The Bell Jar Sparknotes Summaries The Bell Jar†is a novel written by the American poet Sylvia Plath and printed in 1963. Published six years earlier than The Bell Jar, On the Road is a book about youth, about liberation, about America opening like the great gates of Oz, welcoming you to seek out your true self. It is the tale of Esther Greenwood – broadly seen as a thinly veiled version of Plath – a reporter who heads to New York to kick off her career, but finally ends…