Synopses & Reviews
In Wild Unrest, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz offers a vivid portrait of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the 1880s, drawing new connections between the author's life and work and illuminating the predicament of women then and now. Horowitz draws on a treasure trove of primary sources to explore the nature of 19th-century nervous illness and to illuminate the making of Gilman's famous short story, "The Yellow Wall-Paper": Gilman's journals and letters, which closely track her daily life and the reading that most influenced her; the voluminous diaries of her husband, Walter Stetson; and the writings, published and unpublished of S. Weir Mitchell, whose rest cure dominated the treatment of female "hysteria" in late 19th-century America. Horowitz argues that these sources ultimately reveal that Gilman's great story emerged more from emotions rooted in the confinement and tensions of her unhappy marriage than from distress following Mitchell's rest cure. Hailed by The Boston Globe as "an engaging portrait of the woman and her times," Wild Unrest adds immeasurably to our understanding of Charlotte Perkins Gilman as well as the literary and personal sources behind "The Yellow Wall-Paper."
Review
"This book is particularly interesting for its dual biographical dimensions, following two lives in the making, that of a feminist and that of a text. In the process, Horowitz properly historicizes The Yellow Wall-Paper by reconstructing the steps leading up to its composition. Interrogating and cross-checking sources, she writes with a watchful eye to the mythologies surrounding the novella. And yet, she maintains and illustrates the importance of this famed story. Horowitz illustrates how it reflected Charlotte's most painful mental afflictions and deepest gender conflicts, painting a vivid portrait of the circumstances that would not let her rest." --American Historical Review
"In her engaging volume, Wild Unrest, Horowitz draws upon her considerable strengths as a historian of both American women and sexuality in the Victorian era...Horowitz's dogged, resourceful, imaginative research is rare indeed, and it is one of the things that makes this book such a pleasure to read." --Resources for American Literary Study
"Horowitz has done a truly admirable job of moving beyond the expectations of Charlotte's feminist iconhood and exploring who she really was, from the words of those who knew her best at her moments of greatest pain, her husband and herself. It's an elegant job of understated biography and goes a long way toward making a great American someone anyone, but especially women, can understand and embrace." --Eclectica
"[A] gripping analysis...Horowitz properly historicizes The Yellow Wall-Paper by reconstructing the steps leading up to its composition...[and] maintains and illustrates the importance of this famed story." --American Historical Review
"A convincing, absorbing, and perceptive book." --Publishers Weekly
"Wild Unrest is enthralling. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a brilliant, passionate, self-divided young American woman---prone to depression. Here is the powerful story of how she became a great American-one who could find both love and her life's work." -- Catharine R. Stimpson, New York University
"With brilliant psychological and literary insight, Wild Unrest probes the conflicts between love and work that defined Charlotte Perkins Gilman's early adult life. The book will forever change our understanding of Gilman's most disturbing, and justly famous, work of fiction." -- Elisabeth Israels Perry, author of Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith
"An erudite, accessible, and timely tale of an extraordinary woman, whose words and deeds, in Horowitz's deft hands, lay bare the contours of passion, power, suffering, and medicine in a critical chapter of American life." -- Andrea Tone, Canada Research Chair in the Social History of Medicine
"An intelligent provocative read." --Louise Gleason, Worcester Women's History Project
"[A] fascinating account of one woman's attempts to navigate the tightly circumscribed social world of the 1800s...Horowitz's account is compelling..." --Phoebe Connelly, Bookforum
"Horowitz found an interesting relationship to follow: our bold dreamer Charlotte and struggling artist Walter." --Carmen Johnson, tk reviews
"In Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz brings Gilman's life and work together in an engaging portrait of the woman and her times." --Anna Mundow, Boston Globe
'[Horowitz] takes a gentle, yet personal approach, letting Gilman speak for herself much of the time through her diaries and letters... Wild Unrest is refreshingly non-reductive, in that its author allows Gilman to be complex, to have a nature that is both loving and resistant, physical and intellectual, male and female. Horowitz shares evidence of Gilman's deep affection for women without categorizing her in terms of today's sexual dichotomies. She also places Gilman's melancholic episodes in context, and provides a fascinating history behind terms like "neurasthenia," and famed neurologist S. Weir Mitchell's "rest cure."'
