By Taylor Jasmine | On February 8, 2018 | Updated January 27, 2023 | Comments (0)
“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” is a short story by Willa Cather first published in McClure’s Magazine in 1905. Shortly after, it became part of Cather’s first published collection The Troll Garden (also 1905), in which it was one of seven stories.
Like the other stories in that collection,”Paul’s Case” is in the public domain. See also this excellent analysis of “Paul’s Case” if you’re studying this story or wish to delve into its deeper meaning.
Some of the original paragraphs have been broken up to improve readability on devices; otherwise, the story is intact.
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By Nava Atlas | On May 15, 2017 | Updated October 8, 2022 | Comments (0)
Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was published in 1898.
Far ahead of its time, Women and Economics held the position that humans are the only species in which the female depends on the male for her survival.
It’s considered one of Gilman’s finest works, though it hasn’t retained the renown of her semi-autobiographical short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On May 3, 2017 | Updated May 2, 2025 | Comments (0)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman‘s short story The Giant Wistaria (1891) is less known than her classic, The Yellow Wallpaper. “Wistaria” has in common with “Wallpaper” the underlying themes of patriarchal repression of women’s sexuality and control of the realm of motherhood. What results is a chilling ghost story.
Presented here is the full text of The Giant Wistaria, written in 1891 under the name she was going by, Charlotte P. Stetson, just a year prior to the publication of The Yellow Wallpaper.
In analysis of The Giant Wistaria from Feminist Short Stories: Horror & Sci-Fi (Part 1), Jillian McKeown writes: Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On March 23, 2016 | Updated October 8, 2025 | Comments (0)
The Awakening is a short novel by Kate Chopin, published in 1899. It’s the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother who struggles with these roles in the rigid social milieu of late-19th-century New Orleans.
Kate Chopin’s untimely death just a few years after The Awakening‘s publication hastened the silencing of this exquisite work along with most of the rest of this talented author’s life and work.
The Awakening was rediscovered and republished in the late 1960s and now holds a secure place as a classic in American literature and a staple of feminist studies.
More about The Awakening on this site:
Following is the text in its entirety. The Awakening is in the public domain.
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By Taylor Jasmine | On December 15, 2014 | Updated August 8, 2025 | Comments (0)
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→
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