The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892
A short story in a secret journal, in three parts.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 story, written as the secret journal of a young mother kept by her physician husband in an upstairs room of a rented summer house, with a yellow wallpaper she cannot stop studying.
3 parts · 6,092 words · about 2.5 hours at 40 wpm
Start with Part 1How it begins
It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.
A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would be asking too much of fate!
Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?
Parts
- 1 Part 1It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls… ~52 min
- 2 Part 2There’s sister on the stairs! ~51 min
- 3 Part 3Did not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern, and I am… ~49 min
Text: Project Gutenberg #1952. In the public domain.