The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
Genre: Gothic Horror, Feminist Literature
Summary: Suffering from a "nervous" condition, a woman is isolated in the upper rooms of a vacation house and forced to rest. She becomes increasingly paranoid and is particularly bothered by the wallpaper in the room, which seems sinister.
Why it's great: The creepiness and atmosphere is as well done, in my opinion, as Poe or Lovecraft. Gilman does a great job of revealing more to the reader than the somewhat naive journalist recounts. (She sees bars on the windows and rings for chains on the wall, and so assumes the room was used as some sort of gymnasium.)
More than a scary story, though,
The Yellow Wallpaper tackles some pretty serious social issues. Our narrator is treated like a spoiled child by her husband, despite the fact that she is genuinely ill, and as she becomes more and more psychotic, her subconcious becomes more and more rebellious to his controlling nature.
In my opinion, this story is
criminally underread.
You can read it: here.