4.5 stars.

Like many Americans, I read The Yellow Wallpaper in high school, but I am unfamiliar with the overall body of Gilman's work. Here I am, changing that. Mini-reviews because short stories.

the yellow wallpaper
The title story has been minutely scrutinized by scads of academics more talented than I could ever hope to be, so I won't be saying anything new here. Just my Feels, bro. As a teenager, this story shook me. I am angry on her behalf, angry like I was for Hester Prynne. That year of English classes was a wrathful one to my budding feminist sensibilities.

"John is a physician, and perhaps ... perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster."

There is nothing about her husband John, spoken about with tired gratefulness at his care, that makes me believe he is not truly responsible for the further deterioration of her condition. Perhaps he is not the sole cause (PPD seems a likely culprit), but he's no goddamn support either. John controls every decision in her life ("... hardly lets me stir without special direction") and subtly gaslights her whenever she questions him about the room or visiting relatives. His intentions maybe have been altruistic, but I hate him all the same. My modern sensibilities are incredibly offended

if i were a man
Suddenly, the very picture of a "true woman" becomes a man; her husband, to be specific.

"These pockets came as a revelation. Of course she had known they were there, had counted them, made fun of them, mended them, even envied them; but shr never had dreamed of how it felt to have pockets."

This is still something the women's fashion industry struggles with over a hundred years later.

This story draws to a close with everyday men talking about women amongst themselves in a very uncomplimentary manner. Not so much has changed much there, either. Mollie-as-Gerald tries to convince his man-friends that "women are pretty much people ", though we never see their reactions to her monologue about women's ridiculous fashion & their predilection for wealthy men.

turned
For all that this includes a young girl who was taken advantage of by her employer, I loved it? The idea that the wronged wife in a cheating marriage can find compassion for the other woman is fairly unusual in current media and surely wasn't common in the early 20th century either. Women working together against the perfidy of men is My Jam.

the cottagette
"Can you give up cooking for me and focus on your art, which is beautiful?" This seems like one of those self-indulgent fix-it fics for hetero romances.

an honest woman
("I've got a high opinion of good women," he answered with finality. "As to bad ones, the less said the better!" and he puffed his strong cigar, looking darkly experienced.)

It's rare that I so immediately wish for a character's death, but here we are, less than two pages in.

The titular honest (hard-working, intelligent, full of integrity) woman, Mary, gives her deadbeat husband the best smackdown as he threatens to expose her when she refuses to legally marry him. "They know how I have lived since. If you try to blacken my reputation here, I think you will find the climate of Mexico more congenial." With that, she just leaves the room like a goddamn champion.

making a change
Women working to their strengths, helping each other. Good shit - and it seems very autobiographical. Gilman ceded custody of her own child to her ex-husband and his new wife, finding motherhood more of a burden to her mental health than a blessing in her life.

mr peebles' heart
Not the most poignant of tales. A man sacrifices living for duty to his family and at the urging of his concerned sister-in-law, Eat Pray Loves it up and comes back a changed man.

the widow's might
Hell yes, unburden yourself from society's shackles. Your terrible husband is dead - go and be free!

At the end of this book are selections from some of Gilman's books: Herland, Women and Economics and The Man-Made World. She is cis-centric in her views, which is disappointing but not surprising given the time period. However, Gilman's barely concealed disdain for the overwhelming "masculinity" and male-dominated culture has cleared my skin and restored my crops.

"That we have progressed thus far, that we are now moving forward so rapidly, is in spite of and not because of our androcentric culture."