The Bell Jar

Esther Greenwood wins a prestigious magazine internship in New York and should be thrilled. Instead she feels numb, detached from the glamorous life she is supposed to want, and her slow spiral leads to a breakdown and treatment.

Plath's semi-autobiographical novel is clear-eyed, witty and sometimes darkly funny. She captures the suffocating expectations placed on women in the 1950s, and the title image of a bell jar descending is perfectly chosen.

It deals openly with depression and suicide, so it can be a heavy read. Few books describe the inner experience of mental illness with such precision and compassion.