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The Yellow Wallpaper Herland and Selected Writings
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American feminist, sociologist, novelist, poet, scientific writer, teacher and social reformer.
Gilman became a role model for a future feminists' generation. Her most famous work, The Yellow Wallpaper, was written after Gilman's difficult fight with the postpartum psychosis.
It is a story about a woman, who suffers from a mental disease after being captured for three months in a room by her husband for her own sake. She gets obsessed with the awful yellow wallpaper in the room. Gilman wrote this book to change awareness of people about the woman's role in the society.
Gilman became a role model for a future feminists' generation. Her most famous work, The Yellow Wallpaper, was written after Gilman's difficult fight with the postpartum psychosis.
It is a story about a woman, who suffers from a mental disease after being captured for three months in a room by her husband for her own sake. She gets obsessed with the awful yellow wallpaper in the room. Gilman wrote this book to change awareness of people about the woman's role in the society.
353 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1915
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About the author
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
1,040 books2,365 followersCharlotte 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.
She was the daughter of Frederic B. Perkins.
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January 28, 2022
In 1884, Charlotte Perkins Gilman gave birth to her only daughter, Katharine, and suffered severe postnatal depression. She was treated by a physician renowned for his expertise in women’s mental health: the infamous Dr Mitchell. He subjected her to forced bed rest, forbidding her any mental activity, including reading and writing. As a result, Gilman’s mental condition quickly deteriorated.
Several years later, The Yellow Wallpaper, a masterpiece of short fiction, followed from this traumatic experience. It tells the story of a woman, on the edge of postpartum blues, confined by her husband to a prison-like nursery. Having nothing else to do in this claustrophobic setting, she soon becomes obsessed with the horrid wallpaper in her room. Eventually, she sinks into a state of delusion and utter psychosis.
The content of The Yellow Wallpaper is quite fascinating and disturbing in itself. But the narrative device Gilman uses to convey the woman’s mental states makes it even more impactful. The story is told in journal entries, written by a character banned from reading or writing—this is a secret, hidden diary. Yet, the entries seem to be addressing a specific but unknown reader. It could be us, the actual readers of the story, and this would imply a peculiar way of breaking the third wall—a sort of call for help.
Indeed, The Yellow Wallpaper has often been construed as an unmasking of female oppression, a denunciation of male domination and a stark criticism of the medical establishment. As such, this story had a tremendous impact on the flourishing feminist movement. Its influence on more recent novels, such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale, is quite manifest.
The Yellow Wallpaper is also a staple of the gothic/psychological horror genre. It can be compared to, for instance, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, or even Stefan Zweig’s Schachnovelle. But, in this case, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s literary next of kin is probably H.P. Lovecraft (see, for example, The Rats in the Walls).
Gilman wrote many more stories, yet not as famous as The Yellow Wallpaper. The Rocking-Chair uses, as it were, the same canvas and narrative devices and is a sort of ghost story, but less effective than the former one. Old Water is a strange little tale that mixes romance with murder in a sarcastic way; the feminist undertones are even more pronounced in that case.
Several years later, The Yellow Wallpaper, a masterpiece of short fiction, followed from this traumatic experience. It tells the story of a woman, on the edge of postpartum blues, confined by her husband to a prison-like nursery. Having nothing else to do in this claustrophobic setting, she soon becomes obsessed with the horrid wallpaper in her room. Eventually, she sinks into a state of delusion and utter psychosis.
The content of The Yellow Wallpaper is quite fascinating and disturbing in itself. But the narrative device Gilman uses to convey the woman’s mental states makes it even more impactful. The story is told in journal entries, written by a character banned from reading or writing—this is a secret, hidden diary. Yet, the entries seem to be addressing a specific but unknown reader. It could be us, the actual readers of the story, and this would imply a peculiar way of breaking the third wall—a sort of call for help.
Indeed, The Yellow Wallpaper has often been construed as an unmasking of female oppression, a denunciation of male domination and a stark criticism of the medical establishment. As such, this story had a tremendous impact on the flourishing feminist movement. Its influence on more recent novels, such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale, is quite manifest.
The Yellow Wallpaper is also a staple of the gothic/psychological horror genre. It can be compared to, for instance, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, or even Stefan Zweig’s Schachnovelle. But, in this case, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s literary next of kin is probably H.P. Lovecraft (see, for example, The Rats in the Walls).
Gilman wrote many more stories, yet not as famous as The Yellow Wallpaper. The Rocking-Chair uses, as it were, the same canvas and narrative devices and is a sort of ghost story, but less effective than the former one. Old Water is a strange little tale that mixes romance with murder in a sarcastic way; the feminist undertones are even more pronounced in that case.
January 4, 2017
Do not buy, read, or even think too long about this book. The only story in it worth seeking out is "The Yellow Wall-Paper," which itself deserves attention more for its historical context than its literary merits, and which you can find for free online anyway. Whatever positive things there may be to say about "The Yellow Wall-Paper" (and perhaps, if I'm generous, the mediocre ghost story "The Giant Wistaria"), they don't extend to this book as a whole. It fronts with "Herland," a patience-trying novella, buries "Wall-Paper" in a hodgepodge of short stories (some of which are brutally low-quality), and then ends with about 20 (almost uniformly wretched) poems.
I read through every last ridiculously terrible story and poem in this book. The aggressive agenda evident throughout doesn't necessarily bother me-- Millay had a message too, and a much less vogue one at that-- but just saying politically provocative things about female equality doesn't really do it for me if the stories aren't otherwise interesting (particularly now that Gilman's agenda is no longer all that provocative). And unfortunately, these stories must've relied on the provocative effect of their political message, because without it they're dull as lead. Certain pieces managed to both bore and irritate me because they contain such palpable scorn for homemaking and belittle the women who willingly choose that life ("An Extinct Angel" was a particularly unbearable example of this, explicitly saying that such women are "not very bright"). Gilman's only sympathy appears to be for the big, strong, actively athletic women she makes her heroines. The most enjoyment I got from the short stories and poems was the grim satisfaction of crossing each one off in the table of contents as I finished it, like keeping score in a high-stakes competition against an odious enemy.
