Wonderfully sardonic and slyly humorous, the writings of landmark American feminist and socialist thinker Charlotte Perkins Gilman were penned in response to her frustrations with the gender-based double standard that prevailed in America as the twentieth century began. Perhaps best known for her chilling depiction of a woman's mental breakdown in her unforgettable 1892 short story 'The Yellow Wall-Paper', Gilman also wrote Herland, a wry novel that imagines a peaceful, progressive country from which men have been absent for 2,000 years. Both are included in this volume, along with a selection of Gilman's major short stories and her poems.

Featuring several of her greatest stories including "The Yellow Wall-paper," this collection showcases Charlotte Perkins Gilman as a leading light of both fiction and feminism. In the title story, a young woman is confined to her room by her husband for the sake of her health. With nothing to distract her apart from the patterns of the wall-paper itself, she slowly spirals into insanity.

Based on the author s own experiences, 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is the chilling tale of a woman driven to the brink of insanity by the rest cure prescribed after the birth of her child. Isolated in a crumbling colonial mansion, in a room with bars on the windows, the tortuous pattern of the yellow wallpaper winds its way into the recesses of her mind. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was America s leading feminist intellectual of the early twentieth century. In addition to her masterpiece, 'The Yellow Wallpaper', this new collection includes a selection of her best short fiction and extracts from her autobiography.

What would happen if society was run by women? Charlotte Perkins Gilman imagines the result... When three American men discover a community of women, living in perfect isolation in the Amazon, they decide there simply must be men somewhere. How could these women survive without man's knowledge, experience and strength, not to mention reproductive power? In fact, what they have found is a civilisation free from disease, poverty and the weight of tradition. All alone, the women have created a society of calm and prosperity, a feminist utopia that dares to threaten the very concept of male superiority.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's progressive views on feminism and mental health are powerfully showcased in her two most famous stories. The Yellow Wallpaper skillfully charts one woman's struggle with depression whilst Herland is an entertaining imagining of an all female utopia. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by journalist and author Lucy Mangan. Confined to her attic bedroom and isolated from her newborn baby, the nameless narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper keeps a secret diary in which she records the sprawling and shifting patterns of the room's lurid yellow wallpaper as she slowly sinks into madness. This chilling story is based on the author's own experience of depression. In Herland, a trio of men set out to discover an all-female community rumoured to be hidden deep in the jungle. What they find surprises them all; they're captured by women who, for two thousand years, have lived in a peaceful and prosperous utopia without men.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. 'There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or ever will' Hailed as one of the most distinctive and compelling literary voices of her era, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is praised today for her ground-breaking, feminist writing. Collected here, both The Yellow Wallpaper and Herland are extraordinary for scrutinising the patriarchal norms of turn-of-the-century America. In The Yellow Wallpaper a woman frantically paces the empty nursery at the top of a secluded mansion. Her husband John, a physician, is of no comfort and she can't bear to sit with the new baby as his crying makes her much too nervous. And then there's the putrid, yellow wallpaper which seems to shift and creep around the room before her very eyes… Herland, first published in 1915, follows a group of three men as they arrive in a female-only society. Peace and tranquillity thrive in this utopian land, forcing the explorers to question how their own corrupted, male-dominated world can survive.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. 'There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or ever will' Hailed as one of the most distinctive and compelling literary voices of her era, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is praised today for her ground-breaking, feminist writing. Collected here, both The Yellow Wallpaper and Herland are extraordinary for scrutinising the patriarchal norms of turn-of-the-century America. In The Yellow Wallpaper a woman frantically paces the empty nursery at the top of a secluded mansion. Her husband John, a physician, is of no comfort and she can't bear to sit with the new baby as his crying makes her much too nervous. And then there's the putrid, yellow wallpaper which seems to shift and creep around the room before her very eyes… Herland, first published in 1915, follows a group of three men as they arrive in a female-only society. Peace and tranquillity thrive in this utopian land, forcing the explorers to question how their own corrupted, male-dominated world can survive.

This beautiful jacketed hardcover brings together 23 chilling tales by landmark gothic writers, including Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Sheridan Le Fanu, Sir Walter Scott and many more. Gothic fiction emerged in the 18th century, recognized for its bleak and sinister landscapes which housed unnatural forces of evil. Often controversial in their time, these stories pushed the boundaries of what was possible in fiction and evoked unsettling emotions as they told their tales of mysterious places, lost secrets, and sudden, shocking violence. This collection brings together the very best within the genre, featuring crumbling castles, chilling cathedrals, and haunted manors as their eerie settings. Supernatural terrors lurk around every corner. Includes: • The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe • The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman • Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe • The Invisible Girl by Mary Shelley • The Tapestried Chamber by Sir Walter Scott With a spectacular cover design by Tithi Luadthong and illustrated colour endpapers, this wonderful collectible edition is sure to terrify and entertain in equal measure.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrenched this small literary masterpiece from her own experience. Narrated with superb psychological skill and dramatic precision, it tells the story of a nameless woman driven mad by enforced confinement after the birth of her child. Isolated in a colonial mansion in the middle of nowhere, forced to sleep in an attic nursery with barred windows and sickly yellow wallpaper, secretly she does what she has to do - she writes. She craves intellectual stimulation, activity, loving understanding, instead she is ordered to her bedroom to rest and 'pull herself together'. Here, slowly but surely, the tortuous pattern of the wallpaper winds its way into the recesses of her mind...

