Summary
Set in and around New Orleans, The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother. While on vacation, Edna meets the son of a Lousiana resort owner, with whom she gradually falls in love. As she pulls away from her husband, Edna begins to develop a sense of herself as a whole... Full description
Summary: |
Set in and around New Orleans, The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother. While on vacation, Edna meets the son of a Lousiana resort owner, with whom she gradually falls in love. As she pulls away from her husband, Edna begins to develop a sense of herself as a whole person, with unique wants, interests, and desires. Determined to control her own life, she flouts convention by moving out of her husband's house, having an adulterous affair, and becoming an artist. --back cover. |
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Physical Description: |
256 pages |
ISBN: |
9781593081133 |
Author Notes: |
In 1870, at the age of 19, she married Oscar Chopin, the son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Louisiana. The couple had seven children together, five boys and two girls, before Oscar died of swamp fever in 1883. The following year, Chopin packed up her family and moved back to St. Louis to be with her mother, who died just a year later. To support herself and her family, Chopin started to write. Her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890. Her most famous work, The Awakening, inspired by a real-life New Orleans woman who committed adultery, was published in 1899. The book explores the social and psychological consequences of a woman caught in an unhappy marriage in 19th century America, is now considered a classic of the feminist movement and caused such an uproar in the community that Chopin almost entirely gave up writing. Chopin did try her hand at a few short stories, most of which were not even published. Chopin died on August 22, 1904, of a brain hemorrhage, after collapsing at the World's Fair just two days before. (Bowker Author Biography) |