The Awakening (Diversion Classics)

Kate Chopin

Diversion Books, Jul 21, 2015 - Fiction

Featuring an appendix of discussion questions, the Diversion Classics edition is ideal for use in book groups and classrooms.

In this stunning work of early feminist literature, New Orleans housewife Edna Pontellier attempts to balance motherhood and femininity in a society that stifles women. As she navigates a world of social contracts and expectations while trying to remain true to her desires, Edna becomes increasingly isolated. One of the American South's first defining novels, THE AWAKENING is a heart-wrenching portrait of a woman struggling with her own identity.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - RealLifeReading - LibraryThing

I once tried to read this book, quite some years ago, when I wasn't ready for it and I didn't finish it. But today, many years older (and hopefully wiser), I finally understood it. And it was ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - bcrowl399 - LibraryThing

This was somewhat difficult to read, mainly because of the writing style of the time period, I think. I was overly dramatic. There were some lovely passages of description and I understood the point of the story, but the style was a little clumsy.

About the author

Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 8, 1851. Although she was brought up in a wealthy and socially elite Catholic family, Chopin's childhood was marred by tragedies. Her father was killed in a train accident when Chopin was just four years old, and in the following years she also lost her older brother, great-grandmother, and half-brother. In 1870, at the age of 19, she married Oscar Chopin, the son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Louisiana. The couple had seven children together, five boys and two girls, before Oscar died of swamp fever in 1883. The following year, Chopin packed up her family and moved back to St. Louis to be with her mother, who died just a year later. To support herself and her family, Chopin started to write. Her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890. Her most famous work, The Awakening, inspired by a real-life New Orleans woman who committed adultery, was published in 1899. The book explores the social and psychological consequences of a woman caught in an unhappy marriage in 19th century America, is now considered a classic of the feminist movement and caused such an uproar in the community that Chopin almost entirely gave up writing. Chopin did try her hand at a few short stories, most of which were not even published. Chopin died on August 22, 1904, of a brain hemorrhage, after collapsing at the World's Fair just two days before.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Awakening (Diversion Classics)
• Author: Kate Chopin
• Publisher: Diversion Books, 2015
• ISBN: 1626819947, 9781626819948
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Contemporary Women; Fiction / General