But "Herland," the longest story in the lot, easily won the prize for unreadability. Slogging through it, I flipped toward the end probably 7000 times, only to be deeply dismayed that every time the 144-page end point seemed to loom so far distant. "Herland" tells the story of three men who stumble across an idyllic nation of women, all occupied with capital-M Motherhood, who have figured out how to reproduce without men by a "The Secret"-style method of wanting babies enough. It reads like an especially lazy and lame riff on More's Utopia, and seems little more than the flimsiest fictional setup for Gilman to complain about a wide variety of things she doesn't like, however petty (e.g. taking milk from cows, dresses without pockets, dogs as pets). The birth control methods proposed (playing with other people's kids to stop your desire for a baby from building up) seemed even more ludicrous than the motherhood-by-willpower reproduction method itself, and Gilman was unabashed about the eugenics her society employed to keep inferior women from replicating their unworthy genes. "Herland" depicts a depressingly sexless approach to romantic love, in which clear-eyed female paragon Ellador rejects sexual ardor from her own husband because she doesn't think it's "right." One of the other women refuses to share a bed with her husband-- both in the euphemistic sense and literally, apparently, as she maintains a separate house-- and he sneaks into her room and attempts to rape her in a scene of climactic male badness that just left me feeling kind of sad for all parties involved.
In every story-- almost every sentence, in fact-- Gilman writes with oppressive sarcasm and snideness. I tried to contextualize her writings to minimize the impact of this tone, but at the end of the day it made this book stiflingly unpleasant to read-- rather like going on a trip with someone who complains throughout about the food and the bathrooms and the temperature in the car. Even if she's right, she's still excruciating to be around. Add to its unpleasantness the fact that sarcasm doesn't really effectively persuade anyone of anything, and you have a recipe for a deeply pointless collection of writings. I wondered more than once why this was ever published. From what I can tell, Penguin identified Gilman as a historically significant feminist writer, and figured that people would buy this book from a feeling of duty to that cause, indifferent to the quality of the work inside it. Feminism can do (has done!) better than this, and Gilman herself would've been better served by a much smaller selection, probably in an anthology of multiple women's writings. As it is, this collection is truly awful, and my relief at finishing it was so strong that I felt the heady excitement I guess an ultra-marathoner does when she sees the finish line after running for 36 hours straight.
I read through every last ridiculously terrible story and poem in this book. The aggressive agenda evident throughout doesn't necessarily bother me-- Millay had a message too, and a much less vogue one at that-- but just saying politically provocative things about female equality doesn't really do it for me if the stories aren't otherwise interesting (particularly now that Gilman's agenda is no longer all that provocative). And unfortunately, these stories must've relied on the provocative effect of their political message, because without it they're dull as lead. Certain pieces managed to both bore and irritate me because they contain such palpable scorn for homemaking and belittle the women who willingly choose that life ("An Extinct Angel" was a particularly unbearable example of this, explicitly saying that such women are "not very bright"). Gilman's only sympathy appears to be for the big, strong, actively athletic women she makes her heroines. The most enjoyment I got from the short stories and poems was the grim satisfaction of crossing each one off in the table of contents as I finished it, like keeping score in a high-stakes competition against an odious enemy.
But "Herland," the longest story in the lot, easily won the prize for unreadability. Slogging through it, I flipped toward the end probably 7000 times, only to be deeply dismayed that every time the 144-page end point seemed to loom so far distant. "Herland" tells the story of three men who stumble across an idyllic nation of women, all occupied with capital-M Motherhood, who have figured out how to reproduce without men by a "The Secret"-style method of wanting babies enough. It reads like an especially lazy and lame riff on More's Utopia, and seems little more than the flimsiest fictional setup for Gilman to complain about a wide variety of things she doesn't like, however petty (e.g. taking milk from cows, dresses without pockets, dogs as pets). The birth control methods proposed (playing with other people's kids to stop your desire for a baby from building up) seemed even more ludicrous than the motherhood-by-willpower reproduction method itself, and Gilman was unabashed about the eugenics her society employed to keep inferior women from replicating their unworthy genes. "Herland" depicts a depressingly sexless approach to romantic love, in which clear-eyed female paragon Ellador rejects sexual ardor from her own husband because she doesn't think it's "right." One of the other women refuses to share a bed with her husband-- both in the euphemistic sense and literally, apparently, as she maintains a separate house-- and he sneaks into her room and attempts to rape her in a scene of climactic male badness that just left me feeling kind of sad for all parties involved.
In every story-- almost every sentence, in fact-- Gilman writes with oppressive sarcasm and snideness. I tried to contextualize her writings to minimize the impact of this tone, but at the end of the day it made this book stiflingly unpleasant to read-- rather like going on a trip with someone who complains throughout about the food and the bathrooms and the temperature in the car. Even if she's right, she's still excruciating to be around. Add to its unpleasantness the fact that sarcasm doesn't really effectively persuade anyone of anything, and you have a recipe for a deeply pointless collection of writings. I wondered more than once why this was ever published. From what I can tell, Penguin identified Gilman as a historically significant feminist writer, and figured that people would buy this book from a feeling of duty to that cause, indifferent to the quality of the work inside it. Feminism can do (has done!) better than this, and Gilman herself would've been better served by a much smaller selection, probably in an anthology of multiple women's writings. As it is, this collection is truly awful, and my relief at finishing it was so strong that I felt the heady excitement I guess an ultra-marathoner does when she sees the finish line after running for 36 hours straight.
June 21, 2020
Herland is a progressive feminist piece which deals with the differences between the sexes with a wit and charm that makes for a thought provoking and entertaining read. It follows three men who find an all female society secluded from the rest of the world. They have no men, conflict or ideas of marriage or our conventional ‘home’. Gilman’s imagination and narrative style are quite remarkable and you slip into the world of Herland as a researcher, someone there to learn and even though this story was published in 1915, modern readers will also learn or at least have feelings put into words by her writing. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a short story that everyone should encounter. It depicts mental illness and the treatment of women in such a way that is disturbing but also applicable beyond the scope of the main characters own personal difficulties. I can think of many instances where I can relate to both the speaker and the woman in the wallpaper- both of them becoming metaphors for the readers own struggles, Gilman truly wrote this for both herself and everyone that may encounter it. Couldn’t recommend either enough, two stories that deserve time, attention and thought for anyone who reads them.
