Herland, the Yellow Wall-Paper, and Selected Writings

by Perkins Gilman, Charlotte

• ISBN13: 9780141180625
• ISBN10: 0141180625
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a turn-of-the-century American feminist and socialist thinker. In her works of fiction, Gilman sought to illustrate her ideas about the way American society squandered the talents and economic contributions of women. Based on the nervous breakdown she suffered during her own disastrous first marriage, The Yellow Wall-Paper is her classic story about a woman who goes mad when the rest-cure treatment she undergoes forbids her any kind of work.

Herland, Gilman's most famous novel, is a feminist utopian comedy in which three men stumble upon a society of women that has banished men. Also included in this Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics edition is a selection of Gilman's poetry and other short fiction. Gilman scholar Denise D. Knight has written an enlightening Introduction that explores Gilman's use of the utopian form, satire, and fantasy to provide a critique of women's place in society and to propose creative solutions.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	v
Introduction	ix
Denise D. Knight
Suggestions for Further Reading	xxv
A Note on the Texts	xxix
Herland (1915)	1	(146)
SHORT FICTION
The Unexpected (1890)	147	(7)
The Giant Wistaria (1891)	154	(9)
An Extinct Angel (1891)	163	(3)
The Yellow Wall-Paper (1892)	166	(17)
The Rocking-Chair (1893)	183	(11)
Through This (1893)	194	(4)
The Boys and The Butter (1910)	198	(9)
Mrs. Beazley's Deeds (1911)	207	(14)
Turned (1911)	221	(10)
Old Water (1911)	231	(8)
Making a Change (1911)	239	(8)
Mrs. Elder's Idea (1912)	247	(8)
The Chair of English (1913)	255	(8)
Bee Wise (1913)	263	(9)
His Mother (1914)	272	(8)
Dr. Clair's Place (1915)	280	(9)
Joan's Defender (1916)	289	(8)
The Vintage (1916)	297	(8)
The Unnatural Mother (1916)	305	(10)
POETRY
One Girl of Many (1884)	315	(3)
In Duty Bound (1884)	318	(1)
On the Pawtuxet (1886)	319	(1)
She Walketh Veiled and Sleeping (1889)	320	(1)
An Obstacle (1890)	321	(2)
Similar Cases (1890)	323	(4)
A Conservative (1892)	327	(2)
A Moonrise (1893)	329	(1)
Too Much (1893)	330	(1)
To the Young Wife (1893)	331	(2)
Birth (1895)	333	(2)
Seeking (1895)	335	(1)
Closed Doors (1898)	336	(2)
The Purpose (1904)	338	(1)
Locked Inside (1910)	339	(1)
The Artist (1911)	340	(1)
More Females of the Species (1911)	341	(2)
Matriatism (1914)	343	(2)
Explanatory and Textual Notes	345