the yellow wall paper herland and selected writings

It tells the story of a woman, on the edge of postpartum blues, confined by her husband to a prison-like nursery. Several years later, The Yellow Wallpaper, a masterpiece of short fiction, followed from this traumatic experience. As a result, Gilman’s mental condition quickly deteriorated. He subjected her to forced bed rest, forbidding her any mental activity, including reading and writing. She was treated by a physician renowned for his expertise in women’s mental health: the infamous Dr Mitchell. In 1884, Charlotte Perkins Gilman gave birth to her only daughter, Katharine, and suffered severe postnatal depression. Knight has written an enlightening Introduction that explores Gilman's use of the utopian form, satire, and fantasy to provide a critique of women's place in society and to propose creative solutions. Also included in this Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics edition is a selection of Gilman's poetry and other short fiction. Herland, Gilman's most famous novel, is a feminist utopian comedy in which three men stumble upon a society of women that has banished men. Based on the nervous breakdown she suffered during her own disastrous first marriage, The Yellow Wall-Paper is her classic story about a woman who goes mad when the rest-cure treatment she undergoes forbids her any kind of work. In her works of fiction, Gilman sought to illustrate her ideas about the way American society squandered the talents and economic contributions of women. A new collection of fiction and poetry from a major voice in American feminism and literatureĬharlotte Perkins Gilman was a turn-of-the-century American feminist and socialist thinker.

The yellow wall paper herland and selected writings