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Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
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Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

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This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. This volume pairs two of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's most famous works, Herland (1915) and "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892). Herland, a utopian novel, sketches Gilman's model of a society governed, inhabited, and perpetuated solely by women; while "The Yellow Wallpaper," typically categorized as a Gothic or horror story, dramatizes a young wife's postpartum descent into madness. These powerful examples of Gilman's fiction illuminate, perhaps even more effectively than her nonfiction, the complexity and passion of her mission for egalitarianism among the sexes. Reading these works today also helps us to define the scope of Gilman's progressiveness, revealing how far we have come as well as how far we have yet to travel to make true equality a requisite condition of human life.

 

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 13, 2012
ISBN9781411468252
Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
Author

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), author of the celebrated short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," is regarded by many as a leading intellectual in the women's movement in the United States during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Michael Kimmel is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at SUNY, Stony Brook, and the author of Manhood in America: A Cultural History. Amy Aronson is a professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Fordham University.

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In this duo of tales, Charlotte Perkins Gilman takes on very different views about womanhood. In "Herland", we see a society made up of women only. I appreciated the fact that this story showed females in a way that was not condescending in stereotypes. Usually stories with women-only civilizations show them as busty, scantily clad Amazonian girls growling to dominate men. Or, they are all lesbians. Herland was full of women who had transcended sexuality to a higher level. Motherhood is their religion and they achieve pregnancies without men. Smart, loving, caring, trusting, encouraging -- they didn't lose their minds when the 3 men came to their land to master them. They find the men interesting and want to learn about them, maybe in hopes of including fatherhood in their world. One man is your typical macho guy who wants to dominate the women; one man is wimpy and happy to be subservient to women; the third is very much like the women in thoughts and actions. A very interesting look into a feministic way of life that is very peaceful, intelligent and civilized."The Yellow Wallpaper" looks at the life of a wife and mother who is losing herself into a postpartum madness. In this story, women have their place in the home, and that's it. Nothing much is expected of them except to sit around and look pretty and raise children. Their value is minuscule and their thoughts and feelings are downplayed. I enjoyed the first story much more than the second, but, that might be because I liked that idea of womanhood better. Interesting stories; well written.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Both "Herland" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" are impossible to put down, and Gilman's prose is both wrenching and engaging. The short collection is a quick-read, but bears re-reading (and possibly re-reading after that) since the ideas are in many ways still as fresh as when they were originally written. There's no doubt that a feminist philosophy influences the prose and and development here, but there's a great deal more than that to be appreciated, particularly for readers who enjoy either utopian fiction or philosophy. The one frustration I have with both texts is that I'm left wanting more in each case. Her endings make sense, even as I find them dissatisfying, but on some level I'm still left disappointed and waiting as the last sentences pass. Again, I see the point, but because of her style in ending works, I can't give these a full five stars as I otherwise would, or whole-heartedly enjoy them as much as I think I could otherwise. Still, both of these works which I think everyone should read once, and once the first page is opened, I'm betting that most readers will be hooked.

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Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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