Reading list: depression

At the Independent Alice-Azania Jarvis came up with a reading list on depression.

The novel on the list:

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath's classic roman à clef, The Bell Jar tells the tale of a magazine intern who finds herself falling into an ever-deepening state of despondency. It is a feeling, she says, not unlike being trapped "under a bell jar". After a string of suicide attempts, Esther is institutionalised. As the book ends, it remains unclear if she will ever return to life outside.

Read about the memoir on the list.

The Bell Jar is #2 on one list of the top 10 most depressing books.

Esther Greenwood of The Bell Jar appears among Will Davis' top ten literary teenagers.

The Bell Jar's first sentence--“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”--is Ali Smith's favorite opening line of a novel.

--Marshal Zeringue