The Bell Jar by Lucas Victoria Sylvia Plath (28 results)

Soft Cover. Condition: VG. Reprint. 8vo. original printed paper wraps (a little rubbed & creased, spine slightly sunned); pp. [iv], 258. A very good copy.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 2nd Edition. Bound in green boards with gilt lettering on spine. Second edition published in the Contemporary Fictions series and the only edition, besides the first, bearing Sylvia Plath's pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Binding is tight and square, light bump to top right corner of rear side. No marks or inscriptions, pages are clean. Light foxing to top- and fore edge. In near fine dust jacket with lightest rubbing to spine ends and corners and light fading to spine. 258 pp. 19 x 13 cm.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Printing with the words "First published 1963" printed on the copyright page. A wonderful copy. This original dustjacket is rich in color with minor wear to the edges. The book is bound in the publisher's black cloth and is in excellent condition. The book appears UNREAD. The binding is tight and the boards are crisp. The pages are exceptionally clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A superb copy housed in custom clamshell slipcase for preservation. We buy Victoria Lucas First Editions.

Facsimile D/J - NO BOOK. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. - (illustrator). This is a brand new facsimile dustjacket in a superb condition. It was produced from an original first printing which was browned and creased to the periphery and folds, and these aspects have transferred over in the reproduction process. The dustjackets are printed on acid free paper and enclosed in durable plastic archival sleeves for longevity and future protection. I do not state on the dustjacket that it is a facsimile, nor do I put my business name on it; the facsimile dustjacket is a true representation of the original without modification.- E N D - Our orders are shipped within 1 or 2 business days. - Thanks for your interest.

Facsimile D/J - NO BOOK. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. - (illustrator). This is a brand new facsimile dustjacket in a superb condition. It was produced from an original first printing which was browned to the periphery and folds, and these aspects have transferred over in the reproduction process. The dustjackets are printed on acid free paper and enclosed in durable plastic archival sleeves for longevity and future protection. I do not state on the dustjacket that it is a facsimile, nor do I put my business name on it; the facsimile dustjacket is a true representation of the original without modification.- E N D - Our orders are shipped within 1 or 2 business days. - Thanks for your interest.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 2nd Edition. Second Edition, one year after 1st edition; playwright Derek Marlowe's copy. 258 pp. Green hardcover in a lilac, white and black dustjacket. Lilac top edge. Light marking to dustjacket with some light rubbing to extremities. A minor mark to p. 107 and leaves slightly toned but internally clean overall. This edition of the Bell Jar was published by Contemporary Fiction a year after the first edition, but Plath still required that it be published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The back panel of the jacket states 'Victoria Lucas is a pseudonym, and we are not in a position to disclose any details of the authors identity'. This copy belonged to Derek Marlowe, who was a playwright, sharing a flat with fellow writers, Tom Stoppard and Piers Paul Read. Small 8vo.

