Product Description

Since 1917 The Modern Library prides itself as The modern Library of the world s Best Books . Its paperback series feature treasured classics, major translations of great works, and rediscoveries of keen literary and historical merit.. Featuring introductions by leading writers, stunning translations, scholarly endnotes and reading group guides. Production values emphasize superior quality and readability. Competitive prices, coupled with exciting cover design make these an ideal gift to be cherished by the avid reader. 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."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #507793 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
A Creole Bovary is this little novel of Miss Chopin's --Willa Cather

About the Author
Kate Chopin (1851-1904) did not begin to write until she was thirty-six years old. Up to that time, her life gave no hint of either literary talent or literary ambition. Yet after the publication of her first stories in 1889, she enjoyed ten years of a productive, serious, and fairly successful career. Her first novel, At Fault (1890), had difficulty finding a publisher, so she brought it out at her own expense and sent review copies to important journals. Her short stories close to a hundred of them were published for the most part in prestigious national magazines. They gave her a solid reputation as a gifted 'local color' writer that is, an author specializing in the depiction of a particular region of the country and its inhabitants. From these many stories, she culled two well-reviewed collections: Bayou Folk in 1894 and A Night in Acadie in 1897. The Awakening, now her best-known work, appeared in 1899. Critics of Chopin's own day disapproved of the sexual frankness of The Awakening and were especially disturbed by the narrator's neutrality toward the unconventional behavior of Edna Pontellier, the heroine. All reviews of the novel were unfavorable. Soon after this setback, a planned third collection of short stories was rejected by a publisher, and Kate Chopin essentially ceased to write. In poor health, she died some five years after The Awakening appeared. She was only fifty-three.

Customer Reviews

Mixed reaction
This is a well structured collection of short stories. Personally, I do not find 'The Awakening' to be the best of these. Yet, others, such as 'The Christ Light' are fantastic tales, short, yet with an often powerful moral subtext. Chopin creates dream-like landscapes and uses descriptions of local colour and language to re-create an image in the heads of the readers.

Excellent!
I studied The Awakening' at uni and loved it! Chopin's work is beautiful and she deserves more credit in the literary world!

Mixed reaction
This is a well structured collection of short stories. Personally, I do not find 'The Awakening' to be the best of these. Yet, others, such as 'The Christ Light' are fantastic tales, short, yet with an often powerful moral subtext. Chopin creates dream-like landscapes and uses descriptions of local colour and language to re-create an image in the heads of the readers.