Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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...

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...

In this classic late-nineteenth-century story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a new mother suffering from what we might today call 'post-partum depression', is diagnosed with a nervous disorder. Instructed to abandon her intellectual life and avoid stimulating company, she sinks into a still-deeper...

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 fiancé to start a housecleaning business. A resourceful heroine, Diantha quickly expands her business into an enterprise that...

In a long-unoccupied mansion, a new mother is confined to what was once a nursery. She is assured by her physician husband that it is a necessary cure to ease her "nervous depression." Isolated and powerless, she becomes obsessed with the peeling, sickly colored wallpaper. In it, she sees what...

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...

First published in 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper is a classic short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It's an early work of feminist literature focused on a female protagonist and her relationship with husband John. A great work for studying and casual listening. This version of The Yellow...