The Awakening

‘Using the nuanced and poetic language available to her, Chopin framed a part of female experience that had never before been acknowledged. The effect was explosive…Introducing this release of The Awakening has given me an opportunity to re-experience one of my life’s important books…I still marvel at Chopin’s realism, her impatience with conventional trappings, her arresting honesty.’ Introduced By Barbara Kingslover. “Incisive, brilliant and haunting.” (Maggie O’Farrell). “This landmark feminist novel, first published in 1899, remains startlingly relevant.” (Judy Blume, Elle My Life in Books). Over one long, languid summer Edna Pontellier, fettered by marriage and motherhood, becomes acquainted with Robert Lebrun. As the days shorten and the temperature begins to drop Edna succumbs to Robert’s devotion. But in the thrall of this ever-strengthening desire Edna begins to realise the true extent of her psychological, social and sexual confinement and its devastating consequences for her future. The Awakening is widely regarded as one of the forerunners of feminist literature alongside Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Flaubert’s Madame Bovary.First published in the United States in 1899, this radical novel sent shock waves through American society and continues to speak to readers one hundred years later. This tender, brilliant, and seductive novel is as beautifully written as it is politically engaging.

Reviews of The Awakening

* The Awakening is not only one of the most important novels in the history of American women's writing, it is an acknowledged American masterpiece. Edna Pontellier is an American Emma Bovary, deeply dissatisfied by the restricted possibilities available to a middle-class white woman in the 1890s. Rejecting her society's sexual norms and seeking a more fulfilling life, she is eventually destroyed by the limitations she cannot overcome, but along the way Chopin offers a compelling portrait of female experience, one of the first of its kind. Recognized as being as important a literary protest against the treatment of women as Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' The Awakening is taught at universities and schools across the US, and is overdue for equal recognition outside of its native shores. It is great news that Canongate is bringing The Awakening to the British reading public at last — SARAH CHURCHWELL * Incisive, brilliant and haunting — MAGGIE O'FARRELL * Chopin's deceptively slight novel is the kind of book revolutions are made of … Reissued with a forward by Barbara Kingsolver, this angry, eye-opening novel is well worth adding to your reading list Harper's Bazaar * Even more powerful than I remembered — MARGARET DRABBLE * A Creole Bovary is this little novel of Miss Chopin's — WILLA CATHER * This landmark feminist novel, first published in 1899, remains startlingly relevant — JUDY BLUME, My Life in Books Elle * Chopin's slight, brittle and fierce novel became a classic and a cult, shocking readers with its candid and unsentimental portrait of marital infidelity … it remains delicately bitter and acidly angry Observer * Sometimes bold, fearless writing really does have to wait for 'someone in some future time' for readers yet to come. Sleeping Beauties, once awakened, will always serve a contemporary agenda. But Chopin's The Awakening is now justly regarded as an American classic and read with passion and delight Literary Review * Plucky and masterly The Lady * A quietly explosive study of female impotence, it is quite superb Independent on Sunday