Awakening - Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin (1851-1904) wrote stories and novels about Louisiana, capturing the culture and intricacies. After the publication of Kate Chopin's scandalous novel, The Awakening, the literary world ignored her stories for the next 70 years. Read about the life and works of Kate Chopin.

The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin. The book was published in 1899, and it centers around Edna Pontellier. She is a young wife and mother until she begins to awaken to herself (who she is and what she wants) while on vacation in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Here's a study guide for The Awakening.

Published in 1899, The Awakening remains an important title in feminist literature. Kate Chopin's work is a book I will revisit again and again--each time with a different perspective.

Read Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, published in 1899.

Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening (1899), is the famous tale of Edna Pontellier, who leaves her family, commits adultery, and begins to rediscover her true self--as an artist. Here are a few famous quotations from the novel.

The Awakening is one of the greatest works by Kate Chopin. Here are a few questions for study and discussion.

Now, for the first time, Library of America publishes the complete works of Chopin in one authoritative volume, including many previously uncollected stories. As the publisher writes: "From ruined Louisiana plantations to bustling, cosmopolitan New Orleans, Kate Chopin wrote with unflinching honesty about propriety and its strictures, the illusions of love and the realities of marriage..."

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin was published in 1899, and Willa Cather called it a "Creole 'Bovary'." The book was thought to be immoral and scandalous, with Edna Pontellier committing adultery and then suicide.

Read the stories and novels of Kate Chopin.

This feature discusses Chopin's life experiences and how this influenced her writing.

Is it love, sex, or adultery? Some of the greatest novels in literature involve forbidden love, but what consequences do the characters face? Does the marriage last after the infidelity is over?

Books are still being banned every day, but do you know which of the great classics have been banned? Here's a list of ten...

"If read as a suicide, then Edna Pontellier's last swim is a consequence of her awakening to the limitations of her femaleness in male-dominant society. But on a metaphysical level, especially from the Buddhist perspective, 'The Awakening''s final scene can be seen as Edna's final gesture in trying to grasp the essence of her being."