first edition
1963 · London
by Plath, Sylvia; Lucas, Victoria
London: Heinemann, 1963. Near fine in near fine jacket.. Rare true first edition of Plath's only novel, a modern classic, published in London under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" and unpublished in the US until after her death. Plath's self-described 'potboiler' was damned with dismissive praise in its own day as a sort of girl's CATCHER IN THE RYE. (Though, as Heather Clark notes, if Esther Greenwood has a male antecedent, it is not Holden Caulfield but Joyce's Stephen Dedalus.) Harrowingly personal and famously autobiographical, THE BELL JAR is also overtly political: an "indictment of the fifties in America," an adolescent girls' book "written by a woman who has been to hell and back and wants to revenge herself on her tormentors. It is a girls' book filled with poison, vomit, blood, and volts of electricity" (Malcolm). A lovely copy, almost always found in inferior condition. 8'' x 5.5''. Original black paper boards, gilt-lettered spine. In original unclipped (18s) color pictorial dust jacket designed by Thomas Simmonds. [4], 258 pages. Jacket with light rubbing to extremities, spine a touch toned. Book with small mark to bottom edge, a couple of tiny spots to front free endpaper, else clean and firm.
(Inventory #: 51495)