The Awakening
Beautifully designed edition of Kate Chopin’s classic “The Awakening”.
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The Awakening and Selected Short Stories
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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Review by Dianna Johnston for The Awakening
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Thank you to all my reading friends who suggested The Awakening as one of their favorite classic novels! I have been trying to branch out into new literary worlds, and the classics is one genre that I hadn’t yet touched. Still a novice, but my journey has been so profitable thus far. The Awakening was one novel that is incredibly easy to read and holds such powerful prose in so few pages.A taboo subject back in its day, The Awakening tells the story of one woman’s emotional journey from a stifled, miserable marriage to a spirited and lusty freedom. Young Edna Pontellier feels trapped in a loveless, although pampered, life with husband, Leonce. Stirrings of independence begin one summer while resorting in Grand Isle, an island off the coast of Louisiana. These new feelings have begun a profound change in Edna, liberating her beyond belief. Thus ensues an infidelity that dreams are made of, although at the expense of her marriage and motherhood.Hardly shocking in this day and age, The Awakening’s subject of marital infidelity and physical lust for another is always a pageturner. The theme of the novel — Edna’s torment at the chains that bind her and the flutterings of an unbridled passion — is brought to life with beautiful writing in simple, elegant words. I am surprised to find such a passionate and provocative story within its pages. Short but penetrating, The Awakening will move you.
Review by spacellama for The Awakening
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I’ve finally gotten around to reading this book, in the original, without editorial intervention. It was worth it.Kate Chopin wrote this story of female self-actualization back in the late 19th century, but it’s as applicable today as it was then. I think we all feel trapped by decisions we’ve made capriciously, and we all consider, even briefly, escape. The main character in this novel not only realizes that she has trapped herself, but she actively seeks to free herself. Her action, rather than just emotion and despair (a la Goethe), is what separates her from the herd. Here’s the low-down: Edna is a woman, probably in her 30s or so, married to a successful financier and mother to two charming children. She summers on an island, probably to escape summer diseases in the city, New Orleans. One summer she acquires a friend, Robert. Although married women in this society frequently have male friends, Edna is an outsider, and she takes Robert’s attentions far too seriously. Apparently, he is similarly infatuated. Basking in Robert’s attention, Edna understands at last that she has discarded her youthful dreams and hopes and that her current life is unfulfilling. She takes small steps toward freeing herself, and Robert seems a willing accomplice for a while.But Robert sees the hopelessness of such an infatuation: Edna is married, after all. Abruptly, Robert leaves the island and heads off to Mexico, presumably to seek his fortune. Edna is devastated. Even after she returns to town, her emotions are in turmoil. But loneliness actually proves helpful. She relearns who she is, reclaims the dreams of her youth, and abandons her husband and children. The author is careful with this last, making it seem tragic and irresponsible, yet ultimately unavoidable. By the last 20 pages, Edna is free.And then Robert returns. Edna says that she does not feel obligated by their mutual love; she says that she is an independent woman now who is not the property of any other person. But she’s lying. Her actions show that she is dependent on Robert, needy for his love and attention. I still can’t decide if the author created this break between words and behavior on purpose, or if she really intended us to believe that Edna was wholly independent. In fact, the only weak part of the story, in my opinion, is that Edna does not take responsibility for her own awakening. She claims that Robert “awoke” her.Edna does in the end devise a solution that proves her ultimate freedom and independence, and it is the only solution that works. But I won’t spoil it by writing it here.The thing that makes this book so lovely is that it isn’t preachy. So many modern girl-power novels just sort of slam you over the head with the girls-first-and-men-suck mantra. This book is about Edna; it doesn’t purport to be about all women. It’s a very personal work, and the narrative hand is light. It leaves us, the readers, free to recognize the little bits of Edna in us all, and although the rest of us may not ultimately choose Edna’s course, it gives us hope that such freedom is possible, even after the fact.
