The Little Room

by Madeline Yale Wynne

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, American, Gothic, Classics, Literary Fiction, Fantasy

145 pages, Nook

First published January 1, 1895

About the author

Madeline Yale Wynne was a talented artist of the Arts & Crafts movement who credits her father, Linus Yale, Jr., with giving her metal working experience as a child in his lock shop right beside her brothers. She studied art with artist George Fuller, a close friend of her father's and later at the Museum School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, at the Arts Students' League in New York City and in Europe. Madeline married Henry Winn in 1865 and they had two sons but by 1874 they were separated. She lived and worked with her brother, Julian, in Chicago making jewelry but left when he died. She had a major influence on the Arts & Crafts Movement in Chicago and a group of artists there took the title of her short story "The Little Room" as the name of their salon. She spent six months of the year in Deerfield, Massachusetts where she was president of Deerfield Industries where artisans made and sold their crafts. Madeline often spent the remainder of the year with her mother near Boston. In 1883 she began sharing her home and studio with Miss Annie Putnam and changed the spelling of her last name. In 1885 she and Annie Putnam purchased The Manse in Deerfield and in 1904 they became year-round residents of Deerfield where they were very active practicing and supporting the arts. She was also an author and her short story "The Little Room" still appears in anthologies. In her later years she spent some winter months in Tryon, North Carolina. In the words of her son, Madeline Wynne was "a woman of many and various gifts, a spirit brilliant and rare. To her friends - and few people had so many friends - the greatest of her many successes was in the art of living."

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nov 23, 245pm ~~ Review asap.

Nov 23, 745pm ~~ This charming little collection of six stories was published in 1895. I enjoyed them a lot, and I will have to keep my eyes open for more titles by this author at Project Gutenberg. So far, this is her only work available there.

The title story, The Little Room, is described variously as horror, supernatural, or just plain unusual. When I learned about those descriptions, I wondered if I would even be able to read the book, since I do not read horror at all, and very little supernatural. Weird I can handle, to a point. So I went ahead and dove in.

The Little Room is in a Vermont farm house. It is in between two larger rooms of the house. But maybe it is actually a china closet? The room's aspect seems to depend on which person is telling the story. This was not a scary story, and I imagine that any reader with even a tiny interest in science fiction or fantasy would recognize right away what was happening. I have no clue if readers in 1895 would have thought of the solution, though. In either case, the story captures attention.

The second title here is The Sequel To The Little Room, which picks up exactly where the first story ends, only now we learn....no, not the secret to the room, but everything that happened because of the event at the end of the other tale. Sorry, I really can't say much else! Not much help, am I. lol

The other four stories here were just as entertaining, as least for me. Clever, with hints of Something Beyond affecting gentle souls here on Earth. One I especially liked was The Voice, about a young man who was plowing his potato field when he saw a young lady sitting on the porch of the house next door. He didn't know anyone had even moved in, and she fills his thoughts until finally he jumps the fence to go say hello. She disappears into the house, and then ~~ wait, where did she go?

Another nifty story was The Scarf. Rob and his friend Mark were discussing the changes in store for Rob now that he is no longer engaged. But why not? What made him change his mind? And would he please stop playing with that scarf? But the scarf is the very reason Rob is no longer engaged to Mabel. Not that She knows about it, of course, but he had been so distracted since the scarf found him. That's right, since the scarf found him.

Something that this author did beautifully with all these stories is that she left the endings pretty much up to the reader to completely decide. She brings her tales to a certain point, and then the reader gets to (has to?) decide what might happen next. With certain stories that Lady Or The Tiger type of treatment is perfectly satisfying. I can see myself re-reading this book someday. I wonder if I will pick the same 'next' then as I did this time?

[Jaksen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very creepy. Atmospheric. True to its time in terms of syntax, speech, sayings and other 's' words which give the reader a true feel of the late 1800's.

A young woman, in conversation with her husband, mentions a house in which she lived - with two odd, elderly aunts - as a young girl. A 'back room' on the north side of the house often appears differently to those who see it, and to which the two aunts seem most oblivious. It's done in an underhanded, gentle manner, which only heightens the creep figure 100%. I do know many writers, and especially women, were writing 'weird' and ghostly-type stories at this time. (I own a book filled with them.) But Ms. Yale Wynne was truly ahead of her time.

And this is NOT a ghost story.

Read it and wonder.

Five stars.

