The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader: The Yellow Wallpaper, and Other Fiction

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Editor), Ann J. Lane

The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader is an anthology of fiction by one of America's most important feminist writers. Probably best known as the author of "The Yellow Wallpaper," in which a woman is driven mad by chauvinist psychiatry, Gilman wrote numerous other short stories and novels reflecting her radical socialist and feminist view of turn-of-the-century America. Collected here by the noted Gilman scholar Ann J. Lane are eighteen stories and fragments, including a selection from Herland, Gilman's novel of a feminist utopia. The resulting anthology provides a provocative blueprint to Gilman's intellectual and creative production.

The yellow wallpaper.
When I was a witch.
If I were a man.
The girl in the pink hat.
The cottagette.
The unnatural mother.
Making a change.
An honest woman.
Turned.
The widow's might.
Mr. Peebles' heart.
The crux.
What Diantha did
Benigna Machiavelli
Unpunished
Moving the mountain
Herland
With her in Ourland.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Feminism, Literature, Social Issues, Philosophy

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), also known as Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist during a time when her accomplishments were exceptional for women, and she served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", which she wrote after a severe bout of post-partum depression.

She was the daughter of Frederic B. Perkins.

Reviews

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I apologize for this review which was written at midnight by a v. tired me and will probably make little sense to those who haven't read "The Yellow Wallpaper".)

I recently finished writing a literary analysis on "The Yellow Wallpaper" and decided to read the rest of the stories in the book because why not. The rest of the stories didn't do much for me, even though they were almost all about women becoming strong and independent. But I love "The Yellow Wallpaper", especially for the way it's written.

I have a funny story, actually. My wonderful mother, who read the story a couple times in order to help me with my analysis, has finally decided to redo the kitchen. So I turned in my paper on Friday morning and that night I came down the stairs to find my mother had torn off all the wallpaper in the kitchen. Thankfully she has not gone insane. Though the wallpaper was only under the chair rail, so she did have to "creep" around the room on her knees......

Apparently she did make several references to the story while she was pulling off the wallpaper. Even so, she thought it was only coincidence she had decided to do this on this particular day. But the more she thought about it (thanks to my incredulity), the more she realized that perhaps the story had crept into her subconscious and heavily aided her decision.

Maybe I should be concerned. Though there's nothing I can do now... She's pulled off all the paper, so we can't put her back.

[Jo Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only picked up this collection of shorts for one story, The Yellow Wallpaper.

It's basically about a woman who slowly descends into madness. It is considered one of the most personal works by this author. Charlotte Perkins Gilman suffered from severe depression most of her life, this story came about because her (real) physician ordered her to stop reading, writing and painting and lock herself away from the world. Nothing but sleeping and eating with out any social interaction what so ever. She was told she must completely give up working.

After three months of this she had enough and literally ran away. The author herself explains all this at the end of this story. Once you realize this is mental illness the story its self no longer has a sinister quality to it. Just a sad woman left alone in an empty room forced to stare at ugly wallpaper for months with nothing else to occupy her mind. No wonder she began to see things that weren't there. It did leave me with an uncomfortable feeling, I couldn't imagine being forced to endure this kind of medical treatment.

As to the rest of her stories I may revisit them in the future.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are wonderful stories. "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Why I wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'" are required reading. I taught them. "The Unnatural Mother" was another one with powerful satire as gossiping women discuss the sacrifice a woman makes that saves three towns but risks the life of her baby and sacrifices her now and that of her husband. By themselves, they are worth the read. But there are other stories equally significant, especially placed in context. The excerpts from her utopian novels, on the other hand, would have been helpful to me had I thought to reread this collection before writing my own novel. My approach was quite different, mostly because my goals extended beyond gender equity, but Gilman was ahead of her time in many way and her stories still have much to teach us.

I've had this edition since it was new and first read it decades ago.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised how much I liked this book, which is a collection of short stories and excerpts from novels. All were written in the early 1900s by a feminist sociologist, and she used her writing to highlight the problems in society from women's financial dependence on men to social class and poverty. Over 100 years later, her insights are still valid in many ways.

[Agnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Charlotte Perkins Gilman; and all early 20th century feminism, the problems & solutions all seem so simple.

Gilman shows us not only what is wrong, she imagines how it could be.
She shows us women becoming independent and fulfilled and how that benefits men as well.

[An Te Chu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woke as f

[cherryreads]

read “making a change” + preface for an essay

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked out this book solely to read Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper". Encompassing roughly 15 pages, it's very short but has a haunting presence. The descriptions are so vivid and the narrator is never given a name or proper description other than "wife", "darling", or "sweetheart" by her (possibly) unknowingly oppressive husband, John. Her experiences are written off and dismissed, until the climactic ending. Gilman does a wonderful job of bringing you into the narrator's wallpapered room and mind; you feel as if you're experiencing it with her. It was especially interesting since this story likely derived from Gilman's own struggles with post-partum depression and intermittent depression throughout her own life.