November 12, 2016
The author was a feminist social reformer who is considered quite progressive for her time, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The lead story, Herland, is a short novel about a utopian society made up entirely of women. It's told from the perspective of a male explorer who visits with two other men, all of whom have their views on femininity challenged by their visit, particularly the idea that women are naturally competitive with each other. The women are able to give birth without the need of men, and childcare is a collective enterprise rather than an individual one. It ends with the narrator and one of his male friends having to leave the country after the friend makes sexist insults. The volume also includes short stories and poetry, the former of which often have the theme of women improving their lives by taking matters into their own hands. The title story is a more depressing one that's actually partly autobiographical, about a woman who is confined to a single room with no real activity when suffering from postpartum depression, and she eventually descends into total psychosis. The same basic thing happened to Gilman herself after she had her first child, although she managed to get out and separate from her husband before she could reach the depths that her character did.
May 27, 2024
Sign me up for herland plssss and boo to the explorer male narrative!!! Yellow wallpaper was pretty haunting stuff too for such a short story.. deffo a 3.5 stars tbh
December 23, 2024
hard to look past that herland is gilman’s eugenics fantasy but otherwise the book is a fascinating take on agency
May 6, 2026
I picked this up to read The Yellow Wall-Paper, a story I was probably supposed to read in school, but never did. It's an odd little story, and I think I expected more from it. It did give me the creeps every time John referred to her as "little girl" or similar. Eeek. But overall, it didn't leave much of an impression past me wondering if there was a postpartum depression undertone. Also, let's not lock women in rooms alone to "recuperate". Yikes.
As for the other short stories, I was kind of bored by most of them... surprisingly I liked The Boys and the Butter the best, but I got the feminist gist, and I'd say Gilman was way ahead of her time in the "man-hating" department. A girl after my own heart...
The shining star for me was Herland. It was by far more interesting, and honestly, the beginning was quite funny. I stand by my idea to have a separate continent to isolate the men, and this definitely let me believe it could work. 🤣
As for the other short stories, I was kind of bored by most of them... surprisingly I liked The Boys and the Butter the best, but I got the feminist gist, and I'd say Gilman was way ahead of her time in the "man-hating" department. A girl after my own heart...
The shining star for me was Herland. It was by far more interesting, and honestly, the beginning was quite funny. I stand by my idea to have a separate continent to isolate the men, and this definitely let me believe it could work. 🤣
May 23, 2017
More Than The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman is best known for the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892), about a married female writer who goes mad after being confined to her room as a cure for post-partum depression, and deprived of all creative outlets. To a certain extent, it is autobiographical, although Charlotte succeeded in escaping her first marriage, moved to California, flourished as a writer, and married her cousin Houghton Gilman in 1900. She continued writing and lecturing for several decades, publishing her last article, "The Right to Die," in 1935, shortly before ending her own life in the face of an inoperable cancer.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" takes up only 15 of the 343 pages in this splendid volume. It also includes 18 other stories, 18 poems, and the 140-page novella Herland, together with a very full (even too full) introduction and copious notes. In a sense, you could say that if you have read her most famous story, you have got the essence of Gilman, but little of her range. While almost all the other stories in this collection are also about the imbalance of the sexes, few of the others are as tormented and Gothic, and many end with the woman finding some way to reclaim her independence. I especially liked "Turned" (1911) for its arresting opening and the way its heroine makes common cause with her exploited servant, "The Chair of English" (1913) for how its heroine turns campus politics against a man who would use it to further his own ends, and "The Vintage" (1916) for its tragic exploration of the long-term effects of syphilis.
Gilman's poems were a real find. Yes, the subjects tend to be very similar, and her language is by no means in tune with her modernist contemporaries and is often even deliberately archaic. But the verse form lends itself to more subtle allusion than the prose, as in the ending of "In Duty Bound":
Charlotte Perkins Gilman is best known for the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892), about a married female writer who goes mad after being confined to her room as a cure for post-partum depression, and deprived of all creative outlets. To a certain extent, it is autobiographical, although Charlotte succeeded in escaping her first marriage, moved to California, flourished as a writer, and married her cousin Houghton Gilman in 1900. She continued writing and lecturing for several decades, publishing her last article, "The Right to Die," in 1935, shortly before ending her own life in the face of an inoperable cancer.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" takes up only 15 of the 343 pages in this splendid volume. It also includes 18 other stories, 18 poems, and the 140-page novella Herland, together with a very full (even too full) introduction and copious notes. In a sense, you could say that if you have read her most famous story, you have got the essence of Gilman, but little of her range. While almost all the other stories in this collection are also about the imbalance of the sexes, few of the others are as tormented and Gothic, and many end with the woman finding some way to reclaim her independence. I especially liked "Turned" (1911) for its arresting opening and the way its heroine makes common cause with her exploited servant, "The Chair of English" (1913) for how its heroine turns campus politics against a man who would use it to further his own ends, and "The Vintage" (1916) for its tragic exploration of the long-term effects of syphilis.
Gilman's poems were a real find. Yes, the subjects tend to be very similar, and her language is by no means in tune with her modernist contemporaries and is often even deliberately archaic. But the verse form lends itself to more subtle allusion than the prose, as in the ending of "In Duty Bound":
And they are few indeed but stoop at lengthor the very short poem entitled "A Moonrise":
To something less than best,
And find, in stooping, rest.
The heavy mountains, lying huge and dim,So searing is the anger of "The Yellow Wallpaper," that it was a joy to encounter many of the more positive stories, and epecially to enter Herland, an Utopian country inhabited entirely by women, somewhere between Gulliver's Travels and Lost Horizon.. Much of the pleasure comes in the skill with which Gilman paints the brash cameraderie of the three male explorers, ranging from the chauvinist Terry ("I have never met a woman yet that did not enjoy being mastered!") to the chivalrous Jeff. Through their eyes, she reveals a singularly attractive society: pacifist, democratic, ecologically aware, and communally involved in the shared tasks of food preparation, child-rearing, and education. There is even room for a little humor, as when one of the women, learning that American couples do not confine their sexual activities to the necessities of procreation, assumes that they must be doing this for higher ends:
With uncouth outline breaking heaven's rim;
And while I watched and waited, o'er them soon
Cloudy, enormous, spectral, rose the moon.