[Amy Gentry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title story remains the best, though I did like the last one: You track a woman across the continent, space and time, chasing an ideal, but she just wants her scarf back.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection made my to read list simply because of the title story. "The Little Room" was first read by me in the Shadows of Fear, and it's quite a great little, well, horror story isn't accurate, nor is ghost story. It's a weird tale or uncanny tale, perhaps, but very American, 1890's. It concerns a newlywed couple visiting some maiden aunts and the strange story the wife's mother told her about growing up in their house and spending time in a small room, which then proved not to exist at all and instead was a china closet. But then, years later, it seems there was no china closet and then the room again - but neither of the aunts seems to remember there ever being any confusion or question about any of this. When the newlyweds arrive, the mystery deepens, and the deepens further when cousins decide to test the problem for themselves.

I can't say much more about "The Little Room" - it's a charming little story, not scary in the least but certainly strange and compelling - there is no suitable answer. So on my part, the decision to read the 1895 collection that contained the original (easily downloaded from archive.org or google books) was simply because it contained another story titled...wait for it, "Sequel to the Little Room". Now, this may seem like a bad idea, and, if you've read the story itself, quite impossible (while it may not have an answer, it has a definite ENDING), but anyone who HAS read the original will want to read the sequel after perusing the first few lines. Is it as good? Sadly, no, but it does extend the mystery a bit and there's some fun had in that, and some very nice rural New England writing, even if the ending of "Sequel" is perhaps a bit more than we wanted to know (even though, again, nothing is answered).

The collection also contains the following stories: "My Ghost of a Chance", which is a cute little writer's fable about inspiration. Then there's "In Granada", Spanish fable about a mother who makes a deal with the Devil to return her dead daughter to life, sans soul. This might be the beginning of a cracking good horror story, but Mrs. Wynne is too gentle for that, and to tell the truth, "Granada" is not so much a story as a sketch of an idea. "The Voice", in which a farmboy has problems tracking down a female observer (he can only ever see her or hear her, but never both) is, again, something like a weird tale, but honestly more like a romantic/poetic fable. Slight. Finally, there's "The Scarf", again, more like a weird romantic fable, in which a young man breaks off his engagement because he visualizes the spectral face of a different woman over his shoulder when he sits in a dark room and stares in the mirror. One day, he's even able to take her scarf from her, and he uses this as inspiration to travel the world and find his destined lover. The ending is oddly humorously and could be read as wryly observed.

Anyone interested should at least read the very short "The Little Room", which is available online from a number of sources.

[Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story was amazingly suspenseful! There must be so many theories about it and I cannot wait to dive into them and read some assumptions of others about it!

[Gilraen · Rating 4 out of 5]

~ #Reseña

📗LA pequeña habitación y otros relatos
✍️ Madeline Yale Wynne
👩🏻‍💻 @marudelgadopoesia (traducción)
📚Marcapasos Editoras - @cathartesediciones
📖 85 pag
‼️ Terror, sobrenatural, relatos góticos, leyendas urbanas. Muerte y duelo, personajes con actitudes y acciones de época. Recomendado para adolescentes en adelante.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Puede que a muchos no nos suene el nombre de Madeline Yale Wynne, de hecho yo misma no la conocía hasta que llegó a mis manos esta recuperación realizada por la colaboración de dos editoriales de mi región y la labor de traducción que además tiene la particularidad de ser la primera vez que se traducen de forma oficial al español.

Este libro en particular nos presenta 6 relatos enmarcados en las esferas del terror, lo sobrenatural, el relato gotico, las leyendas urbanas, aquello que “se sabe pero de lo que no se habla”, ese terror que mas que asustar, te incomoda.

Los relatos son:
1- La pequeña habitación
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Da nombre al libro y es el relato mas famoso de la autora. Trata sobre los recuerdos de una madre y una hija respecto a una habitación que puede o no puede haber existido en su hogar. Relato muy gótico que a mi me costo enganchar al principio, pero al finalizar quedó rondando días en mi cabeza.
2- La secuela de la pequeña habitación.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nuevos personajes intentan desentrañar el misterio de la habitación que existe o no en la casa de los Keys. Siguiendo la línea del anterior, pero acá accedemos a mas información y se nota un avance en la capacidad narrativa de la autora. La ambientación asusta e incomoda aun mas.
3- Mi fantasma de la oportunidad
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Relato enmarcado en lo sobrenatural y uno de mis favoritos. Vemos la relación entre un autor, su obra y un diablillo que paradójicamente lo “motiva” a terminar dicha obra y las formas poco ortodoxas que usa para ello. Es genial ver la analogía del trabajo creativo y recomiendo su lectura a todes aquellos que planean escribir.
4- En granada
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mi segundo favorito. Una leyenda urbana que nos narra la vida de Seraphita, una chica cuya madre vendió su alma al diablo para salvarla.
5- La voz
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Relato de un amor sobrenatural. Muy dulce.
6- El pañuelo
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Un hombre comprometido rompe dicho comprimiso debido a que en un hecho fortuito le “llega” un pañuelo y se empeña en encontrar a su dueña. Especie de cenicienta inversa y en clave mas bien filosófica.

