Publisher's Synopsis
Written in the first person, the story is a set of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband (John) has rented an old mansion for the summer. Discarding other rooms in the house, the couple move into the nursery upstairs. As a form of treatment the unnamed woman is prohibited from working, and encouraged to eat properly, get plenty of exercise and be outdoors so that she can recover from what her husband calls a "nervous breakdown." temporary - a slight hysterical tendency ", a common diagnosis for the women of that time. She hides her diary from her husband and her husband's sister the landlady, fearful that she will reproach him that she has been working too hard. The windows of the room are barred to prevent children from falling into them, and there is a small gate at the top of the stairs, although she and her husband have access to the rest of the house and their land.
