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The Yellow Wall-Paper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman,

Elaine R. Hedges (Afterword)

Start date: August 1, 2016

Finish date: August 31, 2016

Discussion: Short Story/Novella Collection

Why we're reading this: Short Story August 2016
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Short Story/Novella Collection

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What Members Thought

Nov 14, 2014 Candi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-book-i-own, classics-shelf

"If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency - what is one to do?"

This short story written in 1892 is really a very sad and somewhat eerie narrative of a woman's descent from a state of depression to that of insanity following a prescribed treatment of rest and confinement issued by her physician husband. Denied interactions with others and ev ...more

46 likes · Like · see review

Apr 16, 2015 Winter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015-read, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you

Brilliant! And scary... A woman's descent into madness. ...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Basma Parkar rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

The unnamed narrator, probably suffering from depression , is confined to a room in a rented house. She has been prescribed the rest-cure (commonly prescribed in the 19th century to patients suffering from hysteria or depression), not allowed any activity – intellectual or otherwise, though she does maintain a secret journal (that’s how we know what happens).
Left with nothing to do, all she can do is stare at the peeling wallpaper of the room eventually becoming obsessed with it.

The narrator is ...more

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Mar 28, 2019 Glynis rated it liked it · review of another edition

This story is only 36 pages long and thank goodness because I couldn’t take any more descriptions of that wallpaper. I felt the narrator’s frustration. She doesn’t need confinement and rest. She is bored shitless and has no purpose, hence the lethargy and subsequent break down. This woman needs a purpose, to be allowed to work if she chooses, social interaction, mental stimulation of the good kind, not the obsessing over crap wallpaper kind, exercise, time with her baby, to be listened to and un ...more

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Nov 10, 2014 Manda rated it liked it · review of another edition

Hmmm. I thought I remembered this book a bit differently. So...she's 10-96 without a doubt and wallpaper was her undoing. ...more

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Jul 07, 2017 Alisa added it · review of another edition

Really enjoyed reading this! Unfortunately the audiobook doesn't have all the stories, though the narrator is great.

My favorites:
- The Yellow Wallpaper -- if you like Shirley Jackson as much as I do, you should like this too.
- Her Housekeeper -- A homily on how men ought to treat women.
- When I Was a Witch -- A grumpy city dweller is grumpy about all the things that she sees in the city, but suddenly her silent wishes are granted. ...more

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