Review by for The Awakening
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Kate Chopin, a woman far ahead of her time, did a remarkable job in writing The Awakening. She most likely felt many of the same things as her fiction character, writing them through her novel. It is so unfortunate that the book was rejected when first published, that people could not accept such a revolutionary and dynamic female character like Edna Pontellier. She was a strong-willed woman who discovered her independence, self-worth, inner strength and sexuality. In a time when wives were submissive and subservient, Edna breaks free of the confines of society’s traditional role for women. Empowered by the realization that she can make her own decisions and act according to her will alone, not simply her husband’s, her life becomes more fully real. It is then that she can also truly love. Edna had always been quietly rebellious and independent, but had slowly given in more and more to society’s rules and the males in her life. She did not want to be seen and esteemed only for being a mother and proper woman. It was refreshing to see such a strong woman, especially considering the time period the novel was written, long before the times of civil or women’s rights. Edna’s happiness and freedom, her true self and being, are the most valuable things in the world to her. She does not want to be treated as a possession any longer. Edna’s thoughts and actions were quite radical for the late 19th century, but many of the ideas from the novel still apply today, even in a time of supposed equality and freedoms. People must learn to look inward for true happiness; self-realizations and preservation. Today, people, women, tend to look outward for their contentment and acceptance, basing it on other people and material things. Kate Chopin and her character were attempting to break free of this a century ago. Reading The Awakening was a pleasurable experience from start to finish. We both really enjoyed the novel and definitely recommend it to others, especially women.
Review by for The Awakening
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This book was one of the best novels I have ever read in my life. There are many biblical allusions and hidden messages behind the authors words. I strongly disagree with the comments of the people that said it was boring…they didn’t understand the book. In the beginning of the novel Kate Chopin starts with the parrot in the cage and Mr. Pontellier. Why did she start her novel like that-did you ever wonder? Kate Chopin mentions the parrot in the cage to symbolize Edna’s entrappment and wanting her freedom. Mr. Pontellier wears glasses because he is blind to see how society works in the Victorian era. The lady in black and the lovers in the novel are the two different decisions that Edna has to make. The lady in black represents the spiritual love (marriage)and she is blind to everything that surrounds her-she is only concerned with her love for Christ. The lovers represent the individuality and concern only for themselves-they represent sin. Edna needs to make a decision between following the society’s acceptance of her marriage or become an outcast and having an affair that can ruin Mr. Pontellier’s reputation and her children’s. A biblical allusion that Kate Chopin states is when Edna is having her dinner party. That party represents The Last Supper in where she is giving her good-bye to the old Edna and saying hello to the new Edna. She invites 12 guests just like the 12 disciples. She is dressed like a goddess and says “drink to my health”-‘This is my blood’Jesus says. Robert, the man she plans on having the affair with is exactly like Mr. Pontellier. Edna is going through the same cycle and her only escape is death. The novel is very interesting and you just have to use your brains a little harder and ask “Why did the author write this? What was the purpose behind it? What meaning does it have?” If you ask these questions to every book you read you as a reader will understand and enjoy the book you are reading. By doing this your horizons will expand and you will be a better reader and writer which will make you a better thinker! I hope you agree with me.
