description: When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation.Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity." Although the theme of marital infidelity no longer shocks, few novels have plumbed the psychology of a woman involved in an illicit relationship with the perception, artistry, and honesty that Kate Chopin brought to The Awakening.
language: English
title: The Awakening
titlecomplete: The Awakening
characters: Edna Pontellier, Alcée Arobin, Léonce Pontellier, Robert Lebrun, Mademoiselle Reisz, Adèle Ratignolle
genres: Read For School, American, Historical Fiction, School, Literature, High School, Classics, Feminism, Fiction, 19th Century
ratings_count: 201593
places: Grand Isle, Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana
publisher: W. W. Norton & Company