“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.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland is a thought-provoking work of utopian fiction and a time capsule of early twentieth-century feminism.

On the eve of the First World War, sociology student Vandyck Jennings goes on an expedition with two of his friends to search for a society rumored to consist only of women. On the way to what they will name “Herland,” Van and his friends ponder the type of women they hope or expect to see when they get there … but they find no fantasies when they arrive.

Herland is an all-female, community-driven utopia. Van and his friends are skeptical of a society that doesn’t even need men to procreate, but women and girls who live there have all been raised in a world entirely removed from the patriarchy of the wider world. To them, Herland is a paradise; there are no wars, no conflicts, and no oppressive concepts of gender. These young men, however, are not easily brought into the fold. During their time in Herland, Van and his friends must decide whether they will remain entrenched in their own views of women and society, or if they will open their minds to a way of living they could scarcely have ever imagined.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, first published in 1915, is a feminist utopian novel that describes an isolated society composed entirely of women-a progressive, environmentally conscious land where peace and rationality reign and poverty is unknown. Told from the perspective of Vandyk Jennings, a male sociology student who sets out with his two friends to determine whether Herland really exists, the novel ironically and pointedly critiques the arbitrary nature of many gender norms as it highlights the irrational features of the men’s society and asserts women’s fundamental capacity for reason and cooperation. Herland is a landmark work of feminist thought whose themes are as vital today as they were in the early twentieth century.

If some say “Innocence is the greatest charm of young girls,” the answer is, “What good does it do them?”

The Crux is the story of group of women who move from New England to Colorado in order to run a boardinghouse for men. One of these women, the young Vivian Lane, falls in love with a man who has both gonorrhea and syphilis. It then falls to Vivian, when she learns of his illnesses, to decide whether she should marry and have children with this man. She is torn between her own heart and the “duty” of motherhood, as one doctor in the novel puts it, to have children with a healthy father.

Through a twenty-first-century lens, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses this novel to advocate for young women to be educated, to educate themselves, and ensure they are provided all the information they need in order to make informed decisions about their life. But that is not the only reason The Crux is vital to understanding the progression of feminism in the United States.

This early piece of feminist literature is an encapsulation of some of early twentieth-century America’s greatest cultural anxieties and issues. Gender and feminism are at the forefront of The Crux, but Gilman also addresses fears regarding eugenics, contagion, and disease, as well as the biological and nationalistic components that were prevalent in the feminist movement of the time. Gilman’s brand of utopian feminism, which she would further explore in her novel Herland, was both a revelation and a product of its time, and therefore remains an insightful and provocative piece of literature to this day.

Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband (John) has rented an old mansion for the summer and the couple moves into the upstairs nursery. As a form of treatment, she is forbidden from working, but encouraged to eat well and get plenty of exercise and air, so she can recuperate from what he calls a temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency, a diagnosis common to women in that period. She hides her journal from her husband and his sister the housekeeper, fearful of being reproached for overworking herself. With nothing to stimulate her, she becomes obsessed by the pattern and color of the wallpaper, descending slowly into psychosis.

A groundbreaking feminist masterpiece and one of the most exquisite horror stories in American literature.

Diagnosed by her physician husband with a “temporary nervous depression–a slight hysterical tendency” after the birth of her child, a woman is urged to rest for the summer in an old colonial mansion. Forbidden from doing work of any kind, she spends her days in the house’s former nursery, with its barred windows, scratched floor, and peeling yellow wallpaper.

In a private journal, the woman records her growing obsession with the “horrid” wallpaper. Its strange pattern mutates in the moonlight, revealing what appears to be a human figure in the design. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the woman resolves to unlock the mystery of the wallpaper. Her quest, however, leads not to the truth, but into the darkest depths of madness.

With masterly use of unreliable storytelling and a scathing indictment of patriarchal medical practices, The Yellow Wallpaper is a true American classic.

The story is a double play: is it the story of a woman going mad, or a woman possessed by something evil? We begin to suspect that the narrator’s apparently caring husband John, may not be as caring as she thinks. Is he trying to control her? We know that Charlotte was much concerned with the emancipation of women and them achieving financial independence, so is the character of John an echo of this?
The horror in the story revolves around the Yellow Wallpaper and like many of us, she sees to have seen patterns in the abstract wallpaper that eventually evolve into characters. She ultimately can enter the wallpaper and more disturbingly, the woman from the wallpaper can come out into her room. The bizarreness of the crouching, creeping figures serves to unnerve the reader.

First published by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in January 1892 in The New England Magazine, The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story of extraordinary power, exploring issues of mental health, the role of women in society and the oppressive nature of the patriarchy.
Told in the first person, the story follows the plight of a woman confined by her husband in a small room in and old mansion – ostensibly for her own good. As her boredom increases and her sanity deteriorates, she becomes fixated on the wallpaper in the room, the yellow design of which includes an image of a trapped woman. Reflecting themes of oppression, the subjugation of women and the sexism of the late 19th century, this story has been reproduced in numerous textbooks, anthologies and feminist literary collections for over a century and has been hailed as one of the early triumphs of Gothic literature.

This collection brings together twelve of the finest short stories of prominent American feminist author Charlotte Perkins Gilman. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman’s best-known work, was first published in 1892 and represents an important examination of nineteenth-century attitudes toward women’s physical and mental health. Written as a collection of journal entries by a woman whose physician husband has confined her to her bedroom, the story depicts the narrator’s descent into psychosis as her confinement gradually erodes her sanity. This collection also includes the stories “The Giant Wistaria,” “According to Solomon,” “The Boys and the Butter,” “Her Housekeeper,” “Martha’s Mother,” “A Middle-Sized Artist,” “An Offender,” “When I Was a Witch,” “The Cottagette,” “Making a Living,” and “Mr. Robert Grey Sr.”

A prominent sociologist, lecturer, and writer of the late nineteenth century, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s unorthodox concepts and lifestyle helped shape future generations of feminists. This audiobook includes her most enduring work, “The Yellow Wallpaper” as well as her 1913 article, “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper'”

The Yellow Wallpaper

Told as a series of secret diary entries, the story is about a young woman, confined to her room and denied all creative outlets, who gradually suffers a mental breakdown.

Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Originally published in an issue of the Forerunner, the article addresses the story behind “The Yellow Wallpaper,” revealing Gilman’s own experience with postpartum psychosis.

Proceeds from sale of this title go to Reach Out and Read, an innovative literacy advocacy organization.

First published serially in Gilman’s magazine The Forerunner from 1909-1910, What Diantha Did is the story of Diantha Bell, a young woman who leaves her home and her fiance to start a housecleaning business. A resourceful heroine, Diantha quickly expands her business into an enterprise that includes a maid service, cooked food delivery service, a restaurant, and a hotel. By assigning a cash value to women’s “invisible” work, providing a means for the well-being and moral uplift of working girls, and releasing middle-class and leisure-class women from the burden of conventional domestic chores, Diantha proves to her family and community the benefits of professionalized housekeeping.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is best known for “The Yellow Wallpaper,” her famous 1892 tale of a woman’s descent into madness, which is considered an important early work of American feminist literature due to its illustration of the attitudes toward the mental and physical health of women in the nineteenth century. What Diantha Did, Gilman’s first novel, provides indispensable insight into Gilman’s legacy of social thought.