What Was the Matter?
– 1869
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
(1815–1852)
A widowed mother sends for her sister, but she mysteriously fails to arrive, casting a dark shadow over the household. A servant is taken into the household; after a severe illness, she begins to have mediumistic visions (which prove to be accurate), and speaks of seeing the missing sister.
The Dream House
– 1887
Margaret Raine Hunt
(1831–1912)
Mrs. Arbuthnot and her daughters move into a big old house that she has previously envisioned vividly in her dreams, and it is reported to have a ghost. As they navigate the reality of the house, the boundary between dreams, premonitions, and the supernatural begins to blur, uncovering unsettling secrets hidden within its walls.
My Dream
– 1889
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
(1835–1915)
Gilbert returns from Army duty in India, and asks Bess to marry him. During their engagement, she dreams — vividly — of Gilbert every night, and they both investigate the psychology of dreams. Then, the night before her sweetheart will go hunting with his friends, she has a frightening dream…
Lois Benson’s Love Story
– 1890
Anne Page
(? – ?)
To cope with her isolation and the social stigma of being an “old maid,” aging spinster Lois Benson constructs an idealized “love story” out of a memory. Her desperate loneliness and repressed desires ultimately manifest in a haunting fashion.
The Yellow Wallpaper
– 1892
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
(1860–1935)
A woman’s terrifying descent into psychosis, based on the author’s own actual experiences.
Diagnosed with “temporary nervous depression” (postpartum depression) by her physician husband, the narrator is forced into complete mental and physical inactivity. She is forbidden to write, work, or see her newborn child. Gradually, her sanity begins to unravel.
The Dream of an Hour
– 1894
Kate Chopin
(1850–1904)
Because of Louise’s severe “heart trouble”, her sister and a family friend take great care to gently break the news that her husband, Brently Mallard, has been killed. Upon hearing the news, Louise breaks into passionate weeping and retreats alone to her upstairs bedroom, locking the door. As she sits looking out an open window, an unexpected wave of emotion washes over her, and she whispers the words, “free, free, free.”
A Dreamer
– 1902
Barbara Baynton
(1857–1929)
A young pregnant woman arrives at a remote Australian railway station late at night during a gathering storm, but nobody is there to meet her. Driven by a powerful longing to re-unite with her beloved mother, she sets off to walk the remaining way. Her journey becomes a harrowing nightmare, but memories of her mother and maternal instincts toward her own unborn child give her the strength to push forward.
The Dream Necklace
– 1903
“Coralie Stanton”
(Alice Cecile Seymour Hosken)
(1877–1951)
One night, Stella Durance, while wearing a newly-purchased antique pearl necklace, awakens in terror, screaming that the pearls are cursed. She describes to her husband a horrifying dream in which she witnessed a young woman from two centuries earlier being strangled by a richly dressed man using the very same pearl necklace as a garrote.
In the Closed Room
– 1904
Frances Hodgson Burnett
(1849–1924)
Judith, a solitary and imaginative young girl, gains access to a supposedly locked room. Inside, she meets a delicate, ethereal little girl who feels like a reflection of both Judith and her frequently dreamed-about deceased Aunt Hester. The two girls share a quiet, beautiful connection that bridges the gap between the living world and the afterlife.
A Dissatisfied Soul
– 1904
Annie Trumbull Slosson
(1838–1926)
In life, Maria Bliven is an eccentric spinster known for being the “flittiest, restlessest, changeablest” person in the community. She never stays in one place for more than a few days before moving on. Maria passes away and is formally buried. However, three weeks after her funeral, Maria shocks her family by walking right back into the house as if nothing had happened.
The Dream-Baby
– 1904
Olivia Howard Dunbar
(1873–1953)
Two retired schoolteachers are eager to experience motherhood but limited by their societal circumstances. Their lives take a strange and unorthodox turn when one of the women begins dreaming of a baby every single night, and the other partner becomes profoundly obsessed with this phantom “dream-baby.”
Hunger
– 1907
Katharine Holland Brown
(1876–1931)
Eleanor has recurring dreams of a lovely young woman who seems to plead for some unknown fulfillment. The dreams fade after the birth of her son— then when the baby begins to walk and talk, he speaks of the “gone-away lady.”
Secret Chambers
– 1909
Nancy Mann Woodrow
(1867–1935)
This examination of the psychological anxieties of a second wife predates and strongly mirrors Daphne du Maurier’s classic novel “Rebecca” (1938). A passionate artist and his new bride return to his ancestral home. The house is deeply overshadowed by the oppressive presence and memory of Arnold’s deceased first wife, Adele; and a devoted, sinister housekeeper keeps Adele’s memory green. As Sylvia spends more time isolated in the mansion, she suffers a severe psychological unraveling, losing her sense of self.
The Operation
– 1911
Violet Hunt
(1862–1942)
The narrative centers on Mrs. Florence Mardell, the second wife of the celebrated dwarf comic actor Joseph Mardell. The tension begins when the household cook, Vance, reports witnessing a funeral procession leaving a neighboring house on Christmas Day, but no one has actually died in that house. Descriptions of the gravely ill inhabitant bear an uncanny resemblance to Joseph’s divorced first wife, Julia.
The House
– 1912
Katherine Mansfield
(1888–1923)
A young woman caught in a heavy rainstorm takes cover on the porch of an empty house. She is mysteriously transported inside the house, and experiences a vivid, idyllic vision of her future life within its walls — picturing herself with a husband and children. This spectral daydream highlights the distance between the woman’s harsh reality and her domestic dreams.
The Triumph of Night
– 1914
Edith Wharton
(1862–1937)
The story explores human malice, greed, and psychological terror. On a freezing winter night, George Faxon is stranded at a remote train junction, and is rescued by a young, ailing man named Frank Rainer who brings him to the grand estate of Rainer’s wealthy uncle, John Lavington. Faxon is asked to witness young Rainier’s will, and sees a terrifying ghostly double of Lavington standing behind Frank, radiating intense hatred and murderous intent.
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