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ColorLab ColorLab Series, Kate Chopin: Awakening (2021, Independently Published)

English language

Published 2021 by Independently Published.

ISBN:
979-8-7032-7262-6
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4 stars (50 reviews)

The Awakening, originally titled A Solitary Soul, is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century South. It is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, generating mixed reaction from contemporary readers and criticism. The novel's blend of realistic narrative, incisive social commentary, and psychological complexity makes The Awakening a precursor of American modernist literature; it prefigures the works of American novelists such as William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and echoes the works of contemporaries such as Edith Wharton and Henry James. It can also be considered among …

159 editions

L’éveil

4 stars

L'Éveil (The Awakening), c'est le récit d'une libération. Une libération qui amène son lot de souffrances, mais qui entraîne dans son sillon d'innombrables sensations qui n'avaient jamais été ressenties (ou acceptées). Dans un style sobre, très moderne, Kate Chopin décrit merveilleusement le cheminement d'une femme qui, dans la Louisiane du XIXe siècle, se refuse à appartenir à quiconque : ni à un homme, ni à ses enfants. Nous sommes ici dans un cheminement personnel, individuel, dans ce qu'on imagine comme l'étape précédant le féminisme (la volonté que toute femme le partage, et ce quelle que soit sa couleur de peau ou sa condition sociale). Mais à quelques reprises le personnage d'Edna élargit son questionnement et l'étend à l'ensemble des femmes, avec par exemple ce passage : « peut-être est-il préférable de se réveiller après tout, même pour souffrir, au lieu de rester dupe de ses illusions toute sa vie. »

A feminist classic

3 stars

The Awakening cropped up as the ForgottenBooks book of the day a few months ago now and, as its synopsis looked interesting, I downloaded it. Set in an upper class American society in the last years on the 19th century, The Awakening attempts to understand, although not to condone, the actions of a woman who finds herself trapped in a domestic life for which she is patently unsuited but, due to the morals of the day, which she has no choice but to endure. Edna has two children whom she loves and a frequently absent husband who loves 'owning' her. However, Edna is not overtly maternal so when she knows her children to be cared for by nursemaid of their grandmother, she often does not give them a thought from one hour to the next. I got the impression that if she had been allowed the same choice I enjoy …

Review of 'The Awakening and Selected Stories' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

You don't need me to tell you how important and unquestionably well written this novel is. While Chopin's question may seem obvious to contemporary readers, it still has no answer in 2021. Not really. So is has this story aged? Despite not being as scandalous now the torment of poor and brilliant Edna on the page is every bit as emotionally connected and relevant. If anything, I would claim this novel is more revolutionary today than when it was first published.

Review of 'The Awakening' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

“The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant, was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded.”

This is how Kate Chopin describes the climactic “awakening” that her principle character, Edna Pontellier, has while on a summer vacation at a resort on Grand Isle in the Gulf of Mexico. Chopin’s novel was published in 1899 and received widespread criticism in the United States. Such criticism was aimed at two aspects of the work—the book presents an illicit affair in morally relativist terms, and Edna Pontellier modeled an independent, proto-feminist woman which was largely shunned in the Victorian codes of nineteenth century America. In other words, Chopin’s novel was problematic because it was a bad influence. Critics thought that Chopin might convince women to “liberate themselves,” to borrow later feminist terminology, and …

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