The Yellow Wallpaper. Herland

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in the magazine “New England” in January 1892. The work is considered an important contribution to American women’s literature, drawing attention to attitudes toward women’s health in the 19th century. It’s also valued as a classic of the horror genre.

The narrative is told in the form of diary entries in the first person. The main character, recently become a mother, along with her doctor-husband, rents an old house for the summer. She is troubled by the yellow wallpaper in the nursery on the upper floor, which triggers alarming hallucinations in her. The reader gradually immerses into her inner world and her state through these entries.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is also described as a utopian novel about a closed women’s community where there are no wars or conflicts—until men enter.