[Internet · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent short story collection. The title story is fantastic, with an eerie mystery about a room that may or may not have ever existed. Thematically, it reminds me a bit of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, although it's not quite as accomplished.

I feel that on a couple of occasions, Wynne shows her hand a bit too clearly. The mystery in the title story is powerful on its own, but the sequel extends it unnecessarily and makes it feel more mundane by revealing it to be something closer to a traditional ghost story. Similarly, The Voice begins with an eerie little mystery, but Wynne fumbles the ending in my view by revealing it to be a heavy-handed Romantic allegory - lop off the final paragraph or two and it's a far better story!

My Ghost of a Chance is a fun little allegorical tale, but it doesn't pretend to be anything else - it's a quirky little thing about the creative process, and it can be read in a few minutes.

The final tale, The Scarf, is probably the strongest next to the title story. Like most of the other pieces, it has a curious and potentially supernatural mystery at its core. It builds to a satisfying conclusion without revealing its hand too overtly.

I would strongly recommend this collection to those interested in fin de siecle supernatural literature, and fans of the short story in general. Even if it's not your cup of tea, it can easily be read in a few hours.

[Kiely · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was introduced to the title story through Elisa Gabbert's masterful book The Unreality of Memory, the title of which is the subtitle of an essay within the book entitled "The Little Room." This essay is about the the Mandela Effect, and the Berenstain/stein Bears controversy, and the ways that we shape our own memories, and sometimes cannot even trust ourselves. Wynne's stories are quite good and easy to read, and I liked all of them to differing degrees. The title story, though, is incredibly interesting, and if you read anything from this book, read that. It's available online at this link!

[Paxton · Rating 2 out of 5]

wasn’t my fav and i don’t think this type of gothic is what i like most, but it was really interesting how the room was different for everyone. i wonder what it meant. all the characters were gaslighting each other tho so bad 😭 or maybe they weren’t… bc they all genuinely saw different things… idk. it was a good read just a bit boring!

[DW · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The tale concerns a newlywed couple visiting some maiden aunts, and the strange story the wife's mother told her about growing up in their house and spending time in a small room. The small room proves to not exist at all and instead was a china closet. Years later, however, it seems there was no china closet but the small room; neither of the aunts seems to remember there ever being any confusion or question about any of this."

"It is a story of misremembering, and how disorienting it can be when you think you know an objective truth."

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Little Room" by Madeline Yale Wynne
Eerie tale of the little room that was / wasn't / is / isn't.. and the sense of sinister motives of the two aunties.

[Alamgir Baidya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird. Unputdownably weird.

[Javier Fontecilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sin duda alguna nos encontramos ante una autora adelantada para su época, con ideas que han logrado sobrepasar la barrera del tiempo debido a un concepto poco común de lo inquietante. Sus relatos atraen tanto como sus personajes se sientes atrapados en sus misterios, pero falla muchas veces en conclusiones que no se sientan apresuradas.
Si es cierto que “La pequeña habitación” es su relato insigne, a mi parecer “el pañuelo” resultó ser el texto mas interesante.
Me encantaría ver una edición de narrativa completa de la autora.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Macabre rather than scary this coming-of-age story recreates the disorientation of discovering that something you remember distinctly could not have happened at all and that, somehow, when you weren't paying attention, reality changed.

[Andres · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una muy interesante edición, la primera en español al parecer, de esta obra de cuentos de una autora norteamericana de fines del siglo XIX.
Gótico? Terror? Son cuentos breves muy bien escritos que buscan inquietar, y lo logran.
Que bueno que existan estos ejercicios de recuperación histórica.

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of those mysteries, not quite horrific or suspenseful, but nonetheless leaves you hanging by its lack of resolution.

[Javier Andrés · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me sorprendió gratamente.