This climactic expression, which, in all the other life-forms, has but the one purpose, has with you become specialized to higher, purer, nobler uses. It has—I judge from what you tell me—the most ennobling effect on character.Just so.
February 24, 2022
herland 3/5
this is a utopian novel, depicting a land where there are no men. here, we follow the story of three men and their journey into discovering this land and it’s civilizations.
in this novel, charlotte perkins gilman decides to criticize our societies through the ‘innocent’ and curious questions of the women as the men attempt to explain their lands to them. by having them question everything, the reader themselves begins to question our world too, and as we follow along with the narrator (one of the men) as he grows more and more conscious of the defects of our world and how unfair and inhumane it actually is, we begin to create the same conclusions. however, Charlotte offers us an additional two perspectives on it; one from an extremely misogynistic man and the other a man who idealizes women. through such extreme views, it’s as if she attempts to communicate to us that balace is essential and that neither sex should be glorified or demonized in such extremities.
the yellow wallpaper 5/5
this is one of Charlotte’s most famous short stories, following some short enetries written by an unnamed woman struggling with mental illness while she stays at some ancestral halls for the summer time with her husband, child and maid.
this story was absolutely amazing and i loved it. it felt like this woman’s fascination and obsession with furniture was simply a reflection of her own mental state. she refers to ‘plain’ and ‘blank’ furtinure being mesmerizing to her as a child, and now this intricate and deteriorating wallpaper being her main focus in life, as she herself deteriorates from mental health issues. it’s a really interesting piece because it’s very short and leaves you with so many questions.
this is a utopian novel, depicting a land where there are no men. here, we follow the story of three men and their journey into discovering this land and it’s civilizations.
in this novel, charlotte perkins gilman decides to criticize our societies through the ‘innocent’ and curious questions of the women as the men attempt to explain their lands to them. by having them question everything, the reader themselves begins to question our world too, and as we follow along with the narrator (one of the men) as he grows more and more conscious of the defects of our world and how unfair and inhumane it actually is, we begin to create the same conclusions. however, Charlotte offers us an additional two perspectives on it; one from an extremely misogynistic man and the other a man who idealizes women. through such extreme views, it’s as if she attempts to communicate to us that balace is essential and that neither sex should be glorified or demonized in such extremities.
the yellow wallpaper 5/5
this is one of Charlotte’s most famous short stories, following some short enetries written by an unnamed woman struggling with mental illness while she stays at some ancestral halls for the summer time with her husband, child and maid.
this story was absolutely amazing and i loved it. it felt like this woman’s fascination and obsession with furniture was simply a reflection of her own mental state. she refers to ‘plain’ and ‘blank’ furtinure being mesmerizing to her as a child, and now this intricate and deteriorating wallpaper being her main focus in life, as she herself deteriorates from mental health issues. it’s a really interesting piece because it’s very short and leaves you with so many questions.
March 14, 2021
I decided to read this book out of sheer curiosity (and quite suddenly) and I am glad I did
My faves are the short stories The Yellow Wall-paper, Old Water and Turned
My faves are the short stories The Yellow Wall-paper, Old Water and Turned
June 19, 2025
Though Charlotte Perkins Gilman has fallen into obscurity, she was definitely a woman ahead of her time often writing about women gaining or regaining their power. Definitely worth reading
July 15, 2024
Overall, a great read and worthy of its classic status. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is short and can be done in a few minutes. And it’s perfect for a mild horror/psychological thriller venture. It is not boring in the least, and Gillman is quite funny. I highly recommend it and have already suggested it to many friends. Can’t wait to sample her other works.
Visit my blog to read more.
Visit my blog to read more.
February 18, 2022
Some stories in this collection were good (including the titular novella, and the short story). The poetry was largely unimpactful (plus I'm not big on poetry in general). I found myself rating everything individually, then took an average, and landed at an exact 3/5.
Naturally, the book is classic first-wave feminist - scorning at more "womanly" traits like housework, shyness, etc. Ignoring this, I found that most of the stories were indirect ways of encouraging women to take more control of their lives - financially or socially; to leave their abusive husbands, to find meaningful employment outside of being just mothers to their children and house-slaves to their husbands; to seek happiness and equality in their marriages as well as in professions. Perkins Gilman was also a socialist, so her encouragements and examples don't just limit themselves to the upper class. For instance, in 'Herland', there is a discussion around how poor women, who need more help with housework, end up having more children (while naturally having fewer-to-none house helps), which is both a financial and a mental burden to them; while rich women, who have all the help in the world, face no such barriers, and can have as many kids as they like. She also speaks of the logical fallacies behind gender roles, some of which are relevant and imposed respectively, even today.
Speaking of her writing, I thought that she was a good writer. Her sentences are well structured, and flow smoothly. I never had trouble understanding what she meant, nor did I ever read the same sentence twice. Plot-wise, however, in many stories, she takes a lot of time setting up the background/foundation, then either grows bored of the story and wishes to finish it as soon as possible, or rushes to finish it within a limit - the ends aren't as satisfactory or well drawn as the set ups. Many of them are like Greek tragedies - the main action is off-stage and then narrated towards the end, in a grand reveal.
Lastly, one cannot ignore her racist past. However, I found that the stories in this collection (maybe done so intentionally by the editor) were largely racism-free. There were a couple of negatives here and there, like referring to white skinned people as "of the Aryan stock". Besides this, thankfully, there were no slurs, or implications of one race being supreme. The stories stuck to their message of wanting equality for women of all classes, in all areas of life.
Naturally, the book is classic first-wave feminist - scorning at more "womanly" traits like housework, shyness, etc. Ignoring this, I found that most of the stories were indirect ways of encouraging women to take more control of their lives - financially or socially; to leave their abusive husbands, to find meaningful employment outside of being just mothers to their children and house-slaves to their husbands; to seek happiness and equality in their marriages as well as in professions. Perkins Gilman was also a socialist, so her encouragements and examples don't just limit themselves to the upper class. For instance, in 'Herland', there is a discussion around how poor women, who need more help with housework, end up having more children (while naturally having fewer-to-none house helps), which is both a financial and a mental burden to them; while rich women, who have all the help in the world, face no such barriers, and can have as many kids as they like. She also speaks of the logical fallacies behind gender roles, some of which are relevant and imposed respectively, even today.
