favourite books of all time and the narrator does an excellent job of capturing the feeling and evokes a wonderful mental picture.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anastasia Beaverhausen
- 2022-03-01
Superb!
The Bell Jar is one of my favourite books and Maggie Gyllenhaal is the perfect narrator. She sounds just like I imagined Esther Greenwood would sound, complete with the proper emotion and intonation.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- none
- 2023-12-16
kept my attention
Kept my attention. The story flowed nicely and it seems this would be a good book for many ages.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- katelynn saunders
- 2021-01-23
loved it
loved it so much, more then I thought then I ever would. amazing voice reader aswell
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cheryl St-Elier
- 2021-01-18
a poet at heart
I think listening to this story was the ultimate experience because Plath's use of words sounds so mezmerizing to the ear, that at times I was tempted to lose track of the action. Her description brought me right to the 50's and 60's of the last century, warts and all. For Mental Health awareness, women's issues, or simply euphony, an excellent choice.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S.S.
- 2022-02-10
A masterpiece of narration
The book is haunting and visceral. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s narration is so good, she’s inextricably tied with Esther Greenwood in my head now.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!