"Her story is a tragedy and one of many clarion calls in its day to
examine the institution of marriage and woman's opportunities in an oppressive
world."500 Great Books for Women

"Kate Chopin was long before her time in dealing with sexual passionand the
personal emotions of women."New York Review of Books

Now regarded as a classic in American fiction, The Awakening is the compelling
story of a surprisingly modern woman trapped in a dehumanizing marriage and
struggling to establish herself as an individual.

Although the book was originally published in 1899, its leading character, Edna Pontellier,
could be mistaken for a modern-day liberated woman. In the summer of her twenty-eighth
year, as she watched numerous mothers on a beach, she vowed to honor the deep yearnings
within her that she sensed were unfulfilled by marriage and motherhood. She abandoned her
conventional role in life and made for herself a controversial and ultimately destructive life.


Kate Chopin (1851-1904) was born in St. Louis. She married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and lived with him and their six children in Louisiana. Chopin wrote about the Creole and Cajun people of Louisiana, earning acclaim for her finely crafted short stories. In 1899 her novel The Awakening was condemned for its controversial themes, which foreshadowed later feminist literature, and Chopin was devastated by its harsh critical reception.