Rebecca vs The Bell Jar: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Fiction
Rebecca
“Suddenly I saw a clearing in the dark drive ahead, and a patch of sky, and in a moment the dark trees had thinned, the nameless shrubs had disappeared, and on either side of us was a wall of colour, blood-red, reaching far above our heads. We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking, about the suddenness of their discovery. The woods had not prepared me for th”
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With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the…
The Bell Jar
“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.”
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The Bell Jar is the only novel written by American poet Sylvia Plath. It is an intensely realistic and emotional record of a successful and talented young woman's descent into madness.
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Rebecca has the widest readership — 760384 ratings behind its score.
- Rebecca runs the darker storyline; The Bell Jar stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Rebecca | The Bell Jar | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.2 (760384) | — |
| Hardcover | 4.1 (814) | — |
| Google Books | 4.0 (1) | 4.5 (2) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (212) | 4.5 (555) |
Reception
| Rebecca | The Bell Jar | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 760384 | 555 |
| Editions | 200 | 177 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 820325 | — |
| Reading it now | 30350 | — |
| Written reviews | 55745 | — |
| Wikipedia attention | 41922 | 63950 |
| Pages | 366 | 272 |
Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Rebecca or The Bell Jar?
The Bell Jar has the higher combined reader rating across sources (The Bell Jar 4.4/5, Rebecca 4.2/5).
Which is shorter to read: Rebecca or The Bell Jar?
The Bell Jar is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: The Bell Jar (272 pages, ≈ 5 h 02 m); Rebecca (366 pages, ≈ 6 h 47 m).
Which is harder to read: Rebecca or The Bell Jar?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Rebecca: Challenging; The Bell Jar: Demanding.
Have both books been made into films?
Rebecca: 5 film adaptations; The Bell Jar: no film adaptation on record.