Status Updates From Four Stories by American Women

Just read the first chapter of the Wharton story, “Souls Belated,” before bed. Much better than “The Country of Pointed Firs” and much more what I’m looking to read now

I have never read Wharton before today and I’m thinking I had ought to seek more out. I like her voice, and this story navigates some interesting social topics

Read a tiny bit this morning. I fear I may just need to skip the rest of “The Country of Pointed Firs,” read the Edith Wharton story, and wrap this one up. 18/23 chapters in I truly am just struggling to read it but I think I’ll come back when I feel more pastoral and slow. Just not the vibe right now

I like slow slice of life I really do but “The Country of Pointed Firs” is trying me a little bit. Sweet, real, comfortable, familiar, but very slow and leisurely. I’m enjoying myself but it’s hard to read too much at once

Made some headway into “The Country of Pointed Firs,” and I’ve been enjoying it. Very rustic. I particularly enjoyed the episode with the sea captain in the schoolhouse

Just wrapping up “The Yellow Wallpaper” this morning, utter classic. Such an effective psychological horror story, a protagonist who evokes absolute pathos from the reader. Included at the end is a note from Gilman, who writes that in her own lifetime the story saved at least one woman directly and many indirectly with its depiction of mental decline. Pretty inspiring!

The first story included, “Life in the Iron-Mills” by Rebecca Harding Davis, was really something special to read. Very sympathetic for the laboring class and it seems like it was a pioneering story for workers rights and realism. From 1861! Pretty good. “The Yellow Wallpaper” next!