-- Angela Meyer, Bookslut
'The first new biography, a must for "Wallpaper" geeks, is the elegantly written Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of the Yellow Wall-Paper.' --Paula Kamen, Ms. Magazine
"A rich depiction of the interplay among innate talent, family dynamics, biological predisposition, life events, and the demands of culture. The book gives welcome depth and complexity to a life that has often been shrunk to a simple account of the travails of a feminist icon whose 'The Yellow Wallpaper' has been unfairly tagged as her primary accomplishmentEL.Portrays convincingly the emotional turmoil and the relentless energy that characterized Gilman's life."-Miles F. Shore, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Review
"Horowitz has done a truly admirable job of moving beyond the expectations of Charlotte's feminist iconhood and exploring who she really was, from the words of those who knew her best at her moments of greatest pain, her husband and herself. It's an elegant job of understated biography and goes a long way toward making a great American someone anyone, but especially women, can understand and embrace." --Eclectica
"[A] gripping analysis...Horowitz properly historicizes The Yellow Wall-Paper by reconstructing the steps leading up to its composition...[and] maintains and illustrates the importance of this famed story." --American Historical Review
"A convincing, absorbing, and perceptive book." --Publishers Weekly
"Wild Unrest is enthralling. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a brilliant, passionate, self-divided young American woman---prone to depression. Here is the powerful story of how she became a great American-one who could find both love and her life's work." -- Catharine R. Stimpson, New York University
"With brilliant psychological and literary insight, Wild Unrest probes the conflicts between love and work that defined Charlotte Perkins Gilman's early adult life. The book will forever change our understanding of Gilman's most disturbing, and justly famous, work of fiction." -- Elisabeth Israels Perry, author of Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith
"An erudite, accessible, and timely tale of an extraordinary woman, whose words and deeds, in Horowitz's deft hands, lay bare the contours of passion, power, suffering, and medicine in a critical chapter of American life." -- Andrea Tone, Canada Research Chair in the Social History of Medicine
"An intelligent provocative read." --Louise Gleason, Worcester Women's History Project
"[A] fascinating account of one woman's attempts to navigate the tightly circumscribed social world of the 1800s...Horowitz's account is compelling..." --Phoebe Connelly, Bookforum
"Horowitz found an interesting relationship to follow: our bold dreamer Charlotte and struggling artist Walter." --Carmen Johnson, tk reviews
"In Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz brings Gilman's life and work together in an engaging portrait of the woman and her times." --Anna Mundow, Boston Globe
'[Horowitz] takes a gentle, yet personal approach, letting Gilman speak for herself much of the time through her diaries and letters... Wild Unrest is refreshingly non-reductive, in that its author allows Gilman to be complex, to have a nature that is both loving and resistant, physical and intellectual, male and female. Horowitz shares evidence of Gilman's deep affection for women without categorizing her in terms of today's sexual dichotomies. She also places Gilman's melancholic episodes in context, and provides a fascinating history behind terms like "neurasthenia," and famed neurologist S. Weir Mitchell's "rest cure."'
