the vampire magician protagonist is an interesting
character. Her two best fantasy novels are Monet’s
Ghost (1997), in which a teenager receives the
power to physically enter the worlds depicted in
paintings, and Ariosto(1980), based in part on Or-
lando Furioso(1516) by Ariosto, an epic poem, al-
though in this case the hero has visions of himself
in a future America.
A good selection of Yarbro’s short supernatu-
ral fiction appeared as Signs and Portents(1986).
Apprehensions and Other Delusions(2003) is more
slanted toward fantasy. “The Creatures That
Walked in Darkness” (1993) and “In the Face of
Death” (2000) are among her very best at that
length, as is “The Spider Glass” (1991), a Saint
Germain story. No other writer of fantasy or horror
has used settings from so many different times,
places, and cultures. Although the results have not
been uniformly successful, the majority, particu-
larly the vampire novels, succeed in making their
settings and characters come to life.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins
Gilman(1890)
The early feminist author Charlotte Perkins
Gilman, author of one of the first feminist utopian
novels, Herland(1914), wrote very little fantasy or
horror fiction, but one of her few short horror tales
has been an acknowledged classic almost from the
time of its first publication. It is story like
“WILLIAM WILSON” (1840) by Edgar Allan POE
that concentrates so completely on the psychology
of the narrator-protagonist that the events de-
scribed could be either supernatural or delusional.
The narrator in this case is a woman married
to a domineering physician who insists that she
suffers from a nervous condition and microman-
ages her life to such an extent that she barely has
one. They have temporarily rented a house and are
sleeping in a former nursery decorated with yellow
wallpaper that she initially finds hideous and
vaguely disturbing because of its odd pattern but
that later fascinates her. There is evidence that the
former residents found the paper equally upsetting,
which is the closest we have to actual proof that
something paranormal is taking place. The house
is run by her sister-in-law, who even takes care of
their infant child, and she is forbidden even the
strain of writing, although the present account
proves that she does so when unobserved.
The first hint we receive that something is
wrong is that she sees people from her window who
are clearly invisible to everyone else, although
even she admits she may be daydreaming. The
wallpaper becomes an increasing obsession, partic-
ularly when she begins to perceive the pattern as
bars that restrain the spirit of an unknown woman,
who can only escape in the darkness but must re-
turn at sunrise. Determined to solve the pattern
and free the prisoner, she becomes increasingly in-
troverted, develops paranoid feelings toward the
other people in the house, and finally locks herself
in her room. She strips the last of the paper from
the wall and then informs her husband that she is
now the woman from behind the pattern.
The symbolism is very obvious. Trapped in her
own life by the pattern imposed by her husband,
she “escapes” through a series of rebellious acts.
Whether this breakdown was inherent in her situa-
tion or whether the wallpaper possessed some la-
tent power to influence the mind of the living is
left to the reader’s interpretation.Yolen, Jane(1939– )
Jane Yolen is something of a publishing phe-
nomenon, particularly in children’s literature, al-
though she has also proven her ability to write for
adults with equal skill. Since starting her career in
the 1960s, she has published more than 100 books,
many of them fantasy, but also in several other
areas, including poetry, picture books, nonfiction,
and science fiction. The publisher Harcourt Brace
established the Jane Yolen Books imprint for sev-
eral years, under which name she published a
number of overlooked fantasies by other writers.
She also edited the short-lived but highly respected
Xanadu series of original anthologies of fantasy
short stories during the 1990s as well as several
other collections.
The border between Yolen’s adult and young
adult novels is not always clear, and even some of
her children’s books appeal to much older readers.
Her best novel is Briar Rose(1992), which is only
marginally fantasy. She used the basic situation of396 “The Yellow Wallpaper”