Charlotte Gilman’s story The Yellow Wallpaper I remember from last year’s Approaching Literature and was a fine introduction to someone whose writing I hadn’t come across before.

Ambiguous endings are a big thing with fin de siecle novels of the nineteenth century - supposedly they represent the whole breakdown of moral certainty of the Victorian era, although it is easy to categorise these things retrospectively. Virginia Woolf certainly moved things a lot further with Orlando and her pastiche/critique of nineteenth century writing.

I had no idea that Kate Chopin had Irish blood though, thanks for that. Great piece by the way. Sorry for blabbing, but its great to be made do a double take like this - well done!