-- Angela Meyer, Bookslut
'The first new biography, a must for "Wallpaper" geeks, is the elegantly written Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of the Yellow Wall-Paper.' --Paula Kamen, Ms. Magazine
"A rich depiction of the interplay among innate talent, family dynamics, biological predisposition, life events, and the demands of culture. The book gives welcome depth and complexity to a life that has often been shrunk to a simple account of the travails of a feminist icon whose 'The Yellow Wallpaper' has been unfairly tagged as her primary accomplishmentEL.Portrays convincingly the emotional turmoil and the relentless energy that characterized Gilman's life."-Miles F. Shore, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Review
"In her engaging volume, Wild Unrest, Horowitz draws upon her considerable strengths as a historian of both American women and sexuality in the Victorian era...Horowitz's dogged, resourceful, imaginative research is rare indeed, and it is one of the things that makes this book such a pleasure to read." --Resources for American Literary Study
"Horowitz has done a truly admirable job of moving beyond the expectations of Charlotte's feminist iconhood and exploring who she really was, from the words of those who knew her best at her moments of greatest pain, her husband and herself. It's an elegant job of understated biography and goes a long way toward making a great American someone anyone, but especially women, can understand and embrace." --Eclectica
"[A] gripping analysis...Horowitz properly historicizes The Yellow Wall-Paper by reconstructing the steps leading up to its composition...[and] maintains and illustrates the importance of this famed story." --American Historical Review
"A convincing, absorbing, and perceptive book." --Publishers Weekly
"Wild Unrest is enthralling. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a brilliant, passionate, self-divided young American woman---prone to depression. Here is the powerful story of how she became a great American-one who could find both love and her life's work." -- Catharine R. Stimpson, New York University
"With brilliant psychological and literary insight, Wild Unrest probes the conflicts between love and work that defined Charlotte Perkins Gilman's early adult life. The book will forever change our understanding of Gilman's most disturbing, and justly famous, work of fiction." -- Elisabeth Israels Perry, author of Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith
"An erudite, accessible, and timely tale of an extraordinary woman, whose words and deeds, in Horowitz's deft hands, lay bare the contours of passion, power, suffering, and medicine in a critical chapter of American life." -- Andrea Tone, Canada Research Chair in the Social History of Medicine
"An intelligent provocative read." --Louise Gleason, Worcester Women's History Project
"[A] fascinating account of one woman's attempts to navigate the tightly circumscribed social world of the 1800s...Horowitz's account is compelling..." --Phoebe Connelly, Bookforum
"Horowitz found an interesting relationship to follow: our bold dreamer Charlotte and struggling artist Walter." --Carmen Johnson, tk reviews
"In Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz brings Gilman's life and work together in an engaging portrait of the woman and her times." --Anna Mundow, Boston Globe
'[Horowitz] takes a gentle, yet personal approach, letting Gilman speak for herself much of the time through her diaries and letters... Wild Unrest is refreshingly non-reductive, in that its author allows Gilman to be complex, to have a nature that is both loving and resistant, physical and intellectual, male and female. Horowitz shares evidence of Gilman's deep affection for women without categorizing her in terms of today's sexual dichotomies. She also places Gilman's melancholic episodes in context, and provides a fascinating history behind terms like "neurasthenia," and famed neurologist S. Weir Mitchell's "rest cure."'
