The Awakening

Name: The Awakening
Brand: Findaway
Availability: InStock
Author: Kate Chopin
ISBN: 9798368986265

Author: Kate Chopin

Narrator: Hilary Swank

Unabridged: 5 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Spotify Audiobooks

Published: 04/04/2023

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Synopsis

Narrated by two-time Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank, The Awakening is set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century. The plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile 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 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.
Cover illustrated by: Mar BertranMar Bertran sees art as an intrinsic form of self-expression. She considers herself a sensitive person and believes that illustration has been pivotal in allowing her to let out her inner world full of insecurities. Visualizing her thoughts and emotions with the purpose of connecting with others has become Mar's way of living. Post-impressionism and pop art have been a massive influence on her work. Mar seeks an impact through bold colors and uncovers emotions in the character's eyes.

About Kate Chopin

American author Kate Chopin (1850-1904) wrote two novels and about a hundred short stories in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana and most of her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women.

Her short stories were well received in her own time and were published by some of America's most prestigious magazines-Vogue, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Young People, Youth's Companion, and the Century. A few stories were syndicated by the American Press Association. Her stories also appeared in her two published anthologies, Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, both of which received good reviews from critics across the country. About a third of her stories are children's stories-those published in or submitted to children's magazines or those similar in subject or theme to those that were. By the late 1890s, she was well known among American readers of magazine fiction.

Her early novel At Fault had not been much noticed by the public, but The Awakening was widely condemned. Critics called it morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable. Willa Cather, who would become a well-known twentieth-century American author, labeled it trite and sordid. Chopin's third anthology of stories, to have been called A Vocation and a Voice, was for unknown reasons cancelled by the publisher and did not appear as a separate volume until 1991.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lesle on July 23, 2020

The Awakening Kate Chopin was a Mom of five and unfortunately a Widow living in Louisiana. After her Husband's death she was left with a huge debt that was followed shortly after the loss of her Mother leaving her extremely depressed. Chopin's Doctor suggested she write for therapeutic and finances t......more

Goodreads review by Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) on May 01, 2024

3.5 stars rounded up This was such an interesting reading experience, and I'm glad I read the introduction for context. She's known for The Awakening (which is part of this collection) and its shocking focus on female sexuality and pleasure. And I do think her work is an important and complicated par......more

Goodreads review by Dusty on April 17, 2010

Most reviews of The Awakening begin with a qualification -- "For a woman of her time, Kate Chopin..." -- but not this one. I loved it from start to finish, loved it up, down, and sideways, loved it in a house, with a mouse, etc. It's an angsty American masterpiece -- a Catcher in the Rye for late 19......more

Goodreads review by sologdin on January 01, 2019

A complex text. On the one hand, it chronicles, somewhat sympathetically, worthless waste of space proprietor losers in New Orleans, who are unwilling to do anything for themselves and accordingly would not survive without their legions of anonymous servants, whom they identify on the basis of skin......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on December 18, 2020

More and more, it seems like I read books in snippets, a few pages or chapters at a time, forcing myself to sit still and stay focused on the text in front of me. I’ve discussed with multiple friends this strange disenchantment, the inability for novels to wholly draw me into their world as they did......more