I like your country lhave two souns ian càtholiç teacher

I have twio sons

It was hard for me to follow but, can someone break down the ending of this for me? I'm really confused

weird observation . . . the fire is going backwards.

I have to stop my head from spinning.

You should narrate the cask of amontillado; your voice would fit it.

Okay how is this possible. I have just starting learning this at school and have stumbled randomly upon this channel and seen this.

The fact that at somepoint she turns from really hating that room to enjoying benig there really sparked fear in me she then starts describing a shadow creeping invoking me even more since i am in a dark room and then she blurs the line between herself and the shadow and when it's evident she is not herself anymore it's too late for now she too creeps on the yellow wallpaper

This book ruined my 8th grade

Go on...

Is this wallpaper made of arcenic?

Why why why why why why why
Why is this the scariest thing I’ve heard in a while.

Dear reader don't go to the comments lest u see spoilers.

This is funny cause I just had todo a research paper on this exact story!

I still love this story. :)

i remember reading this in school. it was quite... strange

If you're considering reading more short stories, may we make suggestions? I'd love to hear you read Of Mice and Men. May have to split it up into parts, though.

The "every time" at the end gets me. What does it mean!?

If it was green wallpaper in that period... then it certainly was the wallpaper.
Green Victorian wallpaper being coloured by arsenic...

hexagon cult join my brothers

Finally getting a chance to listen and 9 minutes in I'm so intrigued I wiki the title to get more info
CGP Grey is listed at the bottom under Dramatic Adaptations :)

The madness at 28:43 😦

I just realized we read this and the last story for my English class 1-2 weeks ago, and currently this and the last video are 1 week old

I don't get it :(

I don't remember the sexism being that overt. Chalk it up to being a dumb teenager, I suppose.

I read this for ap lit

My friends had to do something for this for English and there’s still confused about it

Thank you for a nice goodnight story, this is the ultimate sleeping pill.

bro we read this last year

my teacher read this to us, what a coincedence

Who is joe

I literally had to read this for a project on like the 15th. do you KNOW how much more interested I would've been if Grey had been narrating?

it feels like shes not just insane but her husband is drugging her

Fascinating so Its the same wife but the perspective changes in a single sentence. I think. This is really..... my mind

This makes no sense

I cannot tell you how annoying it is to hear a page flip. It's an ever present reminder that this is a book and that there are pages and these pages can go on for infinitum and now you have to sit there waiting for the page turn instead of being engaged in the story.

I do not like this husband, seems quite controlling.

The text of this is just plain vicious. :-)

i have always loved this story.. and have always felt so connected with the story teller... and always wondered what the story of the house actually was as well... that room was not a "nursery" but obviously had some history of madness in the past.... and also, an interesting study of what most likely postpartum depression of the time...

@bookladydavina People assigned rest cure frequently went mad.

the bed was bolted to the floor, and had been gnawed on, the floors and walls had been scratched and gouged, the windows were barred and the hooks in the walls were most likely used to attach some sort of restraints.. there was madness in the house before...

Its likely that it was a nursery at some point in its past but by the time this story was written there were a lot of old country mansions that got rented out for things like rest cures, so its likely she would not have been the first person to be locked up there.

I remember being so angry at the husband the first time I read this, but you know what? I don't think I was angry enough.

I'm not sure the husband is the best target for anger, the society that told him you have to do this or she will get worse and we will take her away and lock her up where no one will ever see her again is probably a better target.

Utterly compelling portent to a precipitous descent... Wow that was good.

CGP reads CPG!

Oh my gosh, we had to read this in English Lit for college. One guy in particular was completely traumatized by this.

Halfway through, and I decide to read the comments. ‘‘Twas a shame for now I am left without ease, and settled I am now not

Of the 3 stories, this is the one that creeped me out the most!
No pun intended

Me: oh this could be a good little break..how long is it........THIRTY MINUTES!

Having insomnia. This is perfect. Thank you, Grey.

I remember reading this in school. It is such a creepy story. I like this stories. Thank you for reading them

Grey u should've read this a year earlier, I was in his reading this same story

The fire is playing.... backwards?

we need more of grey reading books

I didn't know I subscribed to an audio book channel =(

The fire animation is reversed. Now you will not unsee it.

I can now cancel my Calm subscription. I have everything I need.

Is the fire moving backwards? I can’t stop staring at it. Trying to decipher the pattern. Why do the sparks move downwards? Did you do that on purpose?

That was genuinely unnerving, nice reading Grey.

Did anyone else notice that the sparks from the flames run backwards? It's a bit unsettling, and it feels like it fits the mood of the story.

Heh, the fire is getting me crazy why is it going backwards, is like he made so it's to story something small and maddening

Can somebody explain the last few sentences from "Now why should that man have fainted?..." i really dont think i get it yet.

@J B While im not entirely convinced (there is no mention or indication of her attacking him, i wouldve thought he was just shocked by all the paper and her weird behaviour, oh and the rope), i guess you provided the most solid explanation yet. Thx^^

At this point in the story the narrator has lost touch with reality and become unreliable, not even recognizing some actions she sees as her own, so while it is possible the author meant that he actually fainted, or maybe had a heart attack, I think is more likely that she attacked him. "What is the matter?" he cried. "For God's sake, what are you doing!" Is likely what he yelled when she attacked him and not just because she was creeping around the room rubbing her shoulder on the wall. "I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder." Her looking back at his body. In the end she just continues to loop around the room even crawling over him on each lap.

One of my favorite things about this story is that it was written as contemporary fiction to display the flaw in the then current practice of doctors prescribing isolation as a remedy for women's mental health issues. (Spoiler: Many women were ending up like the woman in this story.)

