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A review by carringtonshaw
The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Did not finish book. Stopped at 72%.
In the end, I did not finish the entire book. I got most of the way there--I only had about 50 pages left--but I was tired of it and ready to move on to other things. The problem was, while the title story is really excellent, a great piece of classic fiction, the rest is just...not very good, from a storytelling standpoint. The writing itself, at a sentence level, is more than adequate. Gilman can string words together in an attractive way. That isn't the issue. The issue is that pretty much every story in this book is propaganda, rather than entertainment. And with only a few exceptions (the titular story being the most obvious one), it's pretty much the same story over and over again. A woman late in life decides to take matters into her own hands and get a job, or find a way to pay for her large property, and does it by herself and with much success, while men and grown children argue with her about it. It's a good story...the first or second time you read it. But then it just gets old. I'm not opposed to her agenda--feminism in the days of the Suffragettes--but all the same, I wanted entertainment, not propaganda.
That said, I was intrigued by how very modern it all felt. I guess while I knew that there obviously were feminists in that era, fighting for the advancement and freedom of women, it was still surprising to see women, in stories written by a woman of that time, expressing such desires. I think I just believed most were so subsumed by the ideals and beliefs of that era's society that women weren't even thinking about or wanting the freedoms that the women in this book are so determined to have. From that perspective, this was all fascinating. I always kind of wondered in an offhand way exactly where the feminist spark came from. What shook women out of the ideals of the era and acceptance of their existence as it was and into the recognition that they could have more? And now because of this book, I think the obvious answer is that the spark was there all along.
Because I don't rate books I didn't finish, I'm lucking out of having to figure this one out. Because this would be tricky. There is such a distinct plateau in the quality between The Yellow Wall-Paper and the other stories in this book. The former is a masterpiece. Of the latter, it is worth browsing through a few at random.
DNF at page 277.
That said, I was intrigued by how very modern it all felt. I guess while I knew that there obviously were feminists in that era, fighting for the advancement and freedom of women, it was still surprising to see women, in stories written by a woman of that time, expressing such desires. I think I just believed most were so subsumed by the ideals and beliefs of that era's society that women weren't even thinking about or wanting the freedoms that the women in this book are so determined to have. From that perspective, this was all fascinating. I always kind of wondered in an offhand way exactly where the feminist spark came from. What shook women out of the ideals of the era and acceptance of their existence as it was and into the recognition that they could have more? And now because of this book, I think the obvious answer is that the spark was there all along.
Because I don't rate books I didn't finish, I'm lucking out of having to figure this one out. Because this would be tricky. There is such a distinct plateau in the quality between The Yellow Wall-Paper and the other stories in this book. The former is a masterpiece. Of the latter, it is worth browsing through a few at random.
DNF at page 277.