Speaking of her writing, I thought that she was a good writer. Her sentences are well structured, and flow smoothly. I never had trouble understanding what she meant, nor did I ever read the same sentence twice. Plot-wise, however, in many stories, she takes a lot of time setting up the background/foundation, then either grows bored of the story and wishes to finish it as soon as possible, or rushes to finish it within a limit - the ends aren't as satisfactory or well drawn as the set ups. Many of them are like Greek tragedies - the main action is off-stage and then narrated towards the end, in a grand reveal.
Lastly, one cannot ignore her racist past. However, I found that the stories in this collection (maybe done so intentionally by the editor) were largely racism-free. There were a couple of negatives here and there, like referring to white skinned people as "of the Aryan stock". Besides this, thankfully, there were no slurs, or implications of one race being supreme. The stories stuck to their message of wanting equality for women of all classes, in all areas of life.
July 28, 2022
Oh boy. How do we talk about Charlotte Perkins Gilman? Or perhaps more accurately, how do I, a fourteen-year-old British zoomer in 2022 talk about American feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman who was writing at the turn of the 20th century, without sounding like I have no idea what I'm talking about? I have spent an extended amount of time reading this book and researching Gilman's life, and still I'm not entirely sure how to go about this, but I thought I might as well try.
I should start by saying that you can't review this book without reviewing Gilman as a person. It's impossible, because the didactic, political, formulaic nature of almost all these works make it abundantly clear that she was a feminist before she was a writer. She dons and sheds so many different genres, from utopian sci-fi novellas to satirical domestic dramas, faux-parables to gothic ghost stories, and none of them she executes particularly well, in her unwaveringly humorous, conversational style. The only thing I find her to excel at is psychological thrillers, The Yellow Wall-Paper and The Rocking Chair being my favourite short stories, but even these exist to teach and to challenge, it seems she never wrote purely for the joy of writing.
Her poetry suffers from the same issues. Drenched in iambic pentameter and heavily structured (though that could be attributed to the style of the time), it exhibits little of the love of language that makes poetry so good, it's bland and completely typical. However, I did enjoy her allegories and extended metaphors, and sometimes there'd be a gorgeous moment, like this from Seeking
Died the music and the laughter
Flames and roses dying after
And the curtain I was holding fell to ashes in my hand
Mostly though, her lyricism is much of a muchness.
So when I found myself rating each story, I found myself mostly rating Gilman's politics, her message, and a lot of it was good. I loved her depiction of female friendships and camaraderie in stories such as Mrs. Beazley's Deeds, where a kind boarder helps her landlady escape a terrible marriage, and Turned, where a woman named Mrs Marroner helps her maid get back on her feet after she was impregnated by Mrs Marroner's husband. Almost all of Gilman's stories touched on the theme of motherhood, putting a different spin on the patriarchal ideology that a woman's primary purpose is to procreate, by portraying it as an incredible, sometimes magical thing that women are capable of, on top of having a career and doing good for the community. The Rocking Chair and Old Water comment beautifully on ownership, and the fact that women don't owe men anything.
However, a lot of her messages did detract from the experience of reading. By the time I got to Dr. Clair's Place I was thinking that if I had to read about women's irrigation systems one more time I was going to scream. There is a constant focus on education, that everything a child does has to be educational, which I suppose is understandable seeing as Charlotte Perkins Gilman didn't get a full education and probably wanted every future generation of girls to have one, but it still got a bit annoying. And although she really tried to show not tell, it doesn’t quite work; often she uses metaphors and fable-like story structures to try and show you something, but you usually end up being told it anyway, it's so heavy-handed. But these are the least of her evils.
There is something dark lurking in these stories, particularly Herland, where she talks at length about what would make the perfect utopia. For clarity, the premise of this novella is that three men stumble upon a utopian society populated exclusively by women who had evolved to reproduce asexually. The following quote comes from a point in the text where one of the men asks a Herland woman about the worst qualities in their society.
"When we began—even with the start of one particularly noble mother—we inherited the characteristics of a long race-record behind her. And they cropped out from time to time—alarmingly. But it is—yes, quite six hundred years since we have had what you call a 'criminal,'
"We have, of course, made it our first business to train out, to breed out, when possible, the lowest types."
"Breed out?" I asked. "How could you—with parthenogenesis?"
"If the girl showing the bad qualities had still the power to appreciate social duty, we appealed to her, by that, to renounce motherhood. Some of the few worst types were, fortunately, unable to reproduce."
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was not only a feminist activist, but an open eugenicist. In her utopia, populated by a bunch of women who are seemingly exactly the same, all "bad qualities" are bred out. What are these "bad qualities"? When you look at how the inhabitants of Herland are described as being "of Aryan stock" and the (presumably non-white) indigenous people of the rainforest area are constantly called "savages", it begins to seem like these "bad qualities" might be simply people of colour. In fact, a lot of Gilman's beliefs on eugenics stemmed from this idea of "racial purity", and she was in general, a massive racist. In 1908, she published an essay which basically outlined her plan to enslave all Black people (she called it "enlistment") so that white people didn't need to have kitchens in their homes. She believed in equality for white women only, saying that Black Americans were "inferior" and below "a certain grade of citizenship".
This is why it is so hard to review Charlotte Perkins Gilman's stories. She was a revolutionary feminist, and a lot of these stories contain morals that a lot of readers today would agree with, but are these messages still empowering once you realise she intended them only for white women. If you look at The Vintage, a story about a man with syphilis who doesn't tell his wife, ending in her and two of their children dying and his one surviving son being a "cripple", is the main lesson to disclose if you have a STD, or to not have children if you have a "bad quality"? And because her writing is so didactic, can we ever separate the art from the artist? Some could argue that Gilman was a product of her time, and needs to be judged as a historical figure above anything else, but although she made a splash at the time, she was mostly forgotten by the 1940s, and only rediscovered in the 1970s. The Yellow Wall-Paper, her most famous work, was dubbed a classic about 80 years after it was published, so a lot of the historical significance we bestow upon her is retroactive.