Collected for the first time in one volume. How does money - or the lack of it - affect our lives? What happens when the rich meet the poor, when status comes with a price tag, when personal desires do battle with financial concerns? This unique anthology offers a mosaic of answers, with stories by: * Francine Prose * F. Scott Fitzgerald * Jack London * Kate Chopin * Ethan Canin * Gloria Naylor * Sandra Cisneros * O. Henry * Theodore Dreiser * Stephen Crane * Kate Braverman * James T. Farrell * Charlotte Perkins Gilman * and many others.

Collected for the first time in one volume. How does money - or the lack of it - affect our lives? What happens when the rich meet the poor, when status comes with a price tag, when personal desires do battle with financial concerns? This unique anthology offers a mosaic of answers, with stories by: * Francine Prose * F. Scott Fitzgerald * Jack London * Kate Chopin * Ethan Canin * Gloria Naylor * Sandra Cisneros * O. Henry * Theodore Dreiser * Stephen Crane * Kate Braverman * James T. Farrell * Charlotte Perkins Gilman * and many others.

The modern horror story grew and developed across the nineteenth century, embracing categories as diverse as ghost stories, the supernatural and psychological horror, medical and scientific horror, colonial horror, and tales of the uncanny and precognition. This anthology brings together twenty-nine of the greatest horror stories of the period, from 1816 to 1912, from the British, Irish, American, and European traditions. It ranges widely across the sub-genres to encompass authors whose terror-inducing powers remain unsurpassed. The book includes stories by some of the best writers of the century -- Hoffmann, Poe, Balzac, Dickens, Hawthorne, Melville, and Zola -- as well as established genre classics from M. R. James, Arthur Machen, Bram Stoker, Algernon Blackwood, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and others. It includes rare and little-known pieces by writers such as William Maginn, Francis Marion Crawford, W. F. Harvey, and William Hope Hodgson, and shows the important role played by periodicals in popularizing the horror story. Wherever possible, stories are reprinted in their first published form, with background information about their authors and helpful, contextualizing annotation. Darryl Jones's lively introduction discusses horror's literary evolution and its articulation of cultural preoccupations and anxieties. These are stories guaranteed to freeze the blood, revolt the senses, and keep you awake at night: prepare to be terrified!

Spanning over 100 years of literary history, here are 33 of the finest short stories by Washington Irving * Nathaniel Hawthorne * Edgar Allan Poe * Herman Melville * Harriet Beecher Stowe * Bret Harte * Bayard Taylor * Rose Terry Cooke * Ambrose Bierce * Hamlin Garland * Mary E. Wilkens Freeman * Henry James * Charlotte Perkins Gilman * Sarah Orne Jewett * Grace Elizabeth King * Harold Frederic * Kate Chopin * Stephen Crane * Edith Wharton * Mark Twain * Jack London * F. Hopkinson Smith * Zona Gale * O. Henry * Sherwood Anderson * Ernest Hemingway * etc. .

Spanning over 100 years of literary history, here are 33 of the finest short stories by Washington Irving * Nathaniel Hawthorne * Edgar Allan Poe * Herman Melville * Harriet Beecher Stowe * Bret Harte * Bayard Taylor * Rose Terry Cooke * Ambrose Bierce * Hamlin Garland * Mary E. Wilkens Freeman * Henry James * Charlotte Perkins Gilman * Sarah Orne Jewett * Grace Elizabeth King * Harold Frederic * Kate Chopin * Stephen Crane * Edith Wharton * Mark Twain * Jack London * F. Hopkinson Smith * Zona Gale * O. Henry * Sherwood Anderson * Ernest Hemingway * etc. .

‘To myself alone could I look’ Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe are heroines who depend upon no one but themselves. In the face of hardship, from small sacrifices to great heartache, they cling resolutely to their principles of self-reliance. Lucy's energy and enterprise take her to Belgium and a career in teaching, whilst Jane’s honest, intelligent mind draws declarations of love. Both are the unforgettable creations of the deeply independent and brilliant Charlotte Bronte. Selected from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Villette.

Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe are heroines who depend upon no one but themselves. In the face of hardship, from small sacrifices to great heartache, they cling resolutely to their principles of self-reliance. Lucys energy and enterprise take her to Belgium and a career in teaching, whilst Janes honest, intelligent mind draws declarations of love. Both are the unforgettable creations of the deeply independent and brilliant Charlotte Bronte. Selected from Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre and Villette. VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.