The Yellow Wallpaper (Premium)

Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Narrated by Rosy McEwen

A timeless piece of feminist literature, the story follows a series of journal entries made by a woman diagnosed with hysterical tendencies by her doctor and husband. Barred from working for her "nerves", she is confined to the nursery in an old New England colonial mansion to recuperate. Trapped in this room with barred windows and sickly yellow wallpaper, she begins writing in secret as she starts to feel the walls mutate around her.

The wallpaper is animate, shifting and writhing, changing before her in the moonlight. There is someone in the walls, she knows it.

Drawing on elements of horror and the gothic, Gilman masterfully shows a woman on the brink of postpartum psychosis. It is a haunting tale of the dangers of social seclusion and cultural starvation, as well as flippant attitudes towards women's health - many of which still prevail today.

Perfect for fans of "Mexican Gothic" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte, and "Rebecca" by Daphne Du Maurier.

Feminist icon Charlotte Perkins Gilman, paved the way for women writers such as Alice Walker and Sylvia Plath, with her thought-provoking work. Appreciated as a feminist writer for tackling women's issues of the day, but also as an accomplished horror writer. Her subtle themes and ability to guide the reader through her characters, at times, crumbling psyche, earned the respect of pioneering horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, among others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SAGA Egmont
• Release date: Feb 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9788726988406

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was an American author, feminist, and social reformer. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Gilman was raised by her mother after her father abandoned his family to poverty. A single mother, Mary Perkins struggled to provide for her son and daughter, frequently enlisting the help of her estranged husband’s aunts, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. These early experiences shaped Charlotte’s outlook on gender and society, inspiring numerous written works and a lifetime of activism. Gilman excelled in school as a youth and went on to study at the Rhode Island School of Design where, in 1879, she met a woman named Martha Luther. The two were involved romantically for the next few years until Luther married in 1881. Distraught, Gilman eventually married Charles Walter Stetson, a painter, in 1884, with whom she had one daughter. After Katharine’s birth, Gilman suffered an intense case of post-partum depression, an experience which inspired her landmark story “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1890). Gilman and Stetson divorced in 1894, after which Charlotte moved to California and became active in social reform. Gilman was a pioneer of the American feminist movement and an early advocate for women’s suffrage, divorce, and euthanasia. Her radical beliefs and controversial views on race—Gilman was known to support white supremacist ideologies—nearly consigned her work to history; at the time of her death none of her works remained in print. In the 1970s, however, the rise of second-wave feminism and its influence on literary scholarship revived her reputation, bringing her work back into publication.