So where does that leave us? I'm not sure. I think The Yellow Wall-Paper is still an excellent story and worth seeking out, and though a lot of these stories still resonate, much of what Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote and believed is best left in the dust.
I should start by saying that you can't review this book without reviewing Gilman as a person. It's impossible, because the didactic, political, formulaic nature of almost all these works make it abundantly clear that she was a feminist before she was a writer. She dons and sheds so many different genres, from utopian sci-fi novellas to satirical domestic dramas, faux-parables to gothic ghost stories, and none of them she executes particularly well, in her unwaveringly humorous, conversational style. The only thing I find her to excel at is psychological thrillers, The Yellow Wall-Paper and The Rocking Chair being my favourite short stories, but even these exist to teach and to challenge, it seems she never wrote purely for the joy of writing.
Her poetry suffers from the same issues. Drenched in iambic pentameter and heavily structured (though that could be attributed to the style of the time), it exhibits little of the love of language that makes poetry so good, it's bland and completely typical. However, I did enjoy her allegories and extended metaphors, and sometimes there'd be a gorgeous moment, like this from Seeking
Died the music and the laughter
Flames and roses dying after
And the curtain I was holding fell to ashes in my hand
Mostly though, her lyricism is much of a muchness.
So when I found myself rating each story, I found myself mostly rating Gilman's politics, her message, and a lot of it was good. I loved her depiction of female friendships and camaraderie in stories such as Mrs. Beazley's Deeds, where a kind boarder helps her landlady escape a terrible marriage, and Turned, where a woman named Mrs Marroner helps her maid get back on her feet after she was impregnated by Mrs Marroner's husband. Almost all of Gilman's stories touched on the theme of motherhood, putting a different spin on the patriarchal ideology that a woman's primary purpose is to procreate, by portraying it as an incredible, sometimes magical thing that women are capable of, on top of having a career and doing good for the community. The Rocking Chair and Old Water comment beautifully on ownership, and the fact that women don't owe men anything.
However, a lot of her messages did detract from the experience of reading. By the time I got to Dr. Clair's Place I was thinking that if I had to read about women's irrigation systems one more time I was going to scream. There is a constant focus on education, that everything a child does has to be educational, which I suppose is understandable seeing as Charlotte Perkins Gilman didn't get a full education and probably wanted every future generation of girls to have one, but it still got a bit annoying. And although she really tried to show not tell, it doesn’t quite work; often she uses metaphors and fable-like story structures to try and show you something, but you usually end up being told it anyway, it's so heavy-handed. But these are the least of her evils.
There is something dark lurking in these stories, particularly Herland, where she talks at length about what would make the perfect utopia. For clarity, the premise of this novella is that three men stumble upon a utopian society populated exclusively by women who had evolved to reproduce asexually. The following quote comes from a point in the text where one of the men asks a Herland woman about the worst qualities in their society.
"When we began—even with the start of one particularly noble mother—we inherited the characteristics of a long race-record behind her. And they cropped out from time to time—alarmingly. But it is—yes, quite six hundred years since we have had what you call a 'criminal,'
"We have, of course, made it our first business to train out, to breed out, when possible, the lowest types."
"Breed out?" I asked. "How could you—with parthenogenesis?"
"If the girl showing the bad qualities had still the power to appreciate social duty, we appealed to her, by that, to renounce motherhood. Some of the few worst types were, fortunately, unable to reproduce."
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was not only a feminist activist, but an open eugenicist. In her utopia, populated by a bunch of women who are seemingly exactly the same, all "bad qualities" are bred out. What are these "bad qualities"? When you look at how the inhabitants of Herland are described as being "of Aryan stock" and the (presumably non-white) indigenous people of the rainforest area are constantly called "savages", it begins to seem like these "bad qualities" might be simply people of colour. In fact, a lot of Gilman's beliefs on eugenics stemmed from this idea of "racial purity", and she was in general, a massive racist. In 1908, she published an essay which basically outlined her plan to enslave all Black people (she called it "enlistment") so that white people didn't need to have kitchens in their homes. She believed in equality for white women only, saying that Black Americans were "inferior" and below "a certain grade of citizenship".
This is why it is so hard to review Charlotte Perkins Gilman's stories. She was a revolutionary feminist, and a lot of these stories contain morals that a lot of readers today would agree with, but are these messages still empowering once you realise she intended them only for white women. If you look at The Vintage, a story about a man with syphilis who doesn't tell his wife, ending in her and two of their children dying and his one surviving son being a "cripple", is the main lesson to disclose if you have a STD, or to not have children if you have a "bad quality"? And because her writing is so didactic, can we ever separate the art from the artist? Some could argue that Gilman was a product of her time, and needs to be judged as a historical figure above anything else, but although she made a splash at the time, she was mostly forgotten by the 1940s, and only rediscovered in the 1970s. The Yellow Wall-Paper, her most famous work, was dubbed a classic about 80 years after it was published, so a lot of the historical significance we bestow upon her is retroactive.
So where does that leave us? I'm not sure. I think The Yellow Wall-Paper is still an excellent story and worth seeking out, and though a lot of these stories still resonate, much of what Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote and believed is best left in the dust.
February 27, 2025
A nice collection of early feminist fiction and a throwback to my main area of study in college, which focused on women’s struggle for agency, autonomy and identity in Victorian and turn-of-the-century British and American literature.
Gillman’s characters are strong, industrious, smart and capable, and any misfortunes that befall them are shown to be the result of patriarchy and social structures which do not allow them to thrive. Given the right conditions she believed, women will rise to high levels of achievement and quite often don’t need men, who usually exist only to interfere or thwart their success. Where men are present in her stories, they are bumbling fools at best and dangerous brutes, abusers, exploiters, rapists and sex traffickers at worst. In “Herland,” she envisions a utopia populated exclusively by women who reproduce asexually and only produce daughters, much to the chagrin and frustration of three male invaders who attempt to convert the women to traditional views of sex and marriage. While some of her ideals were extreme, Charlotte Perkins Gilman lived in a time where women lacked basic rights, where they were systematically diminished and dismissed, a time many would now like us to fully revert to, and her voice is an important one to remember. The collection ends with this little poem:
Matriatism
Small is the thought of “Fatherland,”
With all its pride and worth;
With all its history of death;
Of fire and sword and wasted breath—
By the great new thought which quickeneth—
The thought of “Mother Earth.”
