by Sylvia Plath
First published 2001
Esther Greenwood has it all - a coveted internship at a prestigious magazine, a budding romance, and a bright future as a writer. But as the summer wears on, Esther finds herself spiraling into a profound depression, struggling to reconcile her ambitions with the constraints of 1950s society. When she attempts suicide, Esther is admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she must confront the darkness within and fight to reclaim her sense of self. Sylvia Plath's semi-autobiographical masterpiece is a razor-sharp portrait of a young woman's unraveling.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, mental-illness, contemporary, adult-fiction, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: mental-health-struggles, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Adirondacks, Belsize, Boston, New York City, United States
Period: 1950s, 1953
244 pages · Paperback · Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Content warnings: depression, mental-illness, suicide