The Yellow Wallpaper Book Review

Book Title: The Yellow Wallpaper

Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

My Rating: 4*

Publisher: Dover Publications

Publication Date: first published 1892

Genre(s): Classic, Short Stories, Feminism

Pages: 288

Format Read: E-book

Goodreads: Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.
These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humour and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women — and how they might be improved.


The Yellow Wallpaper is a brilliant psychological horror short story that focuses on the mental health of women and their position in marriage in the 1800s. It is implied that the woman in the story is suffering from post partum depression and her husband has moved them to a house in the middle of nowhere to make her feel better although her husband is a doctor and doesn’t believe that there is anything wrong with her. The story shows the husband’s patronising and controlling behaviour towards his wife highlighting the inequality divide in marriages and the ignorance that nothing could be wrong with her if there isn’t a physical sign. The wife sees patterns and images in the yellow wallpaper in her room and rather than helping her, her mental health deteriorates even more.

Three Thanksgivings is about the importance of women’s independence in a world dominated by men and money. The main character Mrs Morrison lives in a boarding house which she grew up with her servant and is reluctant to move as she can’t afford the mortgage payments. With pressure from her two children to sell the house for their financial benefit and from a man who wants to marry her, she comes up with a plan to raise all the money she needs and more.

The Cottagette is about the lengths women will go to in order to win over a man’s heart. Malda and Lois go to a summer camp where there are no household duties to focus purely on their music. Malda gets the attention of another resident, Ford Matthews, and Lois suggests they install a kitchen so Malda can impress him with her cooking skills but while giving up the hours she had devoted to her music. However the story has a good ending in which Ford does propose to Malda but on the one condition that she stops cooking to focus back on her art.

Turned is another story about the strength women have in a world where men think they can get away with anything, in this case infidelity. A housemaid is seduced by the man of the house and when his wife finds out, at first she wants to kick the young girl out of the house but then realises it wasn’t her fault and turns on the man. She moves out with the girl and the baby, leaving the man on his own and changes her name back to her maiden name.

Making a Change is about Julia, a new mother, who cannot stop her baby from crying. Her mother in law is constantly sniping at her so the stress gets too much for her and she tries to kill herself. The women decide to make a change where everyone is happier so Julia goes back to work teaching music lessons and the mother runs a day care looking after children. The father doesn’t know about it and wonders where the extra money is coming from. This is a story that overturns the social norms of the time period as the wife goes to work instead of looking after the house and child.

If I Were a Man is an interesting story about a woman who wishes she was a man and then somehow ends up in her husband’s body and sees what the world is like from a man’s perspective and their attitudes towards women. She is shocked at what she hears and quickly speaks up for women in the body of her husband.

Mr. Peebles’ Heart is a heart warming story about a man who believes his duty is to work hard to provide a home for his wife and children with no complaints. His sister in law and physician, Joan, is visiting and notices problems between the married couple. She finds out that Mr Peeble missed out on travelling and schemes to change their lives for the better.

These stories were ahead of their time from a female author written in a time where the norm in society expected women to be a stay at home domesticated wife and mother and the father earning the money for the family. I loved how the stories always went in a different direction to how I was expecting from a 1900s story and the messages that each individual story sends out to women everywhere in terms of feminism and independence is refreshingly brilliant.

Have you read this collection of short stories?
Or do you want to read it?
Let me know in the comments!