Man fights for wealth and rule and pride,
For the “name” that is his alone;
Comes woman, wakening to her power,
Comes woman, opening the hour
That sees life as one growing flower,
All children as her own.
Fathers have fought for their Fatherland
With slaughter and death and dearth,
But mothers, in service and love's increase,
Will labor together for our release,
From a war-stained past to a world at peace,
Our fair, sweet Mother Earth.
Gillman’s characters are strong, industrious, smart and capable, and any misfortunes that befall them are shown to be the result of patriarchy and social structures which do not allow them to thrive. Given the right conditions she believed, women will rise to high levels of achievement and quite often don’t need men, who usually exist only to interfere or thwart their success. Where men are present in her stories, they are bumbling fools at best and dangerous brutes, abusers, exploiters, rapists and sex traffickers at worst. In “Herland,” she envisions a utopia populated exclusively by women who reproduce asexually and only produce daughters, much to the chagrin and frustration of three male invaders who attempt to convert the women to traditional views of sex and marriage. While some of her ideals were extreme, Charlotte Perkins Gilman lived in a time where women lacked basic rights, where they were systematically diminished and dismissed, a time many would now like us to fully revert to, and her voice is an important one to remember. The collection ends with this little poem:
Matriatism
Small is the thought of “Fatherland,”
With all its pride and worth;
With all its history of death;
Of fire and sword and wasted breath—
By the great new thought which quickeneth—
The thought of “Mother Earth.”
Man fights for wealth and rule and pride,
For the “name” that is his alone;
Comes woman, wakening to her power,
Comes woman, opening the hour
That sees life as one growing flower,
All children as her own.
Fathers have fought for their Fatherland
With slaughter and death and dearth,
But mothers, in service and love's increase,
Will labor together for our release,
From a war-stained past to a world at peace,
Our fair, sweet Mother Earth.
August 6, 2020
Extremely thought provoking, this follows the lost-world utopian style. But the prototypical hyper-masculine Indiana Jones and Allan Quatermain types become small shallow beings in the face of a truly developed, completely feminized society. It's fascinating and metaphorically pointed. It's worth a good deal of commentary from professional gender scholars, while at the same time being perfectly successful as science fiction in the classical sense of meeting the BIG SF questions
Herland represents what Jungian-female energy could become were it not forced to reflect back the male gaze. The result is the complete development of Human-rights as Women's rights, a healing of what is pathological in the psyche of human society. Herland is not a simple statement that the problem with society is men. Instead it's a statement that the patriarchy is sort of societal original sin, manifesting itself in perversions of religion, distribution of resources and education.
The virtues of Herland go beyond gender and explore the possibilities of a society which really put some resources into the development of a rich science of mental health and childhood development. It's really science fiction as social-psychotherapy: Let's use the power of speculative fiction to diagnose and treat these ills. The greatest weakness and strength of the novella is that
Herland represents what Jungian-female energy could become were it not forced to reflect back the male gaze. The result is the complete development of Human-rights as Women's rights, a healing of what is pathological in the psyche of human society. Herland is not a simple statement that the problem with society is men. Instead it's a statement that the patriarchy is sort of societal original sin, manifesting itself in perversions of religion, distribution of resources and education.
The virtues of Herland go beyond gender and explore the possibilities of a society which really put some resources into the development of a rich science of mental health and childhood development. It's really science fiction as social-psychotherapy: Let's use the power of speculative fiction to diagnose and treat these ills. The greatest weakness and strength of the novella is that
December 22, 2020
Herland es una obra independiente que comparte temas con el resto de obras más cortas de este libro: el enaltecimiento de la mujer como madre, la crítica a los roles de género, la superioridad sexual de la mujer, los derechos reproductivos de la mujer, la eugenesia, el control social, el racismo, la xenofobia, la heteronormatividad y una variante bastante única de animalismo.
En Herland, tres hombres blancos americanos llegan a un paraíso en el que las mujeres viven sin necesidad de hombres. En esta utopía, en la que el libro indica que todas las mujeres son superiores por ser de raza aria y en la que se asume que al ser todo mujeres no conocen el amor romántico, las mujeres lo hacen todo: son fuertes, inteligentes, bellas, pacientes, buenas, perfectas. La obra también está llena de comentarios machistas realizados por los tres hombres protagonistas, menciones a la necesidad de mantener relaciones heterosexuales y opiniones sociológicas centradas en el nativismo, el orientalismo y otras corrientes relacionadas con el racismo y la xenofobia. Además, la obra incluye un intento de violación.
Lo cierto es que, en su momento, Gilman ya fue altamente criticada por su contenido racista, y si bien fue considerada una feminista importante por su activismo y por su relato "El papel amarillo", Herland no fue recibida con la misma opinión, que se extiende a más de sus obras más tardías.
Reseña completa de Herland en: https://palabrasvioletasyletrascriticas.blogspot.com/2020/12/resena-herland-de-charlotte-perkins.html
En Herland, tres hombres blancos americanos llegan a un paraíso en el que las mujeres viven sin necesidad de hombres. En esta utopía, en la que el libro indica que todas las mujeres son superiores por ser de raza aria y en la que se asume que al ser todo mujeres no conocen el amor romántico, las mujeres lo hacen todo: son fuertes, inteligentes, bellas, pacientes, buenas, perfectas. La obra también está llena de comentarios machistas realizados por los tres hombres protagonistas, menciones a la necesidad de mantener relaciones heterosexuales y opiniones sociológicas centradas en el nativismo, el orientalismo y otras corrientes relacionadas con el racismo y la xenofobia. Además, la obra incluye un intento de violación.
Lo cierto es que, en su momento, Gilman ya fue altamente criticada por su contenido racista, y si bien fue considerada una feminista importante por su activismo y por su relato "El papel amarillo", Herland no fue recibida con la misma opinión, que se extiende a más de sus obras más tardías.