-- Angela Meyer, Bookslut
'The first new biography, a must for "Wallpaper" geeks, is the elegantly written Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of the Yellow Wall-Paper.' --Paula Kamen, Ms. Magazine
"A rich depiction of the interplay among innate talent, family dynamics, biological predisposition, life events, and the demands of culture. The book gives welcome depth and complexity to a life that has often been shrunk to a simple account of the travails of a feminist icon whose 'The Yellow Wallpaper' has been unfairly tagged as her primary accomplishmentEL.Portrays convincingly the emotional turmoil and the relentless energy that characterized Gilman's life."-Miles F. Shore, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Review
"This book is particularly interesting for its dual biographical dimensions, following two lives in the making, that of a feminist and that of a text. In the process, Horowitz properly historicizes The Yellow Wall-Paper by reconstructing the steps leading up to its composition. Interrogating and cross-checking sources, she writes with a watchful eye to the mythologies surrounding the novella. And yet, she maintains and illustrates the importance of this famed story. Horowitz illustrates how it reflected Charlotte's most painful mental afflictions and deepest gender conflicts, painting a vivid portrait of the circumstances that would not let her rest." --American Historical Review
"In her engaging volume, Wild Unrest, Horowitz draws upon her considerable strengths as a historian of both American women and sexuality in the Victorian era...Horowitz's dogged, resourceful, imaginative research is rare indeed, and it is one of the things that makes this book such a pleasure to read." --Resources for American Literary Study
"Horowitz has done a truly admirable job of moving beyond the expectations of Charlotte's feminist iconhood and exploring who she really was, from the words of those who knew her best at her moments of greatest pain, her husband and herself. It's an elegant job of understated biography and goes a long way toward making a great American someone anyone, but especially women, can understand and embrace." --Eclectica
"[A] gripping analysis...Horowitz properly historicizes The Yellow Wall-Paper by reconstructing the steps leading up to its composition...[and] maintains and illustrates the importance of this famed story." --American Historical Review
"A convincing, absorbing, and perceptive book." --Publishers Weekly
"Wild Unrest is enthralling. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a brilliant, passionate, self-divided young American woman---prone to depression. Here is the powerful story of how she became a great American-one who could find both love and her life's work." -- Catharine R. Stimpson, New York University
"With brilliant psychological and literary insight, Wild Unrest probes the conflicts between love and work that defined Charlotte Perkins Gilman's early adult life. The book will forever change our understanding of Gilman's most disturbing, and justly famous, work of fiction." -- Elisabeth Israels Perry, author of Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith
"An erudite, accessible, and timely tale of an extraordinary woman, whose words and deeds, in Horowitz's deft hands, lay bare the contours of passion, power, suffering, and medicine in a critical chapter of American life." -- Andrea Tone, Canada Research Chair in the Social History of Medicine
"An intelligent provocative read." --Louise Gleason, Worcester Women's History Project
"[A] fascinating account of one woman's attempts to navigate the tightly circumscribed social world of the 1800s...Horowitz's account is compelling..." --Phoebe Connelly, Bookforum
"Horowitz found an interesting relationship to follow: our bold dreamer Charlotte and struggling artist Walter." --Carmen Johnson, tk reviews
"In Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz brings Gilman's life and work together in an engaging portrait of the woman and her times." --Anna Mundow, Boston Globe
'[Horowitz] takes a gentle, yet personal approach, letting Gilman speak for herself much of the time through her diaries and letters... Wild Unrest is refreshingly non-reductive, in that its author allows Gilman to be complex, to have a nature that is both loving and resistant, physical and intellectual, male and female. Horowitz shares evidence of Gilman's deep affection for women without categorizing her in terms of today's sexual dichotomies. She also places Gilman's melancholic episodes in context, and provides a fascinating history behind terms like "neurasthenia," and famed neurologist S. Weir Mitchell's "rest cure."'
-- Angela Meyer, Bookslut
'The first new biography, a must for "Wallpaper" geeks, is the elegantly written Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of the Yellow Wall-Paper.' --Paula Kamen, Ms. Magazine
"A rich depiction of the interplay among innate talent, family dynamics, biological predisposition, life events, and the demands of culture. The book gives welcome depth and complexity to a life that has often been shrunk to a simple account of the travails of a feminist icon whose 'The Yellow Wallpaper' has been unfairly tagged as her primary accomplishmentEL.Portrays convincingly the emotional turmoil and the relentless energy that characterized Gilman's life."-Miles F. Shore, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
About the Author
Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz is Sydenham Clark Parsons Professor of History Emerita at Smith College.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Charlotte at Twenty-One
2. Walter Happens
3. Pull Back and a Proposition
4. To Wed and to Bed
5. After Marriage, What?
6. In the Care of S. Weir Mitchell
7. Return to Providence
8. To "The Yellow Wall-Paper"
9. "The Yellow Wall-Paper"
10. Beyond "The Yellow Wall-Paper"
Notes
Index