The backwards fire makes me feel uneasy for some reason,can’t stop looking at it

Do you see the woman behind it? Shaking it as she creeps around?

I would listen to Gray read the phone book.

Creepy, man! This story reminds me of that painting in the book "Witches".

One of my favorite stories of Weird Fiction! I definitely support more Grey Storytime in the future.

Arabesque not abaresque lol

Possibly one of the worst stories I have ever herd but Grey narrated it so I'm still liking the video.

Haven't read this one since I was a child a... wow, yes, this is a horror story. Five minutes in and I want to chew off my own hands.

whys is the fire going backwords?

Had to read this in English, and write an essay about mental illnesses and gender inequality in the past.

this should be a podcast thingy hehe difficult to listen in you tube

For the sake of nitpicking, the fire is flowing backwards in time. The embers should be going up, nor down.

Why did you remove the video about why you can never own land? Where is the video? Why did you quietly remove it without saying anything?

this is so disturbing -. truly, a horror story (about a man abusing a depressed women).

this is one of my favorite short stories growing up. One of the few things school forced me to read that I was glad for the experience

I read this in college. Interesting to hear Grey read it.

It's funny how much attitudes change yet remain the same. Nowadays we understandably think such "treatment" is actually counterproductive, yet also retain some of these same relationship dynamics, although I'd argue they're less likely to be patriarchal in nature.

This one is by far the creepiest

Lovely. It would have been great if the light behind the trees in the window had faded to black by the end.
EDIT: just got to the part with the moon. Nevermind, it's perfect.

You have to chill, I listened to this the night you posted it, then the Monday after we read it in class and everybody thought I was a god when I knew how the story went.

Is the fireplace burning backwards in time?

John is toxic

John is portrayed as a physician of 19th century medicine, and as such he relies on the knowledge of the day. (at least as far as the protagonist is aware). He doesn't believe the protagonist's intuition, and instead prescribes what he (to his knowledge) knows to be the cure. The protagonist knows it doesn't work, she can intuitively feel it, but you can't explain intuition to a man of science, as it's like two separate languages. Se he brushes her off, and tells her she's getting "better" because from his perspective "better" as a physician purely defined by physical characteristics of the body. This creates a disconnect in the protagonist between what she intuitively feels, and her external reality. When Intuition crosses knowledge bad things happen. Because in a sense your intuition is your sense of self. For John to assert his precepts of reality on her in this manner is abusive. Especially if that person has no escape, or recourse.
What makes this story truly Insidious though is that John's motives were pure. He was acting out of good intent. And with the scientific knowledge of the time (as far as the protagonist is aware).
Which begs the question: what problems have we caused out of ignorance?
how many lives have we negatively impacted out of actions made with good interests.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Plus bed rest that often can be terrible for you

These stories were such a neat listen. I hope you do more!

What a great example of using symbolism that's obvious but not overhanded. Plain eerie and psychological. Happy Halloween!

The residue of this short story can be found in so many pieces of media, that you can almost always guess the temperament and mental facilities of a character based on how the set designers have decided to decorate their rooms

The sound of grey turning the page at the beginning of the story was so theraputic

oh my gooddness this was a nightmare for my english class.

Is the fire going backward?

This is great! You're an excellent narrator.

Grey thank you this is super cool, I really hope you do more readings now and again!! I would pay good money for 'Grey Reads' audiobooks >.>

Just read this last week

I have been referring to this short story for YEARS and no one seems to recall reading it in school. I'm glad that you're doing everyone a service by bringing this amazing story to the masses. A woman going insane.... who is stuck alone, in a room, with no company and nothing to do and the men in her life telling her that what they think of her condition/life and somehow this is more valuable than what she herself has to say about it. The hysteria of women! How we must protect ourselves from it! I hope the sarcasm came through loud and clear. Who would not suffer from worsening mental health under these conditions?
This story is an amazing work! This poor woman was suffering from postpartum depression and was made worse by a world that did not understand, listen to, or value the experiences of women. It's unbelievable that such a work was published in the 1800s... it's even more unbelievable that the woman who suffered the fate of this story then has contemporaries now who are equally unheard, equally dismissed and equally misunderstood.

I always felt bad for the character, and even more so for the author who I think wrote the story from personal experience.

I remember reading this in college, many years ago. I didn't have much time for leisurely reading back then and a lot of material to get through for that class. I had forgotten or missed noticing how funny the narrator is sometimes, and of course, on the first read through, didn't know where the story was going to go. It has stayed with me all those many years ago. I see it as a cautionary tale about resisting patriarchy and avoiding people who infantilize other adults irrespective of sex.

This is such a good tale, I remember reading it while bored in english class a few years ago, and how it resonated with me then. This was by far a more harrowing experience, and I know how much you dislike "Positive Criticism", so I'll ask: why is the fire going backwards?

I read this in college, loved the story. A tale of a woman suffering from post-partum that transforms into a chilling dip into insanity, absolutely brilliant!

This room makes me want to jump off a bridge

WHY IS THE FIRE GOING BACKWARDS!?!?!

hmm this story is so odd! Is it the unreliable narrator weak to evil influences or the partners choices driving her to madness
and what does Creep around mean?!

this is a great story, but it doesn't suit you.

I love this story! Gray, you show your good tastes again.

fire is burning backwoods and I don't like that

Me: had this book as an assignment last year and couldn't find a good audiobook of it
Grey: posts this the next year

@Matthew Childs If you get this book, I think you'll find a good audiobook.

I hope I am not as unfortunate lmao