About this title: Kate Chopin's novel is a probing psychological study of a woman who, oppressed by family life and her romantic difficulties, drowns herself in the ocean. It is also an examination of a particular culture at the end of the 19th century: the aristocratic society of southern Louisiana. Condemned at the time it was written, THE AWAKENING has been ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Third printing, Bard ed, April 1973.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Avon Books
Date Published: 1973
ISBN-13:9780380002450ISBN:0380002450
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Good+, front cover has a scar on picture. Book is tight despite its age. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 190 p. Actual cover is the older version of the one pictured. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Date Published: 1985-05-01
ISBN-13:9780553213300ISBN:055321330X
Description: Very Good. Mass market paperback. Light general wear with a couple of underlined areas. Clean, tight, straight, unmarked. Inside cover tanning. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780393091724ISBN:0393091724
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 229 p. Norton Critical Edition. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Classic, New York
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780553213300ISBN:055321330X
Description: Good. Small stain at bottom of front cover, where cover meets spine. Slight browning inside front and back covers. 211 p. Introduction by Marilynne Robinson. Other stories are: Beyond the Bayou, Ma'ame Pelagle, Desiree's Baby, A Respectable Woman, The Kiss, A Pair of Silk Stockings, The Locket, A Reflection. Also includes Bibliography. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780553213300ISBN:055321330X
Description: Robinson, Marilyn. Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Very clean and tight pages, no markings, cover has a light hindge crease and light edgewear *** Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 240 p. Audience: General/trade. *** no spinecreases, otherwise book would be fine read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780486277868ISBN:0486277860
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. clean pages, no rips or tears, some highlighting/underlining detected, corners/edges bumped, pg corners turned up, small rip on back cover, tight binding, solid, cover may have different picture. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 128 p. Dover Thrift Editions. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. 0486277860 Copyright 1993 / light edge wear to soft cover / minor tanning to pages, otherwise clean pages / good condition. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Dover
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780486277868ISBN:0486277860
Description: Very Good. NICE BOOK! NO SPINE CREASES & MILD SHELF WEAR ON COVER. LIGHTLY AGED PAGES, NO MARKINGS IN TEXT. Description: Kate Chopin's novel is a probing psychological study of a woman who, oppressed by family life and her romantic difficulties, drowns herself in the ocean. It is also an examination of a particular culture at the end of the 19th century: the aristocratic society of southern Louisiana. Condemned at the time it was written, THE AWAKENING has been valued in later years for its ... read more
Description: Very Good. 0486277860 Great condition Soft Cover book, clean pages, no writing in book, mild creases to spine, light edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Binding: MASS MARKET PAPERBACK
Publisher: Bantam Classics
ISBN-13:9780553213300ISBN:055321330X
Description: Fine. 055321330X Excellent condition paperback book, clean pages, NO creases to spine, this book is Near NEW! Shop & Save With US. read more
"Brilliant portrayal of a woman's refusal to lose her own self among marriage and children. One of the most insightful comments in the book was about why marriage is not what we expect: "The trouble is, that youth is given up to illusions. It seems to be a provision of Nature; a decoy to secure mothers for the race. And Nature takes no account of moral consequences, of arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged to maintain at any cost."
Also loved some of the short stories at the end (especially Desiree's Baby)."
"I enjoyed this book as a window into the mind of a young, if atypical, Victorian era woman. However, I was extremely disappointed in the ending, and it soured my taste for the whole book. Without including a spoiler, all I can say is that I cannot sympathize with a character who handles her problems the way Edna does."
"Bravo! I was very won over by this. I only held back in rating it a five because I thought it occasionally melodramatic, but then people can be naturally and sincerely melodramatic, so I shouldn't hold that against Chopin and the stakes were so much greater than they are now, yet the story still resonates so much with me. Inspiring and thought-provoking, over a century later. What a feat that is. I see why this is timeless, though it's so sad to think of how it's outlives New Orleans itself. I thought most often of Ibsen's "The Doll House" and The Moviegoer" while reading it, though perhaps I should have been thinking of To the Lighthouse had Woolf made a greater impression on me. All I can recall of that is the letter R and a definitive brush stroke. I'm probably very unsubtle and sentimental to prefer this. Still, I can't help but regard this as an accomplishment.
The dialogue is occasionally embarrassing in its awkwardness and many descriptions are best left only in one's mind (like Edna's describing herself in the third person running through an ocean of tall grass), but it still does pull me on to find out what happens to this awkward heroine.
Take note, all who love only those whom they cannot be with: "The persistence of the infatuation lent it an aspect of genuineness. The hopelessness of it colored it with the lofty tones of a great passion."
"The pigeon-house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm which it reflected like a warm glow. There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her str3ength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to 'feed upon opinion' when her own soul had invited her.""
"The Awakening is a well-crafted, articulate novel that is considered a classic. {Why else would I be reading it for AP Literature?} But it's a classic not only because it is considered to be one of the earliest feminist novels, but because this is feminist literature at its finest. Chopin's story of a housewife who, feeling unhappy and unable to continue in her current course of action, takes the steps necessary to forever break the ties that bound her to the life she loathed, is way better than those with moaning, groaning, and a "whoa is me" mentality. A part of me, though, shutters to think that The Awakening is sold as a Feminist novel to students who are still working to define what Feminism is. Feminism does not involve throwing duty, responsibility, your marriage, and your children to the wind to go "find yourself."
I very much enjoyed Chopin's writing style. I would be leisurely reading along, watching the plot develop, and then she would suddenly surprise me with a very profound statement about society, identity, or duty. If an author who wrote in 1899 can still connect with a reader of 2008, that's skill.
"I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I ain't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me." {pg. 80}
The Awakening is also a very personal work. The novel is about Edna, not all women. It may raise questions about the identity of women and their role in society, but the novel is, ultimately, about Edna.
Yet, what worries me about The Awakening is that it's the first "Feminist" introduced to students, at least at my school. There's no denying The Awakening is a Feminist text because it does challenge the vastly unquestioned (in 1899 and still, by some, today) belief that a successful woman must marry, have children, stay home, and love it. Edna is unsuited for and unhappy in this lifestyle, suggesting, very forcibly, that not all women are Adeles, beaming at their husbands and planning when to have their next child. {Two years apart at all times!}
My problem is, in Edna, feminism takes the form of self-absorption. She throws duty out the window, and compassion and consideration too. She reaches the point where she lacks any consideration for others outside of what others can do for her. She cares only for herself.
Apart of me can understand how a woman unfit for the domestic family life, under extreme pressure from society, can choose to hide away in herself but I fear that, rather than encouraging my fellow students awakening, it hinders it and they will dismiss Edna as mad. And that will only continue to lead to a feminism is bad mentality."
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