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    The Awakening & Other Stories
    The Awakening & Other Stories
    The Awakening & Other Stories
    Ebook258 pages3 hours

    The Awakening & Other Stories

    By Kate Chopin

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    The Awakening shocked turn-of-the-century readers with its forthright treatment of sex and suicide. Departing from literary convention, Kate Chopin failed to condemn her heroine's desire for an affair with the son of a Louisiana resort owner, whom she meets on vacation. The power of sensuality, the delusion of ecstatic love, and the solitude that accompanies the trappings of middle- and upper-class life are the themes of this now-classic novel. As Kaye Gibbons points out in her Introduction, Chopin "was writing American realism before most Americans could bear to hear that they were living it."Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coastat the end of the 19th century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier andher struggle between her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity
    and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the
    turn-of-the-century American 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 a mixed reaction from contemporary readers and critics. 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 the first Southern works in a traditionthat would culminate with the modern masterpieces of Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter, and Tennessee Williams.The novel opens with the Pontellier family—Léonce, a New Orleans businessman of Louisiana Creole heritage; his wife Edna; and their two sons, Etienne and Raoul—vacationing on Grand Isle at a resort on the Gulf of Mexico managed by Madame Lebrun and her two sons, Robert and Victor.Edna spends most of her time with her close friend Adèle Ratignolle,
    who cheerily and boisterously reminds Edna of her duties as a wife and
    mother. At Grand Isle, Edna eventually forms a connection with Robert
    Lebrun, a charming, earnest young man who actively seeks Edna's
    attention and affections. When they fall in love, Robert senses the
    doomed nature of such a relationship and flees to Mexico under the guiseof pursuing a nameless business venture. The narrative focus moves to
    Edna's shifting emotions as she reconciles her maternal duties with her
    desire for social freedom and to be with Robert.When summer vacation ends, the Pontelliers return to New Orleans.
    Edna gradually reassesses her priorities and takes a more active role inher own happiness. She starts to isolate herself from New Orleans
    society and to withdraw from some of the duties traditionally associatedwith motherhood. Léonce eventually talks to a doctor about diagnosing
    his wife, fearing she is losing her mental faculties. The doctor advisesLéonce to let her be and assures him that things will return to normal.When Léonce prepares to travel to New York City on business, he sendsthe boys to his mother. Left home alone for an extended period gives
    Edna physical and emotional room to breathe and reflect on various
    aspects of her life. While her husband is still away, she moves out of
    their home and into a small bungalow nearby and begins a dalliance with
    Alcée Arobin, a persistent suitor with a reputation for being free with
    his affections. Edna is shown as a sexual being for the first time in
    the novel, but the affair proves awkward and emotionally fraught.Edna also reaches out to Mademoiselle Reisz, a gifted pianist whose
    playing is renowned but who maintains a generally hermetic existence.
    Her playing had moved Edna profoundly earlier in the novel, representingwhat Edna was starting to long for: independence. Mademoiselle Reisz
    focuses her life on music and herself instead of on society's
    expectations, acting as a foil to Adèle Ratignolle, who encourages Edna
    to
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPublishdrive
    Release dateAug 15, 2017
    ISBN9781387089161
    The Awakening & Other Stories
    Author

    Kate Chopin

    Kate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty (1850-1904), was an American writer of short stories and novels based in Louisiana. Chopin is best known for her novel The Awakening, and for her short story collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Of French and Irish descent, her work depicted the various ethnic groups of Louisiana, especially of Creoles, with sensitivity and wit, and featured vivid descriptions of the natural environment there. After her husband died in 1882 and left her $42,000 in debt, Chopin took up writing to support her family of six children. Though popular, her serious literary qualities were overlooked in her day, and she is now seen as an important early American feminist writer.

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      The Awakening & Other Stories - Kate Chopin

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