The Yellow Wallpaper.

Ordered to rest and forbidden to work or write, a young woman is shut away in an upstairs room to recover, and begins, in secret journal entries, to record the slow unravelling of her days. Few short stories have struck so deep.

What it's about

The Yellow Wallpaper follows a narrator confined by a well-meaning husband under a rest cure for her nervous condition. With little to occupy her, she becomes obsessed with the sickly wallpaper of her room, and her growing fixation carries the story to an unforgettable conclusion. It unfolds entirely through her own increasingly troubled voice.

Themes

The silencing of women, the dangers of denying a person meaningful work and autonomy, mental distress and its mistreatment, and the thin line between confinement and madness. Gilman drew on painful personal experience.

Why it still matters

A founding text of feminist fiction and a masterclass in psychological suspense, the story remains a powerful indictment of how women's voices and minds were dismissed, and a gripping read in its own right.

Who it's for

Readers of literary short fiction, of feminist and social writing, and anyone who appreciates a story that unsettles as much as it illuminates.

Sources and references

Verified references for this edition: Open Library, WorldCat, Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Wikipedia.