“The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story as chilling and relevant today as it was upon its initial publication in 1892. The story is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature for its depiction of the attitudes towards the mental and physical health of women in the 19th century. It is also lauded as an excellent work of gothic and horror fiction.

Diagnosed by her physician husband with a “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency” after the birth of their child, a woman is urged to rest for the Summer in an old colonial mansion. Forbidden from doing work of any kind, she spends her days in the house’s former nursery, with its barred windows, scratched floor, and peeling yellow wall-paper.