Customer Reviews

The Awakening and Selected Stories (Rinehart Editions Series)

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Like far too many, I was first introduced to Chopin in college. As an educator, I find Chopin's work to be timeless. Chopin speaks to contemporay society--and especially American society--in ways that few authors can and do. I use "The Awakening," as one of the cornerstones (yes; one may have more than one cornerstone) of my literature class--a class that relies on trade publications rather than anthologies and "typical" textbooks for reading material. One of the unexpected rewards I have experienced while teaching this novel is that male students, generally speaking, truly enjoy the work. Given its content and storyline, one might expect the opposite to be true. Nonetheless, the novel speaks to readers of all ages and genders. I believe that virtually ANYONE will identify with the characters Chopin brings to life in "The Awakening." Not only is it the story of a woman in search of her identity--arguably, a rather Maslowian tale of ! "self-actualization"--it is the story of the human condition.

Additionally, given the story of Chopin's life, the book takes on even greater significance (sorry, but you'll have to read the book to understand why I feel this to be so).

This book is a MUST read for all who seek to dispell the myth of "June Cleaver." (Ya, I know I am not suposed to say that but this is one VERY cool book--a book that EVERYONE should read.)

Besides, "The Awakening" itself is short enough and compelling enough that one will finish it in a matter of a few evenings. That the Penguin version also contains Chopin's EXCELLENT short stories, and a good deal of equally excellent biographical and critical writing regarding the author and her works makes grabbing a copy for one's personal library a must-do.

(Buy the book.) =)

The author, Kate Chopin, began to write when she was age thirty six. She had a ten year productive career the introduction by Nina Baym discloses. She died at age fifty three. Her work went out of print to be revived in the early 1960's. She wrote two novels and close to one hundred stories following the death of her husband and her mother.

Women, including Kate Chopin, writing after the Civil War turned to regionalism. By 1893 railroads had wrought a tremendous change. Regional writing, as the introduction points out, is tourism of the imagination. The stories are short and skilfully done. Even the use of dialect for the Cajun and Creole speakers is not off-putting. The stories have a wonderful stripped down to the essence quality. One is reminded of Chekhov.

In THE AWAKENING it is noted that the summer colony staying at the Lebrun cottages are almost entirely Creole. An exception is Edna Pontellier. She came from old Presbyterian Kentucky stock. Even as a child Edna tended to live in her own world. She feels a sense a of exaltation when she learns to swim. She has children, a husband, and becomes infatuated with a young friend, Robert Lebrun. Later Robert leaves to go to Mexico. Returning to New Orleans, Edna spends time with the people she has met at Grand Isles. Her husband is caught up in his household furnishings. When she decides to leave to live by herself in a smaller house, he prudently closes their large marital house to avoid gossip. Her absolute disregard for her duties as a wife shocks her husband. Her doctor can find no trace of the morbid condition ascribed to her. Robert Lebrun returns. He shows reserve. Leonce her husband and her children are part of Edna's life. She yields to the water of the gulf.

Kate Chopin was a writer of major achievement. One regrets, as outlined in the introduction, that there were no literary works produced by her in the last five years of her life. She was discouraged by the critical and moralistic response to her masterpiece, THE AWAKENING.

In "The Awakening", a woman rejects the drudgery of her life and decides to live selfishly, for once. Kate Chopin captivates her readers with a story of transformation and growth, and writes with clarity and ease. Perhaps most enjoyable about "The Awakening" and Kate Chopin's short stories is the vivid New Orleans setting. Chopin pays attention to the charms of Louisiana in this novel--Creole cooking and language, Southern black and French mannerisms of the time--not limiting herself by focusing on members of the elite. Definitely worth checking out!

I admit it's difficult to try to put up what I think would be my own review of "The Awakening" without it being influenced by Sandra Gilbert's introduction (uhmm, so maybe I shouldn't bother, eh). And yes, this reading was done haltingly, in between long stretches of intervals... *shakes fist* damn you, attention span shot to hell!

To posit Edna Pontellier as a `mother-woman' on the verge of going through minute yet slyly rapturous, if harrowing, changes from within which would ultimately coalesce into a sort of `second coming of Aphrodite' is an interesting take.

