The Bell Jar in English
This podcast presents an audiobook-style reading of Sylvia Plath's classic novel 'The Bell Jar'. It is part of a digital conversion project that includes minor layout adjustments and a table of contents for convenience. The narration is in English, making the story accessible to a wide audience.
Episodes
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty
A fresh fall of snow blanketed the asylum grounds—not a
Christmas sprinkle, but a man-high January deluge, the sort
that snuffs out schools and offices and churches, and leaves,
for a day or more, a pure, blank sheet in place of memo pads,
date books and calendars.
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
'I'm going to be a psychiatrist.'
Joan spoke with her usual breathy enthusiasm. We were
drinking apple cider in the Belsize lounge.
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen
'Esther.'
I woke out of a deep, drenched sleep, and the first thing I
saw was Doctor Nolan's face swimming in front of me and
saying, 'Esther, Esther.'
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
'You're a lucky girl today.'
The young nurse cleared my breakfast tray away and left
me wrapped in my white blanket like a passenger taking the
sea air on the deck of a ship.
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
Joan's room, with its closet and bureau and table and chair
and white blanket with the big blue C on it, was a mirror
image of my own.
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
Philomena Guinea's black Cadillac eased through the tight,
five o'clock traffic like a ceremonial car.
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
It was completely dark.
I felt the darkness, but nothing else, and my head rose,
feeling it, like the head of a worm. Someone was moaning.
Then a great, hard weight smashed against my cheek like a
stone wall and the moaning stopped.
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve
Doctor Gordon's private hospital crowned a grassy rise at
the end of a long, secluded drive that had been whitened with
broken quahog shells.
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Eleven
Doctor Gordon's waiting-room was hushed and beige.
The walls were beige, and the carpets were beige, and the
upholstered chairs and sofas were beige.
Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
'I'm so glad they're going to die.'
Hilda arched her cat-limbs in a yawn, buried her head in
her arms on the conference table and went back to sleep. A
wisp of bilious green straw perched on her brow like a
tropical bird.
Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Mr Willard drove me up to the Adirondacks.
It was the day after Christmas and a grey sky bellied over
us, fat with snow.
Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Of course, Constantin was much too short, but in his own
way he was handsome, with light brown hair and dark blue
eyes and a lively, challenging expression.
Chapter Six
Chapter Six
I had kept begging Buddy to show me some really
interesting hospital sights, so one Friday I cut all my classes
and came down for a long week-end and he gave me the
works.
Chapter Five
Chapter Five
At seven the next morning the telephone rang.
Slowly I swam up from the bottom of a black sleep.
Chapter Four
Chapter Four
I don't know just why my successful evasion of chemistry
should have floated into my mind there in Jay Cee's office.
Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Arrayed on the Ladies' Day banquet table were yellow-
green avocado pear halves stuffed with crabmeat and
mayonnaise, and platters of rare roast beef and cold chicken,
and every so often a cut-glass bowl heaped with black caviar.
Chapter Two
Chapter Two
I wouldn't have missed Lenny's place for anything.
It was built exactly like the inside of a ranch, only in the
middle of a New York apartment house.
Chapter One
Chapter One
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they
electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was
doing in New York.
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