The Yellow Wallpaper cover art

The Yellow Wallpaper

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Yellow Wallpaper

By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Narrated by: Beata Poźniak
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $9.99

Buy Now for $9.99

About this listen

A groundbreaking feminist masterpiece and one of the most exquisite horror stories in American literature.

Diagnosed by her physician husband with a “temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency” after the birth of her 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 wallpaper.

In a private journal, the woman records her growing obsession with the “horrid” wallpaper. Its strange pattern mutates in the moonlight, revealing what appears to be a human figure in the design. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the woman resolves to unlock the mystery of the wallpaper. Her quest, however, leads not to the truth, but into the darkest depths of madness.

A masterly use of the unreliable narrator and a scathing indictment of patriarchal medical practices, The Yellow Wallpaper is a true American classic.

Originally published in 1892.

Public Domain (P)2021 Discordia Global Media Classics Gothic Horror Scary Marriage

Critic Reviews

“Narrator Beata Pozniak’s captivating accent and likable style are ideal for this seminal feminist short story (1892)…Pozniak faultlessly delivers journal entries that express the woman’s longing to see her baby and to go outside. She is kept in a room with yellow wallpaper, whose eerie designs eventually appear to come alive. Impressive sound effects—for example, the wallpaper’s movements and sounds, as well as the woman’s breathing—augment Pozniak’s voice as it slides into notes of terror. Those elements and a riveting conclusion demonstrate that audiobooks can be as horrifying as anything on the screen.” (AudioFile)
All stars
Most relevant  
What isolation can do. An accurate and intimate look at the helplessness of insanity. Well written, an eye opening experience.

Disturbing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
very powerful portrait of mental health and especially insightful of the time it was written and what does and does not reverberate to today.
struggled a bit with the reader and voice performance but well worth listening to.

Powerful and socially insightful portrait

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
the creepiness and decent into madness that can fit into only 1 hour is so well constructed, narrator did a fantastic job

short and creepy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.