Cloth. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. None (illustrator). First edition. The first edition of Sylvia Plath's semi-autobiographical magnum opus, in the desirable publisher's original dust wrapper. The true first edition, first impression. Published under the pseudonym 'Victoria Lucas', as Plath was concerned that her mother would read the novel.Only 2,000 copies of this first impression were produced.In the price-clipped publisher's original dust wrapper, designed by Thomas Simmonds.Set largely in early 1950s New York City and New England, the book follows nineteen-year-old undergraduate Esther Greenwood's descent into mental illness, as she is awarded a summer internship at the fictional 'Ladies' Day' magazine.With the former owner's ink inscriptions of 'K. Finks' and 'NL 37' to the front free endpaper, with also bears paper residue from a removed label. With remnants of a Boots lending library label to front board tail.The first edition of Plath's first and only novel. She committed suicide one month after the book's publication. In the publisher's original cloth binding, with price clipped dust wrapper. Externally, smart. Remnants of Boots lending library label to front board tail. Bumping to back strip head and tail, with joint tails starting, but firmly held. Light spotting to text block fore edge. Two small former owner's ink inscriptions to front free endpaper head. Paper label remnants to front pastedown, with resultant offsetting to front pastedown, half title, and title page. Lightly age toned tape repairs and reinforcements to dust wrapper, running length of fold over front flyleaf, back strip head and tail, and folds over front and rear joints. Light edgewear to head of dust wrapper front wrap, with light handling marks to rear wrap. Regions of amateur restoration to perimeters of rear wrap. Abrasion to dust wrapper reverse at centre of front flyleaf. Internally, generally firmly bound. Pages bright, with instances of light spotting throughout, most concentrated to page perimeters and first and last few leaves. Very Good. book.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First edition, first print, in an unclipped fine dust jacket, with a photo of Plath and her daughter Frieda, inscribed on the verso by Plath with the words 'Frieda - Christmas 1960'. The book is in near fine to fine condition: square and firm, no reading lean, all four corners sharp and firm, spine foot with lightest of pushes, top of spine firm, no marks to the boards, which are lovely and no bumps. Title, author name and publisher to the spine in very bright gilt. Internally in lovely condition, with no nicks to any of the pages and no dogears. Clean and bright endpapers. No issues other than spotting to the top edge of the text block, occasionally penetrating the top edge of the pages. Other sides of the text block are unmarked. The jacket is in fine condition: not price-clipped. Crease to first in-flap, a couple of short nicks to the top of the spine, otherwise the jacket is in lovely shape. The inscribed photo is photographed at Chalcot Square in Primrose Hill, London, where Plath lived with Ted Hughes from January 1960 to August 1961. 63mm x 63mm; black and white; slightly out of focus. A few light creases. The photograph would almost certainly have been taken by Ted Hughes. Inscribed by Author(s).

[Modern Literature] LEATHER-BOUND SECOND EDITION, being the First Book Club Edition. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[6] 258 [4]. Recently re-bound in red half calf, with raised bands, gilt titles to spine, and matching cloth over boards. With the publisher's green cloth spine bound in at rear. A clean copy presented in an attractive new leather binding. First published in January 1963, just a couple of weeks before Plath's death, this is the second edition of her semi-autobiographical novel (far preceding the first American edition published in 1971). This edition is also the last to be published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. 1963 Heinemann Hardback 1st edition 1st impression. Very good+ clean tight binding in new facsimile dustjacket. Plath's semi-autobiographical novel, published in the UK ( under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas) eight years before its first American publication.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. A very good copy of the highly scarce uncorrected Heinemann proof of Plath's only novel, here published in 1962, the year before publication of the trade hardback. Over 70 textual variations exist between the uncorrected proof and the first trade hardback edition (published in January 1963), including instances in the proof where heroine Esther Greenwood's name remains as Miss Lucas (the surname used by Plath for her pseudonym for the book), such as on p187: 'And how are you feeling this morning, Miss Lucas?'. Less than a dozen copies of The Bell Jar proof are known to have survived, perhaps less than ten. This compares with a print run of 2000 copies for the trade hardback. A very firm and square copy, with spotting to the covers and earlier pages; spotting to top edge of the text block. Some separation at the top and bottom of the front cover hinge; some browning of the spine. Housed in a drop-back silk-covered box, with title to the spine.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. 1963 Heinemann Hardback 1st edition 2nd impression. Very good+ clean tight binding in new facsimile dustjacket. Plath's semi-autobiographical novel, published in the UK ( under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas) eight years before its first American publication.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Printing with the original dustjacket. This First Issue dustjacket has the publisher's 18s net printed price present on the front flap. The book is bound in the publisher's cloth and is in great shape. The pages are clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A lovely copy preserved in a clamshell box.

