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A review by travis_d_johnson
The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
5.0
"The Yellow Wallpaper" was adapted as a radio play for a 1948 episode of Suspense starring Agnes Moorehead. Later, in the 1980s, WUFT-FM in Gainesville, Florida would rebroadcast these old time radio shows on Sunday nights. I was a child then, and an avid listener. I especially loved the horror shows.
I couldn't make it through that broadcast of "The Yellow Wallpaper", though. It wasn't scary in the enjoyable way that I was used to; it distressed me severely. It was torment. I turned the radio off and didn't sleep that night, or the next.
Years later, I found the original story in the county library. I read it and again was absolutely sickened with fear. Some time later still, I bought this Dover Thrift Edition. I have now read the tale possibly 20 times in as many years, and there is one line that has made me shudder every one of those times:
And yet, for all the time I've regarded "The Yellow Wallpaper" as the apex of literary terror, and for all the time this book has lived on my shelf, only today did I read the other six stories contained therein!
"Turned", I think, is the best of them. Not a horror tale, it still must have shocked readers in 1911. It's as vehement in its feminism as "The Yellow Wallpaper".
"If I Were a Man" is brilliant not just for its critique, but for the great dexterity with which Gilman handles the premise of one person becoming another.
"Mr. Peebles' Heart" and the "The Cottagette" are charming sentimental pieces, still imbued with themes of sex and class.
"Three Thanksgivings" and "Making a Change" felt minor compared to the rest, but I'll likely appreciate them more on future readings.
I couldn't make it through that broadcast of "The Yellow Wallpaper", though. It wasn't scary in the enjoyable way that I was used to; it distressed me severely. It was torment. I turned the radio off and didn't sleep that night, or the next.
Years later, I found the original story in the county library. I read it and again was absolutely sickened with fear. Some time later still, I bought this Dover Thrift Edition. I have now read the tale possibly 20 times in as many years, and there is one line that has made me shudder every one of those times:
Spoiler
I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did?
And yet, for all the time I've regarded "The Yellow Wallpaper" as the apex of literary terror, and for all the time this book has lived on my shelf, only today did I read the other six stories contained therein!
"Turned", I think, is the best of them. Not a horror tale, it still must have shocked readers in 1911. It's as vehement in its feminism as "The Yellow Wallpaper".
"If I Were a Man" is brilliant not just for its critique, but for the great dexterity with which Gilman handles the premise of one person becoming another.
"Mr. Peebles' Heart" and the "The Cottagette" are charming sentimental pieces, still imbued with themes of sex and class.
"Three Thanksgivings" and "Making a Change" felt minor compared to the rest, but I'll likely appreciate them more on future readings.