这本小说以作者早年生活经历为蓝本，叙述了19岁的大二女生埃斯特· 格林伍德经历了充当某知名杂志社的客座编辑、参加写作班被拒、自杀未遂、接受心理治疗、重树自信期待返回社会，展开新生活的一系列过程。本文从“榜样缺失”的角度出发，结合当时美国的实际，探讨埃斯特作为女性，在其成长过程中男性社会压抑下所产生的孤独、绝望与挣扎的心灵历程以及反抗的必然性。
全优女孩埃斯特成为某时尚杂志征文比赛获奖者,谁知道这是她噩梦的开始……普拉斯自传体小说《钟形罩》喜剧笔调下的本质是悲剧。人们拒绝认真对待一个女人丰富颤栗的情感，指望通过电休克疗法治愈心灵的绝望。事实上她已经令人恐惧地滑向疯狂的深渊。 普拉斯与另一位杰出诗人休斯的惊世恋情是二十世纪英美诗坛最大的公案，女诗人年仅三十岁便自杀自亡，她不曾预知自己会获得普利策奖，作品又极其畅销。虽然本书中“我”最终走出了黑暗，谁又能看透普拉斯本人内心的隐秘?

本书收录了普拉斯1956年后直至去世这一时期所创作的所有著名诗歌，由其丈夫、英国桂冠诗人特德·休斯亲自编辑、注释、作序，曾获1981年普利策诗歌奖，也是作者最全面的一部诗集。诗人去世18年后这部诗集的出版，被誉为1981年最重要的文学事件之一，由此确立了普拉斯是20世纪最有影响力的天才诗人这一地位。
普拉斯的诗充满了强烈的意象性，几乎每一首诗都包含了足以勾勒出一幅鲜明的后现代主义画作的元素。这些比现实飘渺，但比梦境严酷的画面组合毫无顾忌地违抗所有的逻辑、因果乃至时空的定律，解构众神与基督、圣哲与贞女，看似无可理喻，但这一幅幅荒谬、颠倒、时空倒错的画面所传达的焦虑、受挫与被压抑的欲望却是如此地令人心悸、过目难忘，这是任何悦目的色彩所无法企及的。普拉斯用诗句描绘的意象有的宏大荒寂，有的怪诞戏谑，但几乎都隐含着一种内敛的悲伤。因为这些是从一个悲伤的灵魂中自由流淌出的。
普拉斯短短的一生都承受着抑郁症的痛苦，八岁时父亲的死是她一生的鬼魅、她的恋父情结的成因，也是她多首诗中意象的源泉。本诗集收录的《爹爹》一诗即是这种情感最鲜明的成形，也是学者们讨论最多的普拉斯作品之一。诗句中的陈述不是对父亲的事实陈述，而是情感的自述，如同她所有的诗作一样。
普拉斯在1963年结束了自己的生命。1981年，这位死去19年的女诗人被授予普利策诗歌奖。这在普利策奖的历史上是罕见的。直到今天，她的诗作和她的生平依然被人谈论。她的价值是不受时空束缚的，正如她诗作中的那一幅幅意象。

The story of Sylvia Plath's seminal novel The Bell Jar as well as the parallels between her life and the book. The film includes an exclusive testimony from Sylvia Plath's daughter Frieda Hughes about her mother.

First U.S. Publication
A major literary event--the complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath, published in their entirety for the first time.
Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet's personal and literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both her frequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons. The complete Journals of Sylvia Plath is essential reading for all who have been moved and fascinated by Plath's life and work.
First U.S. Publication
A major literary event--the complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath, published in their entirety for the first time.
Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet's personal and literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both her frequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons. The complete Journals of Sylvia Plath is essential reading for all who have been moved and fascinated by Plath's life and work.

《西尔维娅·普拉斯诗选》，1981，Ted Hughes编，她死后出版的作品为她赢得了普利策奖
Containing everything that celebrated poet Sylvia Plath wrote after 1956, this is one of the most comprehensive collections of her work. Edited, annotated, and with an introduction by Ted Hughes.

Lips the colour of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like 'guilt, and guilt, and guilt': these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom.
'But what is the ninth kingdom?' she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. 'It is the kingdom of the frozen will,' comes the reply. 'There is no going back.'
Sylvia Plath's strange, dark tale of independence over infanticide, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.

Sylvia Plath (1932-63) possessed one of the most commanding voices in twentieth-century poetry. She published only one volume of verse, "The Colossus", during her life and a single novel, "The Bell Jar". After her death "Winter Trees", "Crossing the Water" and, most notably, the remarkable poems in "Ariel", brought her posthumous fame.

人，不過是塵土，在我看來，醫治塵土不會比寫詩更有意義。
一首好詩可以烙印人心，讓人在哀傷、病痛或失眠時拿出來反覆咀嚼。
詩人陳黎、張芬齡完整中譯X精采導讀X豐富譯註
普立茲獎得獎詩人、自白派早逝才女備受爭議作品集
美國詩壇譽為「有史以來最偉大的詩集之一」
POETS.org譽為「開創先河之書」
奠定普拉絲世界詩壇地位代表作
「該是火的語言， 就讓它燃燒在世人的心裡， 不容熄滅！」──詩人顏艾琳
「我非常喜歡普拉絲，太開心她的代表詩集《精靈》終於有中譯版了！」－－詩人羅毓嘉
「《精靈》是有史以來最偉大的詩集之一。」──美國詩人茹絲‧范恩萊（Ruth Fainlight）
她，在美國詩壇寫下一頁傳奇。
她，讓多少讀者為之傾心，也為之嘆息。
她，在身後留下歷經五十年纏繞不去的流言蜚語。
《精靈》為普拉絲死前留在書桌上的手稿，一九六五年版《精靈》於普拉絲辭世後，由其夫泰德•休斯編輯出版。時隔四十年，普拉絲之女弗莉達•休斯重編此書，出版還原版，忠實呈現出普拉絲的內心世界，她以極殘酷、惡毒的意象、字眼或語調，影射她的丈夫、她的母親、她的父親、她丈夫的情婦，以及她熟識的友人，以致當初休斯在編選《精靈》時將十多首詩作抽換掉，弗莉達悉數予以還原。
時隔五十年，台灣詩人夫妻檔暨英美詩作翻譯巨匠陳黎與張芬齡，以弗莉達•休斯還原版為本，輔以精采導讀與精闢譯註，佐以具體而淺白的文本解讀及豐富周邊資料，首度帶領台灣讀者完整認識這位讓世人談論不盡的天才女詩人。

<BLOCKQUOTE>"What I fear most, I think, is the death of the imagination.... If I sit still and don't do anything, the world goes on beating like a slack drum, without meaning. We must be moving, working, making dreams to run toward; the poverty of life without dreams is too horrible to imagine."</BLOCKQUOTE><DIV ALIGN=RIGHT>-- Sylvia Plath, from Notebooks, February 1956</DIV>
Renowned for her poetry, Sylvia Plath was also a brilliant writer of prose. This collection of short stories, essays, and diary excerpts highlights her fierce concentration on craft, the vitality of her intelligence, and the yearnings of her imaginaton. Featuring an introduction by Plath's husband, the late British poet Ted Hughes, these writings also reflect themes and images she would fully realize in her poetry. Jonny Panic and the Bible of Dreams truly showcases the talent and genius of Sylvia Plath.</p>