Readers Union. William Heinemann. 1964. Second edition though first edition thus and the only edition, besides the first, bearing Sylvia Plath's pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Hardback in DW. Slight lean to spine, small brown dent to front pastedown, three tiny spots of foxing to prelims otherwise a remarkably clean and fresh copy in wrapper that is slightly soiled and worn and has a light cup-ring to front panel.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. The Bell Jar, Victoria Lucas (Sylvia Plath), Heinemann, 1963. First edition, second print. Signed to the front free endpaper by Ted Hughes and Plath's daughter, Frieda Hughes. A fine copy of the rare second printing of the first Heinemann edition (1963), originally published just four weeks to the day before the death of its author. The book was published under a pseudonym to disguise Plath's identity, to protect various real individuals illustrated in the novel. The Bell Jar was not published under Plath's real name till the Faber publication in 1966 and not published in the United States until 1971. Printed at Kingswood in Surrey. Very rare with the ownership inscription of Plath's husband Ted Hughes and their daughter, Frieda. The first print was published in a token quantity , according to Heinemann (Tabor), generally considered to be 2000 copies. The second print is considered to be an even smaller print run as it is harder to find. The black calico-grain cloth boards are entirely unmarked and unworn, with title, author name and publisher in bright gold on an un-creased spine. No sunning to the cloth. All four corners remain sharp and firm. Spine foot very lightly pushed, spine tip firm. Board edges are sharp, no bumps. Book is straight and firm, with no lean. Heinemann windmill stamped in blind on back cover; internally very clean indeed with lightest of spotting to front free endpaper and to some page edges. Foxing to the top edge of the text block, and light spotting to the other edges of the text block. The rare and unrestored original dust-jacked is not price-clipped, with the price 18s NET on the in-flap. No tears. Some brown splash marks near the spine to the rear panel and spine. Crease along length of in-flap and foxing to the spine of jacket verso and edges. A near fine copy in a near fine jacket of this hard to find landmark novel, the sole novel written by Sylvia Plath, with a direct family association. Provenance: Frieda Hughes.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. The Second UK printing published by William Heinemann, London in 1964. This, the 'Contemporary Fiction' edition, was published the year after the first Heinemann edition and two years before the Faber edition was published under the author's real name - Sylvia Plath. The BOOK is in Very Good++ condition. Bound in the publisher's original green boards with silver lettering to the spine, with a lilac top-stain which is lightly faded. Slight pushing to the spine tips with light spotting to the prelims and the text-block. Free from inscriptions. The WRAPPER is complete and is in Very Good++ condition. Light edge-wear with some mild creasing and edge-wear at the spine ends and edges. Some fading of the lilac colouring to the spine as usually encountered. Some light age related markings in places with a small closed tear to the lower front panel edge. The wrapper remains very attractive in the removable Brodart archival cover. Loosely inserted are two 'Contemporary Fiction' Newsletters (numbers 21 and 25). Number 25 refers to this title being 'This Month's Choice' and the other newsletter has a full 2 paragraph review from 'The Listener' strongly endorsing the book. This second edition published in the 'Contemporary Fiction' series is the only edition, besides the first, bearing Sylvia Plath's pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Very scarce with the related newsletters. Collectible. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. HARDBACK - A very good or better book bound in the publisher's black cloth boards with bright gilt lettering to the spine. There is very minor pushing to the base of the spine, but aside from this, the boards are very clean indeed. There is mild foxing to the page blocks, internally the inner text is clean with no signs of foxing. Signed by Ted Hughes to the front free end-paper. Additionally signed by Frieda Hughes to the top corner of the same page. Frieda Hughes is the daughter and the eldest of two children from the marriage of the author Ted Hughes and the poet/author Sylvia Plath. The dust wrapper is also in very good or better condition. There is light rubbing to the spine tips with light soiling to the extremities. Aside from the rubbing, the dust wrapper is in very nice overall condition, free of any tears or loss, with the publisher's printed price of 18s.net present to the front flap fold. A very scarce title to acquire with an estimated print run of less than 2000 copies. A quite lovely association copy, belonging to the daughter of the author Victoria Lucas aka Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath sadly died only weeks after the books UK publication in 1963.

