Kate Chopinβs classic feminist novel about a womanβs abandonment of her family, her seduction, and her introduction to desires and passions that threaten to consume her
βThis seems to me a higher order of feminism than repeating the story of woman as victim. . . . Kate Chopin gives her female protagonist the central role, normally reserved for Man, in a meditation on identity and culture, consciousness and art.ββFrom the introduction by Marilynne Robinson.
First published in 1899, this beautiful, brief novel so disturbed critics and the public that it was banished for decades afterward. Now widely read and admired, The Awakening has been hailed as an early vision of womanβs emancipation. Originally entitled βA Solitary Soul,β this portrait of twenty-eight-year-old Edna Pontellier is a landmark in American fiction, rooted firmly in the Romantic tradition of Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson. Here, a woman engaged in self-discovery turns away from convention and society, and toward the primal, irresistibly attracted to nature and the senses. The Awakening, Kate Chopinβs last novel, has been praised by Edmund Wilson as βbeautifully written.β And Willa Cather described its style as βexquisite,β βsensitive,β and βiridescent.β
This edition of The Awakening also includes a selection of short stories by Kate Chopin.
Kate Chopinβs classic feminist novel about a womanβs abandonment of her family, her seduction, and her introduction to desires and passions that threaten to consume her
βThis seems to me a higher order of feminism than repeating the story of woman as victim. . . . Kate Chopin gives her female pr...