Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Wednesday 28 November 2018

"The yellow wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Virago, 2008)

First published in 1892. A single 25 page story recounts in first person the narrator in recovery slipping (again?) into madness. Busy, sensible husband John always knows better. The submissive wife ends up thinking there are women in the wallpaper. She tries to free them, thinks she's one of them, crawling. Her husband enters the room - Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!.

The final few pages in particular have survived the test of time. Reviews mention Poe. The more recent reviews pick up on its criticism of rest cures and male/female roles, the autobiographical element.

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