I'm not well-versed in feminist schools of thought, and, indeed, Edna's (rather inexplicable) journey towards emancipation from the shackles of family and societal expectations to approach an existence much like that of the deity, is something I would not have been able to connect. But, as Gilbert has listed the nuances with which Chopin laid the setting and events wherein Edna would find brimming dissatisfaction, disquiet, and then silent resistance (for example, recurring themes of gendered objects), I do find myself having to applaud this author's writing style.

What is also striking for me is the resilience with which Chopin refused to stick to conventional norms as to how an event should play out, and even how seemingly innocuous statements or behaviors from decidedly normal characters inadvertently give a faintly surrealistic dimension to a scene.

Edna's persona in turmoil, for instance, sums up the ways in which a reader can never truly anticipate anything from this story. The heroine shifts from extremes of happiness and complacency with her lot in life, and in the next, she wants - no, craves - to be disconnected and swept away from her husband, her friends, her suitors, and even her children. She could be mellow in a nondescript domestic tableau and then later on become slightly irritable and choose to walk away from it all. She could be unwittingly seductive to the two men who pursue her attention and in the next breath wish to be rid of their company (the fact the she is entertaining such attentions is, of course, food for thought already).

Perhaps it is because of how Chopin almost always abruptly turned the nature of Edna and of the events unfolding around her in ways unexpected or unconventional that makes this novel worth waiting out `til the end. True, the ending was too ambiguous to provide any concrete sort of closure, but that perhaps was the intent...

And as I do try to find words to describe how I more or less feel about this work, the image that persistently (and strangely) crops up is that of a scene from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film, in which Elizabeth Bennet's aunt remarks to Lizzy, after meeting Mr Darcy, "There's something...pleasant about his mouth when he speaks."

For me, Chopin's style is not so much grandiose or flowery (as I have originally feared from some authors during this period) as it is sedately elegant. She has honed a fine balance between injecting a sense of judicious economy and allowing freedom for fanciful and emotive ruminations in her narration. (Perhaps that's where the Mr Darcy spectre comes forth - a man outwardly staid but surprisingly capable of impassioned expression... I don't know...)

Such juxtaposition can, for instance, be witnessed in the following passage:

"Mademoiselle opened the drawer and drew forth the letter, the topmost one. She placed it in Edna's hands, and without further comment arose and went to the piano.
Mademoiselle played a soft interlude. It was an improvisation. She sat low at the instrument, and the lines of her body settled into ungraceful curves and angles that gave it an appearance of deformity...
Edna did not know when the Impromptu began or ended. She sat in the sofa corner reading Robert's letter by the fading light...
The shadows deepened in the little room. The music grew strange and fantastic - turbulent, insistent, plaintive and soft with entreaty. The shadows grew deeper. The music filled the room. It floated out upon the night, over the housetops, the crescent of the river, losing itself in the silence of the upper air...
Edna was sobbing, just as she had wept one midnight at Grand Isle when strange, new voices awoke her...," (116).


As it is, "The Awakening" is an easy read. More often than not, even enjoyable.

However, I have to say - much to my surprise - that is it not as enjoyable as the short stories following it.

These short stories, showing snapshots of the complexities of relationships between men and women, women and women, and almost everything else in between, were superbly written. Chopin illustrates, among other things, how the much-vaunted romantic love can be skewed, misunderstood, highly-politicized, or later be revealed as really nothing more than an ideal - which in itself can either be cathartic or disastrous.

Marriages are never completely stable, and, indeed, are more likely to be a prison that can literally bring a woman to her knees in despair. Husbands and wives can be shown as people possessing unknown depths of blissful ignorance at the rot that has taken hold of their relationship.

And then there are stories that dwell largely on the role of women - mothers who, for once, allow themselves to be selfish and indulge (be it for just one day), wives who have reached the end of their tether and stand up their husbands, and in turn, discover something about themselves, or single women who daily have had to confront the world at large and often come out as the victims.

Overarching these vignettes is a reflection of women in society (and indeed, society reflecting on women), as problematized and succinctly highlighted by the author.

And, yes, the endings in these short stories can leave one surprised, disoriented, or rueful.

Well, that certainly was the case for me. And the sensation was so refreshing I never wanted my edition to run out of these novellas.

I love Kate Chopin and the stories were great...the condition of the book was not bad either...

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."