Hardback. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. later edition. Second edition, 1964 issued with her pseudonym Victoria Lucas (as was the first edition). A Fine copy with the author's real name ("Sylvia Plath") added in ink by a previous owner neatly to the title page (see photo). Dust jacket is very close to Fine and is unclipped with just a little fading to spine.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 2nd Edition. Second edition. Originally published the previous year. The poet's only novel written under the "Victoria Lucas" pseudonym. Original green cloth with silver lettering to spine. A near fine book with slight knocking to bottom corners and extremely faint and minor spotting to edges. The original dust jacket has some surface rubbing and slight fading to spine panel. An excellent, clean and sharp example.

Second Edition. First (and only) Impression. Octavo (19cm); greyish-green paper-covered boards, with titles stamped in silver on spine; light purple topstain; dustjacket; [iv],258,[2]pp. A fresh, Fine copy, without foxing, and with the topstain bright and unfaded. Dustjacket is very Near Fine, spine panel unfaded, showing some trivial external wear. A sharp copy of Plath's semi-autobiographical novel, charting a young woman's descent into mental illness. One of the major books of the 1960s, giving way to feminist discourse on the struggles of womanhood, women's roles, and mental health. Basis for Larry Peerce's 1979 film adaptation, starring Marilyn Hassett. Tabor A4a.2.

First Edition. First edition, first printing. [iv], 258 pp. Bound in publisher's original black cloth-affect boards with spine lettered in gilt. Very Good+, presents well, with former owner's name on paste down and front free endpaper, faint pink mark to bottom edge, front hinge overopened, light occasional foxing along margins, in a Very Good price-clipped dust jacket with no fading, a little wrinkling to rear panel, foxing to verso; tiny tape mends to verso at tips and a single piece of tape extends to the recto along to the top edge of the back panel. Nice shape overall. Plath's semi-autobiographical novel, published in the UK under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas eight years before its first American appearance. Plath committed suicide less a month after its initial publication, cementing the book's reputation as a tragically unheeded cry for help. It is now perhaps the single most iconic female coming-of-age story.

Full Morocco. Condition: Fine. First Edition. First Edition. [iv], 258 pp. Recently bound in a lovely full black morocco. Gilt borders to boards and raised bands with gilt ruling and lettering to spine; a.e.g. and marbled endpapers. Internally clean. No previous owner's names. A beautiful copy of Sylvia Plath's (Victoria Lucas) semi-autobiographical novel, published shortly before her death. 19cms tall. 16mo.

FIRST BOOK CLUB EDITION, a few faint spots to half-title receding to title-page, pp. [iv], 258, crown 8vo, original green boards, backstrip lettered in silver, top edge purple, dustjacket with very gentle fading to the purple on backstrip panel and merest hint of rubbing at extremities, very good. The second edition of Plath's debut novel, preserving her anonymity with a stark statement on the dustjacket's rear panel: 'we are not in a position to disclose any details of the author's identity'. The latter would be made plain two years later, with the Faber edition issued under the author's own name. Laid in at the front is the 'Contemporary Fiction, Newsletter 24' leaflet from July 1964, with a long description of this book (the September CF Choice). A superb copy. (Tabor A4a2).

Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+. First Edition. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's original black cloth-affect boards with spine lettered in gilt. Very Good+ with light lean to binding, spotting to textblock edge. Light tanning to contents and endsheets lightyl foxed. In a Very Good+ unclipped dust jacket with light wear, tanning and foxing, vertical crease to front flap. Plath's semi-autobiographical novel, published in the UK under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas eight years before its first American appearance. Plath committed suicide less a month after its initial publication, cementing the book's reputation as a tragically unheeded cry for help. It is now perhaps the single most iconic female coming-of-age story.

Second edition, published a year after the first. It was only in 1967 that the author's real name was officially acknowledged. Octavo. 258 pages.Head and tail of spine very slightly pushed, otherwise fine in very good indeed dustwrapper slightly rubbed at top edge and a bit faded at the spine. A bright copy.

