First published in 1899, this beautiful, brief┬а┬аnovel so disturbed critics and the public that it┬а┬аwas banished for decades afterward. Now widely read┬а┬аand admired, The Awakening has┬а┬аbeen hailed as an early vision of woman's┬а┬аemancipation. This sensuous book tells of a woman's┬а┬аabandonment of her family, her seduction, and her┬а┬аawakening to desires and passions that threated to┬а┬аconsumer her. Originally entitled "A Solitary┬а┬аSoul," this portrait of twenty-eight-year-old┬а┬аEdna Pontellier is a landmark in American fiction,┬а┬аrooted firmly in the romantic tradition of Herman┬а┬аMelville and Emily Dickinson. Here, a woman in┬а┬аsearch of self-discovery turns away from convention and┬а┬аsociety, and toward the primal, from convention┬а┬аand society, and toward the primal, irresistibly┬а┬аattracted to nature and the sensesThe┬а┬аAwakening, Kate Chopin's last novel, has been┬а┬аpraised by Edmund Wilson as "beautifully┬а┬аwritten." And Willa Cather described its style as┬а┬а"exquisite," "sensitive," and┬а┬а"iridescent." This edition of The┬а┬аAwakening also includes a selection of┬а┬аshort stories by Kate Chopin.
"This seems to me a┬а┬аhigher order of feminism than repeating the story┬а┬аof woman as victim... Kate Chopin gives her female┬а┬аprotagonist the central role, normally reserved┬а┬аfor Man, in a meditation on identity and culture,┬а┬аconsciousness and art." -- From the┬а┬аintroduction by Marilynne Robinson.