Following is the full text of The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman‘s most widely known work. This long-form short story is written from the perspective of a depressed young wife and mother who has been confined, with all her creative outlets forbidden to her. 

First published in 1892 in New England Magazine, it’s considered a feminist classic, and is widely studied in women’s studies and literature courses.

The story starts with a mystery: the house seems to have “something queer about it.” It soon becomes clear that the house isn’t the only thing that’s “queer.” The secluded country home and the attic room the narrator inhabits come to represent her tenuous situation and her slippery sense of self. Read More→