The Bell Jar opens Goodreads in a new tab

A nineteen-year-old Boston college student wins a summer internship at a fashion magazine in New York City. As she navigates the demands of the job and the glittering, confusing world around her, she struggles with questions about her identity and her place in society, and slips into a deepening mental health crisis that changes the course of her life. Sylvia Plath's only novel, semi-autobiographical and darkly witty, is a classic portrait of a young woman's ambitions, expectations and depression in 1950s America.