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59 Years of Book Covers for The Bell Jar from All Over the World

Happy Birthday to Sylvia Plath’s Classic

On January 14, 1963, poet Sylvia Plath published her first novel in England under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas.” The book had a positive but relatively quiet reception; only a few weeks after its publication, on February 11, Plath would die by suicide. It wasn’t published in the US until 1971, when it became an instant best seller; since then it has been translated into many languages and published all over the world. 59 years after its original publication, it is still a touchstone of international literary culture—not least, for better or worse, as a reliable shorthand for angsty-but-highbrow teenage emotions.

To mark the book’s 59th birthday, here are 59 of its best, weirdest, and most unusual covers—for even more, check out the databases on A celebration, this is and the extensive editions listed on Goodreads, which were both very helpful research tools.

the bell jar first edition First Edition, Heinemann (UK), 1963 Readers Union Edition (UK), 1964 the bell jar first edition faber First Faber (UK) edition, 1966 Italian edition, 1968 the bell jar first us edition First US Edition, Harper & Row, 1971 Danish Edition, 1975 Serbian edition, 1976 Hungarian edition, 1977 the bell jar french Denoël (French) edition, 1977 Italian edition, 1979 the bell jar 1981 Bantam Books (UK) 1981 edition Dutch edition, 1981 Bulgarian edition, 1981 the bell jar 1982 Faber and Faber (UK) 1982 edition; Cover art by Donna Muir the bell jar greek Αίολος (Greek) edition, 1984 the bell jar norwegian Den norske Bokklubben (Norwegian) edition, 1986 the bell jar hungarian Európa (Hungarian) edition, 1987 the bell jar turkish Can Yayınları (Turkish) edition, 1987 Polish edition, 1989 Croatian edition, 1991 Quality paperback club edition, 1993 the bell jar everyman Knopf Everyman Library edition, 1998 Hungarian edition, 1999 Swedish edition, 1999 Faber (UK) 1999 edition The Bell Jar 1999 Harper Perennial Classics 1999 edition the bell jar Portuguese Editora Record (Portuguese) edition, 1999 the bell jar italian Mondadori (Italian) edition, 2000 the bell jar russian Амфора (Russian) edition, 2000 the bell jar 2001 Faber and Faber (UK) 2001 edition the bell jar romanian Polirom (Romanian) edition, 2003 the bell jar 2005 Harper Perennial 2005 edition the bell jar 2006 Harper Perennial 2006 edition Korean edition, 2008 the bell jar 2009 Faber Firsts (UK) 2009 edition the bell jar arabic كلمة (Arabic) edition, 2011 The Bell Jar Faber 2013 Faber (UK) 50th Anniversary edition, 2013 the bell jar 2013 Harper Perennial 50th anniversary edition, 2013 the bell jar swedish Albert Bonniers Förlag (Swedish) edition, 2013 the bell jar chinese 麥田出版社 (Chinese) edition, 2013 the bell jar french Denoël (French) edition, 2014 the bell jar norwegian Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS (Norwegian) edition, 2014 Hungarian edition, 2014 Bulgarian edition, 2015 French edition, 2016 Albanian Edition, 2017 Russian edition, 2017 Thai edition, 2018 Romanian edition, 2018 Estonian edition, 2019 Polish edition, 2019 Portuguese edition, 2019 Russian edition, 2019 Faber (UK), 2019 Arabic edition, 2020 Bell Jar Thai Image (Thai) edition, date unknown bell jar dutch Dutch edition, date unknown, Swedish edition, date unknown Swedish edition, date unknown


Emily Temple
Emily Temple
Emily Temple is the managing editor at Lit Hub. Her first novel, The Lightness, was published by William Morrow/HarperCollins in June 2020. You can buy it here.
https://www.emilytemple.net/





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