The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Known primarily for her classic and haunting story "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an enormously influential American feminist and sociologist. Her early-twentieth-century writings continue to inspire writers and activists today. This collection includes selections from both her fiction and nonfiction work.

In addition to the title story, there are seven short stories collected here that combine humor, anger, and startling vision to suggest how women's "place" in society should be changed to benefit all. The nonfiction selections are from Gilman's The Man-Made World: Our Androcentric Culture and her masterpiece, Women And Economics, which was translated into seven languages and established her international reputation as a theorist.

Also included in a delightful excerpt from Gilman's utopian novel, Herland, an acidly funny tale about three American male explorers who stumble into an all-female society and begin their odyssey by insisting, "This is a civilized country . . . there must be men." Gilman's analyses of economic and women's issues are as incisive and relevant today as they were upon their original publication. This volume is an unprecedented opportunity to rediscover a powerful American writer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 27, 2006
• ISBN: 9780553902679

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American sociologist, writer, lecturer, and social reformist. As a child, Gilman was often in the presence of her father’s relatives, notably Isabella Beecher Hooker, a well-known suffragist, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Many of Gilman’s own works reflect similarly feminist and social reformist perspectives, and in 1909 she established The Forerunner, a magazine that acted as a forum for discussion of these issues. Gilman’s most famous work is “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a semi-autobiographical short story written in response to being put on “rest cure” by a doctor to cure her depression. Gilman’s works also include the poetry collection In This Our World, and the feminist texts Women and Economics and The Home: Its Work and Influence. She died in 1935.

Reviews for The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings

[ihanson1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A frightening book on one woman's decent into madness. Wonderful commentary on the life of 19th century upper middle class women. I recommend this book regularly.

[zommbie1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Synopsis: A nameless narrator tells of a summer in a big house in the country where her physician husband has taken her on doctors orders in order for her nerves to get better (she is suffering from what we now know to be postpartum depression). The doctor has forbidden her (according with the thinking of the day) to have any form of mental stimulation, including writing. However, she manages to write in a journal and it is through this journal we, the readers, get to follow her journey into madness.My Thoughts: I skim-read this short story for my survery course last semester and really wanted to get back to it and read it properly. Having my seniors read it for their unit on poetry and texts seemed like a perfect time to do it. Then when the Women Unbound challenge was announced it seemed perfectly providential.I liked this story because it touches on something that is close to my heart, women's mental health. The story was written at the turn of the last century and it shows the vulnerability of women in a society that already saw them as weak and then compounded the problem by not acknowledging mental illness. Actually, they saw mental illness as something that could be overcome by not doing anything. And as can be seen by this story, this had dire consequences.Through the journal we get to follow the decent from a relatively mild form of postpartum depression into a raging psychosis. By infantilising his wife the husband and the doctors in the story isolate and compound the problem. By cutting off access to almost all of her friends and relatives the woman is left to ponder the pattern on the decaying wallpaper in the prison like nursery that her husband has designated as her room.I found this to be a fascinating story of the decent into mental illness and a powerful commentary on the time when it was written as well as giving an insight into the life of the author herself. A quick but powerful read I recommend to anyone!

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Normally I have little attraction to or respect for Women's Studies" courses, and I'm troubled by some aspects of Feminism. But if this book were the primary text for a college class, I might just sign up.

What I found most interesting about this collection is that the title story is the earliest included. Gilman's later personal works were not so well-crafted. The classic story of madness is horrifying and powerful indeed, as are a couple of other 'gothic' stories including "The Giant Wistaria." Most of the rest of the many stories here are shorter and more didactic.

But, they are *all* worth reading. They show how a variety of different women, and groups of women, can make choices and make a difference, in their own lives and in society. Some are downright Utopian, many are *almost* implausibly idealistic. But all are inspirational and provocative.

Oh, but I should add, before you misunderstand... Gilman did not hate men. She hated the way some men dominate social structures in order to denigrate women, and there's strong evidence that she would have preferred the intimate company of women had that option been available to her. But men can appreciate this book, too.

There is one other category of works included here. Fascinatingly, Gilman did some experimental writing, crafting several stories 'in the style of' other well-known authors, including Alcott, Kipling, Twain, and Henry James. Those are impressive, and fun to read, too."

[majesdane-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I think a lot of the "points" to these stories were over my head, given the discrepancy in time periods between when these were written and me reading them now in modern day. However!, I did enjoy reading all the short stories and really, I think that's all that matters.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure what to make of this collection. Some of them speak powerfully of the human condition and state of mind. Others are so much of their time and place that they seem to be period pieces, divorced from a current reality, the second piece, in particular, contains reactions that I think the modern mind finds difficult to catch. The title piece seems to capture a descent into madness, told through the pattern on the yellow wallpaper of their bedroom. The colour appears to change with the mood of the viewer and it's really quite haunting. It is certainly worth reading.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These stories are written in a different time frame, almost a century and a half ago, they are more literature than the made for TV tales turned out furiously on the computers of modern day authors, turned out with stories of violence and sex to attract an audience, rather than with interesting stories about life’s challenges. This collection of short stories was simply a pleasure to read. Each one, on its own, had a different theme about women. One story was about a misunderstood woman going mad after the birth of her child, when her hormones were batting each other around like baseballs.Another was about a young woman wronged, who haunts the dreams of those living in the home she once lived in with her fatherless child. The next is about a pampered woman who finds her own strength and grows independent. Then there is the story of a bitter, over zealous aunt who makes a deceitful bargain with her great nephews, only to be chastised by the minister for her duplicity.The selection of stories is wholesome. There is a mixture of the real with the mystic. There is no stupid sex or foul language. There is really no violence to speak of and there are happy endings, of a fairy tale nature, in some cases. They cover the gamut of women’s issues, career, emotion, freedom, purpose, love, marriage, divorce, devotion, loyalty, faithfulness, religion, responsibility, and even vengeance, but all of the stories are treated in such a way that they do not tax the reader, but rather they entertain perfectly with the style and the message.