The rest of the book includes a fair number of other short stories by Gilman which explored "what kind of world we could have if we worked at it; what kinds of choices we could make if we insisted on them; what kinds of relationships we could achieve if we went ahead and demanded them." She challenges traditional male-female roles and relations, which I imagine was quite scandalous for her day and time as she lived from 1860 to 1935.

The introduction, written by Ann Lane, did a masterful job of giving the reader a solid background of Gilman's life, personal trials, and motiivations for her stories. I was especially intrigued to learn that Gilman was a prominent non-fiction author and lecturer for social reform. She identified herself as a socialist, though her writings are decidedly capitalistic in nature. She also married her cousin after her first marriage, which is also echoed in several of her fictional stories where characters who are cousins marry.

I'm really glad I read this book and learned more about Gilman and her writings - a very interesting perspective, especially given the time period it was written in.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

If we have come to think that the nursery and the kitchen are the natural sphere of a woman, we have done exactly as English children come to think that a cage is the natural sphere of a parrot because they have never seen one anywhere else.—George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish author

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ideas were considered radical for their time. That hint of controversy is evident in her short stories as we are confronted with complacent men (and sometimes women) who are dead certain the proper place for women is in the home, no matter how desperately inept the woman is at housekeeping or how the household suffers from the man’s inability to manage his business when the wife can do it so much better.

While her proselytizing can be heavy handed at times, it is easy enough to swallow in her bite-sized stories. Also, Ms. Gilman avoided the trap of always having the men being punished for their obstinacy or the reverse, where the scales drop from their eyes and they see the errors of their ways and become male feminists. Men and women are fallible creatures; Ms. Gilman was well aware of this.

If her writing suffers from one deficit, it’s that it is almost utterly lacking in a sense of humor. In fact, there are places where the stories get downright grim. There are moments of small risibility in “When I Was a Witch” but not enough to make a case for the rest of the book.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is stunning. It is a masterpiece short story, and it is the reason I wanted to read more from Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Everything else was . . . I hate to say it, but it was disappointing.
The works in this book--short stories and excerpts from novels--focus on social issues of the day (many of which are still dishearteningly applicable today) and seek to expose the sexism and classicism in society. The problem is that every piece except "The Yellow Wallpaper" felt a little too idealistic. The antagonists are too easy to realize the errors of their ways, and the utopian societies are too flawless.
Ultimately, the works serve a purpose in raising issues and encouraging thought, but as stories, they leave a little wanting.

[Brandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read the short stories in this collection, as the rest was all excerpts from novels, and I'd rather read the whole novel. As for the short stories--of which there are 11--at least 8 of them were the same formula: woman is oppressed in her role as wife/mother, woman finds some kind of work that fulfills her, other women cluck disapprovingly while admitting that she may be on to something if it's working for her. They're funny, witty, and engaging at first, but by the fifth iteration of the same basic plot, it's a little wearing.

The standout is still The Yellow Wallpaper, because it really is the best American short story of all time.

[Meen · Rating 3 out of 5]

How amazing that she was doing, thinking, writing the things she was way back then (one hundred years ago now)! Maybe it seemed so amazing because we seem to have backslid so ideologically in this century (well, since the conservative backlash against feminism really took hold in the 1970s). The only really profound writing was "The Yellow Wallpaper," but the other stories I enjoyed as historical documents. A lot of it was pure propaganda (needed propaganda, but propaganda nonetheless), and I tried to imagine what women (and workers) would've felt reading her magazine at that time.

There's a climbing route at the Gunks called "The Yellow Wallpaper." I'll never climb it the same again.

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of us will (or *should*) have read "The Yellow Wallpaper" in school - it deserves to be widely read and for more reasons than one. While "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a brilliant piece of writing, Charlotte Perkins Gilman will never be considered one of the literary greats of her time, with good reason. Modern readers will find her fiction overly formulaic and moralistic, and even the editor of this selection will describe her writing as quick and careless. However, this selection is fascinating for exposing not so much to her literary accomplishments, but to her humanist-feminist ideas, radical for her time.

Read the introduction last in order to better appreciate the stories.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating set of short stories, The Yellow Paper being far the most superior and darker than the rest. What is interesting is that while Gilman is a socialist and feminist she still upholds many conservative tropes within her stories, such as women being peaceful by nature and born for motherhood, if in a socialised form. The idealisation in most of the stories is unbelievable at times but a very valuable read.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although "The Yellow Wallpaper" is her most well-known short story, I think "If I Were a Man" is one of the most eye-opening stories of experiencing male privilige for the first time. The anthology is a quick but heavily relatable read.

[HadiDee]

I had previously read Herland and With Her in Ourland, as well as The Yellow Wallpaper, and picked this up to get a sense of Gilman's short stories. The stories are mostly a vehicle for her political views but are nicely done.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christine recommended The Yellow Wallpaper and lent me this reader. Can't believe I've never encountered Gilman before. What a great feminist author. Love her stories!

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collects together some of her major fiction to show that she was much more than The Yellow Wallpaper – although that is a piece of genius.

[Michele J · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had read The Yellow Wallpaper before and really liked it. It's still a great story but the others in the collection didn't hold my interest as much.

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

That "Yellow Wallpaper" story is really creepy.

I enjoy the short stories in this collection.