Tom's treasures of fiction, poetry, literature and more...

Today I am back with another review. This time I am reviewing the short story 'Suggestion' (1895) by Ada Leverson which first appeared in The Yellow Book . This was a quarterly limited-run journal focussing on art and literature. Ada Leverson was one of the women writers of the Fin de Siècle  and a friend to Oscar Wilde. The title of the short story - 'Suggestion' sums up the short story well. To me there is a quadruple meaning as the narrator Cecil Carington suggests things for his sister and his sister-in-law. Then there is the second meaning of suggestion in which Cecil and his sister Marjorie try to come up with suggestions on how to make their father a more pleasing man so that their new mother-in-law, Marjorie's friend can find married life a bit more bearable. The third suggestion is that Cecil is gay. He seems to get on very well with his friend Adrian, of whom his sister Marjorie has her eyes on. Cecil already has someone else planned for her and seems dete...

Welcome all to my latest offering on the blog! This time I am reviewing the mysterious gothic short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I read this short story for university when we looks at women writers of the Fin de Siècle, pronounced  as /f æn dʊ si:ɛkl   in phonetic or those who do not follow, simply pronounced as  "fan du see-eh-kl" with the "du" sounding the same as in look or put. In case you actually wander what the Fin de  Siècle is French for end of the century. The emphasis is on the ending of the 19th century and it's characteristics. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a good example of the Fin de Si ècle. The short story highlights the struggles that women can face and how women can fall victim to being diagnosed with hysteria. In the short story, the narrator reveals she cannot do certain things because she is unwell. She sees life as exciting and considers that a ...