JavaScript disabled or chat unavailable.

Have a question?

We have answers!
Chat Monday-Friday, 8 AM - 5 PM (except MS state holidays)
Phone: 601-432-4492 or Toll free: 1-877-KWIK-REF (1-877-594-5733)
Text: 601-208-0868
Email: mlcref@mlc.lib.ms.us

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Banned Books Week!


It's banned books week! We'll be posting our favorite banned books here for the remainder of the week.

Here is my favorite:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
This is my FAVORITE book. Period. The Bell Jar, published in 1963, is the only novel that was ever written by famous American poet, Sylvia Plath. Plath first published the book under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The novel tells the story of Esther Greenwood, a young lady from Boston, Massachusetts. Esther dreams of being a writer and spends a summer interning for a popular women's magazine in New York City. After her internship, she had plans to attend a writing course from a famous author. Upon her arrival home she learns that she did not make it in to the course. The book chronicles Eshter's life as she struggles with serious depression and adjusts to life in a mental institution. Many of the events in Esther's life mirror those of the author, Sylvia Plath. The book has been said to be an autobiography of Plath's life, but with a fictional character as the focal point. Of course, not everything that Esther goes through really happened to Plath.

The book has faced its fair share of opposition over the years. In 1979 it was prohibited in schools in Warsaw, Indiana. In 1981 300 residents signed a petition in an attempt to get the book removed from libraries because it contains sexual material and promotes an "objectionable" philosophy of life. In 1998 it was challenged for use in English classes in the Richland, Washington high school district because it stressed suicide, illicit sex, violence, and hopelessness.

Stay tuned for more of our favorite banned books!


Doyle, Robert P. 2007: Banned Books: 2007 Resource Book. Chicago: American Library Association.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...