The Awakening
$36.48
- Paperback
240 pages
- Release Date
3 March 2011
Summary
Kate Chopin’s daring portrait of a woman seeking a life beyond her role as devoted wife and mother.
The Pontellier family are spending a hot, lazy holiday on the Gulf of Mexico. No-one expects that Edna Pontellier should be preoccupied with anything more than her husband and children. When an illicit summer romance awakens new ideas and longings in Edna, she can barely understand herself, and cannot hope for aid or acceptance in the stifling attitudes of Louisiana society.
Kat…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780099540779 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0099540770 |
| Author: | Kate Chopin |
| Publisher: | Vintage Publishing |
| Imprint: | Vintage Classics |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 240 |
| Release Date: | 3 March 2011 |
| Weight: | 174g |
| Dimensions: | 16mm x 130mm x 198mm |
| Series: | Vintage Classics |
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Critics Review
“The great power of The Awakening resides not in the answers it provides, but in the questions it exposes.”
The novel expresses women’s diffuse desire for personal and social change * Guardian *
Chopin’s slight, brittle and fierce novel became a classic and a cult, shocking readers with its candid and unsentimental portrait of marital infidelity. Though the subject has lost its power to outrage, the novel has not, it remains delicately bitter and acidly angry * Observer *
The Awakening is indeed a remarkable achievement, not least because of its rhapsodic ending * Independent *
Chopin cuts closer to the core of her heroine’s feelings… The great power of The Awakening resides not in the answers it provides, but in the questions it exposes * Washington Post *
It doesn’t seem so daring now, but it’s an inspiring model of personal crusading. Written in lyrical, restrained prose, this is not only a historical document of writer ahead of her time, but an enduringly good read. * Scotsman *
Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin
Born Katherine O’Flaherty in St Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1850, Kate Chopin grew up in a predominantly female household. Her father, an Irish immigrant, died when she was four years old, and her mother was of French Creole descent.
In 1870, she married Oscar Chopin, a local cotton trader, with whom she had six children. Following Oscar’s death from swamp fever in 1882, Kate was left a widow with a large family to support and his considerable debts. She turned to writing to provide for her children, publishing her first short story in 1889. Her work appeared in various literary magazines and popular American periodicals.
Chopin published two novels during her lifetime: At Fault and The Awakening. The latter, released in 1899, was met with widespread criticism and deemed vulgar and immoral by contemporary reviewers. Disheartened by the negative reception, Chopin ceased writing novels and dedicated the rest of her life to short stories, poetry, and reviews.
Kate Chopin died on August 22, 1904, from a brain hemorrhage.
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