The Awakening

by Kate Chopin

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.

Kate Chopin's compelling, candid portrait of a woman attempting to break free caused an outcry when first published in 1899.

• ISBN10: 1446468747
• ISBN13: 9781446468746
• Publish Date: 30 September 2012 (first published 1 January 1899)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Vintage Publishing
• Imprint: Vintage Digital
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 240
• Language: English

Reviews

[nightingalereads]

2014: 1 star
When I first read this book in high school, I though the plot was boring, the characters were unsympathetic, and the message was somewhat disagreeable. I had no emotional or ideological connection with Edna's inner struggle and was quite happy to be done with this short little book (or so I thought).

2016: 2.5 stars
When I was assigned this in college, at first I was dismayed. I prepared to drag myself through all 116 tortuous pages again. So, big surprise when I found myself actually enjoying it the second time around. First, I liked Edna a lot more. I didn't always agree with her choices, or the way she went about things, but some of her thoughts and feelings really resonated with me. All of the characters, in fact, felt more real. They made me think. I also appreciated Kate Chopin's writing this time; it was smooth and seamless without being long-winded. So - still not my favorite book. But also not as terrible as I originally thought.

[empressbrooke]

I went into this having heard that it was an early feminist work, but I got more of a sense while reading that it was a story of a privileged, co-dependent woman who got bored and traded in one guy for another who paid more attention to her. I definitely saw the main character's rebellion against what was expected of her as a woman/wife/mother, but it also felt SO very class-specific. Which I suppose feminism often is to this day, so there you go. All of the characters were perfectly insufferable, so maybe my disconnect from the text was an issue of not being able to identify with them.

[Stephanie]

This book couldn't have been more bland. While I appreciate feminist literature for what it is, Edna's "awakening" out of societal confines was severely tainted by her love affairs.