Review by Deborah J. Plifka for The Awakening
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Though at one time I, too, would have rated “The Awakening” one of the worst reads of a lifetime–for its predictability in the context of a woman oppressed by Victorian society, and the most undeveloped, unsympathetic heroine for whom I was unable to muster the slightest emotional investment–a nagging, relentless undercurrent of something I couldn’t quite identify festered long inside me regarding this novel until the story, and author, were at last redeemed upon my third reading, in a literature course that finally ended this internal struggle.Having much faith in Kate Chopin as a writer, I never felt ‘the awakening’ was about sex. This was too easy, even for a book set in Victorian Society. Further, it occurred to me that although women were limited beyond the domestic sphere in this era, suicide was not particular to the phenomenology of Victorian women (as it was, say, to Wall Street brokers at the onset of the Great Depression).”The Awakening,” in title and content, is irony. Edna Pontellier’s awakening is about who she perceives herself to be, and who she actually is. She dreams of passion and romance and embarks on a summer affair, yet she married Leonce simply to spite her parents, who don’t like him. She moves out of the family home to live on her own–with the permission, and resources, of Leonce–hardly independent. She claims to crave intimacy, yet she fails horribly at every intimate relationship in her life: she is detached with her children, indifferent to her husband, leery of her artist friend, and can hardly stand another minute at the bedside of her warm, maternal friend, Mrs. Ratignolle, to assist her in childbirth. (Ratignolle was my favorite character of all, read after read, simply because she was so content with herself.)The Awakening? The surprise is on Edna, who is not the person she imagines herself to be. The irony? Edna Pontellier is never awakened to this, even at the bitter end. Feminists have adopted this book as their siren song…embarrassing at least! A feminist reading would, predictably, indict Victorian society as oppressive to women. Yawn…So that’s new?!! Tell us something we don’t know! I can tell you that concept wouldn’t be enough to keep a book around for a hundred years.But the concept that has sustained this novel over a century’s time is its irony. And it is superbly subtle. I believe Chopin deliberately set up Victorian society as her backdrop to cleverly mask this irony…’the awakening’ is not something good (a daring sexual awakening in a dark era for women): it is something horrible that evolves and is apparent to everyone except the person experiencing it. This reading makes Edna’s character worth hating! Chopin herself hated Edna Pontellier and called her a liar through her imagined conversation with her artist friend at the end of the novel.Chopin also cleverly tips the scales in Edna’s favor in the first half of the novel, but a careful read reveals those scales weighed against her in the second half. I give the novel 5 stars because it took me three readings and help from a PhD lit professor to figure out this book. And I’m proud to say that I am, at last, awakened.
Review by templeustudent for The Awakening and Selected Short Stories
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This book was merely okay. I frankly found it a bit typical and unsurprising. I understand that this might have been revolutionary when it was written, but it doesn’t hold up to other strong, revolutionary feminist texts. It’s a shame Chopin predates Woolf, because she could have learned a thing or two from her.
Review by Anonymous Bargain Hunter for The Awakening and Selected Short Stories
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I read this book some years back as a high-schooler. While perusing free Kindle selections, it popped back out at me and I decided to start reading it again. When I originally read the book, I didn’t have any response to it, either positive or negative… honestly, the themes in the book aren’t of interest to most 15-year-olds. Now firmly in adulthood, this novel about a young woman with small children beckoned me to see if I would or could somehow “connect” with the story now that I am in the same phase of life as Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of the story.
The character of Edna is introduced to us as a handsome-looking 28-year-old wife and mother of two young sons. Her husband is doting and generous. Edna starts the book as a decent wife and is described as not being a natural motherly type. As the book progresses, Edna “awakens” and starts to experience all kinds of feelings and emotions and decides that she’s just going to be her and that nobody has a claim on her… not her husband or her children. She also becomes inconsiderate of her old friends. She takes up art and tells her husband that she will give it up as soon as she tires of it. She starts an adulterous relationship with a young “Romeo-type” of man in town. She is happy to send her sons off to live with grandma and moves out to a four-room rented home.
This book is widely recognized as being some sort of feminist manifesto. I for one wholeheartedly disagree. It is a narcissist’s manifesto! The protagonist of this story is absolutely selfish, does whatever she wants whenever she wants to, and completely disregards the feelings of anybody and everybody. There is no true caring or warmth in this woman save her sexual passions. Edna is a narcissistic, mentally ill woman, which should be clear to anyone who makes it to the end of the book.
Two of the main men in the story are shown to be much better human beings than Edna on numerous occasions, displaying warmth to others as well as consideration for others’ feelings. How could you not be touched by the husband, who, when his wife flatly (and in a rude manner) refuses to come in for the night, preferring to stay in a hammock on the porch, comes and keeps her company all night long?
All of the beauty that comes from being human comes from our love for others and ability to look beyond ourselves. My feeling is that the character of Edna is lacking human qualities. Reading the book, I found myself to be embarrassed by Edna and the representation of women that she gives: driven by animalistic sexual impulses, inconsiderate, and not thinking past the end of her nose… just wandering through life by her whims. These characteristics do not constitue a strong woman and, in fact, you could make the case that Edna is a charicature of negative female stereotypes. I find the book to be more “unfeminist” than “feminist.”