First edition, first printing thus. The Contemporary Fiction edition, published the year after the first Heinemann edition and two years before the Faber edition published under the author's real name - Sylvia Plath. A touch of foxing to the foredge, otherwise fine in very good dustjacket with some colour fade.

First edition, first impression, a superb association copy, with contemporary annotations by Ted Hughes and more recent annotations by Frieda Hughes; this copy at one time also had the ownership inscription of Plath herself on the front free endpaper. Loosely inserted is an intimate photo of Plath and the new-born Frieda, inscribed by Plath on the verso, "Frieda almost new Chalcot Square". Hughes has added two pencil annotations in the text and marginal pencil lines in four locations. The marginal marks are next to passages relating to the recognition of truth, the "windowless corridor of pain. waiting to open up and shut [women] in again" (p. 68), and the persistence of life "no matter how much you knelt and prayed" (p. 174), while his annotations relate to Olive Higgins Prouty (1882-1974), the novelist and poet widely thought to be the basis for the character Philomena Guinea in this work. Hughes has added "Mrs Prouthy" at the head of page 5, and written "The Trout", perhaps a play on Prouty's name, above Guinea's first appearance in the text on page 41. Prouty, whose 1941 novel Now, Voyager was a pioneering exploration of psychotherapy, sponsored Plath at Smith College. From there, the two developed a close and ongoing friendship, with Plath writing letters continuously to Prouty regarding her life, family, and work until her death. Hughes's first annotation is at the head of the section introducing Doreen, Esther's fellow intern and resident at the Amazon, perhaps identifying Prouty as part inspiration for the character of Doreen, as well as that of Guinea. The Bell Jar was released on 14 January 1963, just five weeks before Plath's suicide. Shortly after her death, Hughes discovered Prouty had been encouraging Plath in her last weeks to contact a solicitor to file for divorce (Gifford, p. 23). In her letters to Prouty, Plath had repeatedly depicted Hughes as a "brutal womanizer", relating instances of Hughes's emotional abuse and financial manipulation, and Prouty was keen to extract Plath from the situation (Egeland, p. 155). Frieda was less than three years old when The Bell Jar was published. It appears she inherited this copy from Hughes and annotated it as an adult, writing out one of her own poems, "The Signature", on the front free endpaper. On the clipped corner just above the poem she has noted that "Somewhere there is a square of paper with my mother's signature on it that fits exactly here. FH". In "The Signature", Frieda meditates on the removal of her mother's signature and the nature of sharing her mother's legacy ("One for you, one for me / The books are being / Divided between us."). The second stanza reads, "Each book is opened, and there / She has written her name. A mother / For you, a mother for me / Another for you, another for me, / And suddenly, a small square / Cut from the page corner where / Her ink had dried". "The Signature" was first published in Frieda Hughes's The Stonepicker (2001) and again in Out of the Ashes (2018), both appearances also noted here by Frieda. She has additionally decorated the edges of two instances of loss on the copy, the clipped endpaper and the verso of the jacket, adding along the torn edge an inked drawing of a zip, labelled "Pull here". Tabor A4. Marianne Egeland, Claiming Sylvia Plath: The Poet as Exemplary Figure, 2013; Terry Gifford, The Cambridge Companion to Ted Hughes, 2011. Octavo. Original black boards, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket, designed by Thomas Simmonds. With original photograph (60 x 60 mm), in very good condition, image a little blurred. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. A very good copy, light foxing to edges and endpapers, in the bright jacket, portion of loss to upper outer corner of front panel and flap, some creasing and rubbing to extremities, else bright, unclipped.

Condition: Good. First Edition. First edition, first printing of Sylvia Plath's best-known work, here published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Bound in publisher's original black cloth-affect boards with spine lettered in gilt; lacking the dust jacket. Good. Lean to spine, covers stained, light foxing to textblock edge with a remainder mark to the bottom edge. Former owner name and date to front paste down, and letter "B" to front free endpaper. Thin line of paper residue to rear paste down. Pages toned and with an occasional crease. A serviceable copy.