The Yellow Wallpaper cover

The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)

Original en 6078 words First published 1892 United States

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 story, written after a nerve specialist prescribed her a "rest cure" and told her to live as domestic a life as possible — and never to touch pen, brush or pencil again. Its narrator is a young wife taken to a colonial mansion for the summer by her physician husband and shut into an upstairs nursery papered in an ugly yellow pattern she cannot stop studying. Her journal, kept against orders, records the pattern's slow takeover. A founding text of feminist fiction, and one of the great American horror stories.

Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (public domain in the United States); the Project Gutenberg trademark and license text have been removed on import. Public-domain status determined by the author's death year + 50 years rule.

Table of Contents

  1. 001 It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself… 2522 words
  2. 002 They have used a horizontal breadth for a frieze, and that adds… 2507 words
  3. 003 I have found out another funny thing, but I shan’t tell it this time! 1049 words