I think it was quite revolutionary at the time it was published.

I think because Plath died by suicide people have a tendency to read this novel through that lense. There are large facets of satire and social commentary that could get lost in a read focused purely on 'insight into the pain of a tortured artist.'
While I really did find some of Plath's portrayal of Esther's inner life very touching, she often stretches things to farcical (and funny!) extremes to make a point about the effect of the stifling social environment for women at the time. Esther is clearly an intelligent and talented woman but she becomes almost hysterical as her expected social role (husband, kids, female-appropriate job) starts to close in on her as she finishes college.

The book is loosely based on Plath's actual work experiences at a then-popular fashion magazine and her struggles with mental health.At the time, mental health, especially women's mental health, was rarely, if ever, the topic of novels. The book was considered groundbreaking at time of publication, as other redditors have mentioned.

I loved it because it was super relatable to me, and I like that kind of book. But I could imagine a lot of people not liking it.

I loved it because I could identify with parts of it in a very meaningful way but I don’t necessarily think it has universal appeal

The first time I read it (I was 14-15) I had the same reaction; on a re-read later in life it hit me hard.

I think it's important that she was a high functioning depressive. All outward signs showed a highly intelligent and creative young woman who didn't have any way to talk about the overwhelming feelings of despair that she was feeling. She'd just won a major writing competition and had a summer internship at Mademoiselle magazine in New York - literally *the* most fashionable and aspirational thing a middle class young academic woman could want. And she still felt that she didn't come up to scratch.

If you are interested in the background to this a great book is The Barbizon by Paulina Been - which is about the women's hotel where all the fashionable young writers, actors, models etc lived at the time.

Real talk, have you been suicidal? For me, as someone who has had suicidal ideations since preschool, The Bell Jar is very powerful. I have to be careful and do lots of self-inventory when reading it, because honestly it makes my suicidal mindset seem so rational.

I read it for a literature class about how women were seen as "mad" if they didn't conform to society's expectation. I find the background to when this was more prevalent helped me recognize the value of the book.

I thought it was quite strange, to the point I was thinking WTF did I just read?

I think it’s impact is so important even if you don’t like the book. Like the movie Bridesmaids has a similar food poisoning scene. The New Me by Halle Butler is like a modern retelling. If you think of any book about mental health that you did find impactful I would imagine there’s an inspiration from the bell jar in there. Plath didn’t see it as a great masterpiece but as a pot boiler. But it is to me a masterpiece and there are so many beautiful turns of phrase. Although some of it is dated - the casual racism is very, very bad.

Most of the hype is because of the world it was published into. Something like that which brings up what at the time were verboten topics is going to leave an impact. It's going to be lessened by growing up in a world more comfortable discussing those issues.

As someone whose been hospitalised numerous times and has attempted suicide, I found the way she wrote about it very relatable, so much so that it left me speechless at times. I think if I didn’t have that experience it wouldn’t be as profound as it was to me. Reading it felt like a fever dream in a way, there were so many parts that made me have to stop to savour, it was a very emotional yet cathartic experience. For example, the part where she talks about (off the top of my head) not remembering why she cared so much about the steak knifes made me cry, such a simple line that carries a lot of weight and perfectly summarised what post depression clarity feels like.

>I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. [...] I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.

You are of course entitled to your opinion but this is basically how I felt my entire early 20's and she used vivid poetic imagery to get the point across.

There are plenty more examples in Bell Jar of her putting the experience of depression and early adult insecurity into relatable and/or poetic terms. I don't agree with some in the thread that it was great for the times it was written in but no longer holds up as well.

For me it is the most artistic and heart wrenching depiction of mental illness I've read. Darkness Visible by William Styron is the most accurate, and It's Kind of a Funny Story is the most accessible.