Reseña completa de Herland en: https://palabrasvioletasyletrascriticas.blogspot.com/2020/12/resena-herland-de-charlotte-perkins.html
Read
July 23, 2023Charlotte Perkins Gilman's collection of work was ahead of its time and is still incredibly relevant today, over 100 years since her writing was published. The Yellow Wall-Paper is a remarkable short story. I found myself rereading it several times. Excellent, but eerie.
I'm unsure if Herland would be considered science-fiction, but I thoroughly enjoyed the satiric short novel chronicling the all-female society that had prospered in the absence of men for 2,000 years: until three men from the outside world find themselves captives (in a peaceful sense) in the hidden country. The novel is told from one man's perspective. The following quotes brought a wry smile to my face while reading:
"As I learned more and more to appreciate what these women had accomplished, the less proud I was of what we, with all our manhood, had done."
"Their religion, you see, was maternal; and their ethics, based on the full perception of evolution, showed the principle of growth and the beauty of wise culture. They had no theory of the essential opposition of good and evil; life to them was Growth; their pleasure was in growing, and their duty also."
"Be that as it might, they certainly presented a higher level of active intelligence, and of behavior, than we had so far really grasped."
It was written in 1915, but it would be wonderful if some of the realizations of this male narrator were made by males of the present day.
I'm unsure if Herland would be considered science-fiction, but I thoroughly enjoyed the satiric short novel chronicling the all-female society that had prospered in the absence of men for 2,000 years: until three men from the outside world find themselves captives (in a peaceful sense) in the hidden country. The novel is told from one man's perspective. The following quotes brought a wry smile to my face while reading:
"As I learned more and more to appreciate what these women had accomplished, the less proud I was of what we, with all our manhood, had done."
"Their religion, you see, was maternal; and their ethics, based on the full perception of evolution, showed the principle of growth and the beauty of wise culture. They had no theory of the essential opposition of good and evil; life to them was Growth; their pleasure was in growing, and their duty also."
"Be that as it might, they certainly presented a higher level of active intelligence, and of behavior, than we had so far really grasped."
It was written in 1915, but it would be wonderful if some of the realizations of this male narrator were made by males of the present day.
January 29, 2022
Très intéressante découverte que ces récits courts au propos féministes très en avance sur son temps (réflexion sur les pièges du mariage et de la maternité, sur les préjugés concernant les hommes et les femmes)... Les nouvelles sont cependant assez inégales, même si "The Yellow wall-paper" sort clairement du lot, ainsi que d'autres qui flirtent avec le fantastique et quelques récits bien sentis d'émancipation féminine. "Herland", la fiction la plus longue présentée ici, est un récit de science-fiction assez original (trois hommes découvrent une utopie peuplée uniquement de femmes) mais trop théorique. Les poèmes inclus à la fin sont peu intéressants.
September 26, 2025
Yellow wallpaper - 4 stars
Herland - 2 stars
Assorted short stories - 1 to 3 stars
Poems - 2 stars
Total: 2 stars
Gilman is heralded as a groundbreaking feminist and socialist writer. Sadly, her passion for women did not extend to all women, which is a common problem with many "feminists" in history. Herland and another short story in the book both write about a utopia made up of all women. Through strict admission criteria and "selective breeding," they create a wonderful paradise where everyone is white and no one is disabled or mentally unwell. If you think that this sounds like eugenics, you would be right! Feminism will never move forward until feminism includes ALL women.
Herland - 2 stars
Assorted short stories - 1 to 3 stars
Poems - 2 stars
Total: 2 stars
Gilman is heralded as a groundbreaking feminist and socialist writer. Sadly, her passion for women did not extend to all women, which is a common problem with many "feminists" in history. Herland and another short story in the book both write about a utopia made up of all women. Through strict admission criteria and "selective breeding," they create a wonderful paradise where everyone is white and no one is disabled or mentally unwell. If you think that this sounds like eugenics, you would be right! Feminism will never move forward until feminism includes ALL women.
December 23, 2023
Herland is a wonderful feminist Utopia, featuring a still-relevant challenge to concepts of gender, plus a fairly anarchic ideal of a society, and progressive views of education that are also relevant even today. And the women’s clothing is festooned with pockets. Five stars for all that.
And then there’s the matter of no same-sex attraction amongst the all-female nation, which, maybe that’s the author repressing her own queerness. But then there’s the really blatant racism and eugenicism. So…3 stars? Impossible to really say.
And then there’s the matter of no same-sex attraction amongst the all-female nation, which, maybe that’s the author repressing her own queerness. But then there’s the really blatant racism and eugenicism. So…3 stars? Impossible to really say.
May 4, 2026
Jag har bara läst Herland nu.
Den var spännande! Jag är ju ett enormt fan av world-building och "what if-scenarion", och könsroller som fenomen, så jag hade roligt!
Jag drar av ett par stjärnor bara. Det kändes lite för sci-fi ibland och som att Charlotte lät sina egna idéer färga historien lite för mycket(?) Jag vet inte riktigt hur jag ska förklara det. Jag gillade inte riktigt beslutet att ge de kvinnliga karaktärerna så lite personlighet. De blev lite för alien
Den var spännande! Jag är ju ett enormt fan av world-building och "what if-scenarion", och könsroller som fenomen, så jag hade roligt!
Jag drar av ett par stjärnor bara. Det kändes lite för sci-fi ibland och som att Charlotte lät sina egna idéer färga historien lite för mycket(?) Jag vet inte riktigt hur jag ska förklara det. Jag gillade inte riktigt beslutet att ge de kvinnliga karaktärerna så lite personlighet. De blev lite för alien
August 4, 2022
Perkins incredible grasp on society and gender in the late 1800’s makes for a powerful and thoughtful read.
July 30, 2024
I LOVED Herland. What a world that would be.
January 12, 2025
Herland is so underrated???
November 18, 2025
this was honestly so fascinating...i'm obsessed. can someone PLZ prescribe me with a rest-cure
January 10, 2026
boy oh boy these are interesting concepts for short stories! i sure hope there aren’t constant and deeply rooted eugenicist them- *gunshot*
March 19, 2025
the yellow wallpaper was really good, but everything else was lowk mid
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