"I was supposed to be having the time of my life"

I have mixed feeling about The Bell Jar. But parts are incredibly funny.












Esther has just been moved to a new psychiatric hospital.

After Doctor Nolan had gone I found a box of matches on the window-sill. It wasn't an ordinary-size box, but an extremely tiny box. I opened it and exposed a row of little white sticks with pink tips. I couldn't think why Doctor Nolan would have left me such a stupid thing. Carefully I stored the toy matches in the hem of my new wool bathrobe. If Doctor Nolan asked me for the matches, I would say I'd thought they were made of candy and had eaten them.



And I remember being extremely tickled by this bit, when I read it for the first time aged about 15. I think I was going through a difficult phase where getting out of bed, showered and dressed in the morning would feel completely beyond me.


'Lie down,' the nurse said. 'I'm going to give you another injection.' I rolled over on my stomach and hitched up my skirt. Then I pulled down the trousers of my silk pyjamas. 'My word, what all have you got under there?' 'Pyjamas. So I won't have to bother getting in and out of them all the time.'