You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say ‘Here, take her and be happy; she is yours’, I should laugh at you both.

Kate Chopin has written in The Awakening a moving and heartfelt glimpse into the struggles of a woman who is torn between her traditional role as wife and mother and her need to satisfy the dreams and needs of self. Edna Pontellier is as individual as any real person any of us knows and as such she captures our empathy and understanding and awakes in us a bit of our feelings of desire for solitude and fulfillment.

As is so true for most human beings, shattered contentment and self-sacrifice are not easily regained once lost. Freedom is seldom relinquished without regret. I have heard this referred to as a "feminist" novel, but I think it goes far beyond that and reaches into the need of every human being to embrace their own identity and make their own choices. Of course, women were more subjected to constraints in this time than men and men were excluded from any sexual or passionate prohibitions, but consider a man who was forced by conventions to pursue his father's family career choice rather than his own inclinations or marry for proper connections rather than love. I found this to be more about what early feminists were after, which was equality of thought and value, rather than the kind of feminist issues I see at play today.

There is no doubt that this is a powerful story and one that resonates long after you have put down the book. While Edna is experiencing her awakening, we are meant to feel an awakening of our own. I'm sure it must have had a profound effect on women of her time caught in similar circumstances and trying to pretend those feelings and thoughts did not exist. Modern women have been the beneficiaries of the bravery of such women as Chopin who braved convention and brought such subjects into the light.

"Not Waving But Drowning!"

Edna doesn't want to belong to anyone but herself. She wants to be free to choose her life and love with a passion not directed by society's expectations. She will not give up the essence of her soul to anyone or anything and that ultimately destroys her spirit - for lover and husband and family all have the same idea of a woman's place in the world: she "belongs" to them like a possession. She can be given up or traded or protected as if she was a tool or a piece of jewellery.

When she capitulates, it is to the impossibility of life if you are not strong enough to fully dare and defy like an artist.

She does not give in. She gives up.

A wonderful short novel of identity and community, of love and integrity, of belonging and freedom. To be read and reread whenever one feels like one is much too far out, and no one sees the waving.

Drowning.

That moment when you read a book so good, you want to lie awake all night and ruminate on it.

Review to come for sure, but it might take a few days - there are too many thoughts somersaulting in my head and I don't think they'll settle anytime soon.

I had so much hope for this book and I must say that it did not serve up to my expectation. I liked the concept that was voiced by the story which was so boldly written at a time when women were seen as mere possessions rather than humans of flesh and blood. By the use of the main character Edna, Kate Chopin takes you through a woman's journey of self-realization of her individual identity, independent of the socially accepted role of a wife and mother.

After years of being a in a loveless dull marriage, Edna's womanly feelings are aroused by the meeting of Robert. She falls in love with him and realizes what she has missed in her life; her individuality which was lost in layers of social conventions. This realization changes her demeanor, and she takes up on a road seeking freedom and independence defying all the accepted social norms.

The plot is quite nice, and as I said earlier I liked the concept. But what I did not like was how it was presented. There was no gradual flow of the story of Edna's suppression and awakening. There were certain gaps and this lack of connectivity kept me questioning "how so?" at number of times. It was not well established how she was suppressed because all I read in the first few chapters was a seemingly comfortable marriage with an attentive husband, if not affectionate. The emotional struggle of Edna under the conventional suppression was not clear and the reader is directly taken to the point of her realization what an unfulfilling life she had so far lived. From that point on Edna is taken on a more stable road, showing her gradual defiance to the social conventions and her bold conduct towards establishing an independent identity for her, until the end of the book where she was totally reduced to an unreasonable, selfish woman. I was really unhappy with the way it ended.

I know I'm in the minority here, but this book didn't sit well with me.

A few of my all time favorite excerpts are from this book ...

When Mlle Reisz asks Edna why she loves him, when she shouldn't and she says:

"...Because his hair is brown and grows away from his temples; because he opens and shuts his eyes, and his nose is a little out of drawing; because he has two lips and a square chin, and a little finger which he can't straighten from having played baseball too energetically in his youth. Because '"

"Because you do, in short."

And ... "...when I left her today, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. "The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice much have strong wings."

Fiquei agradavelmente surpreendida com a escrita de Kate Chopin e a maturidade dos seus temas para a altura em que este pequeno conjunto de histórias foi escrito. Relativamente a 'The Awakening', a mais longa, Chopin apresenta-nos Edna Montpellier, uma mulher casada, deprimida, presa por convenções sociais, que tenta redescobrir a sua feminilidade e sexualidade num novo 'acordar' para a vida. É uma obra relevante tendo em conta as limitações sociais impostas às mulheres no início da era moderna.

I hated this book. I didn't necessarily enjoy it throughout, but when I got to the end, and saw how she ended it all, I was so mad! there is nothing likable about this woman. She is spoiled and selfish--her children may have grieved her loss, but they were better off without a self-absorbed trollop like herself in their lives. the way to self-realization, as this book seems to imply she's finding, is NOT to break every vow you've made, betray every relationship, abandon your children, and kill yourself in the end because you just can't deal with it anymore. This reminds me of two other books I hated--the Wuthering Heights and Catcher in the Rye. if you want to read a much better book about a woman actualizing herself and making a new life for herself, despite those around her, read the Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. Not this drivel.

After finishing this book I can finally say I understand the premise, it seemed to all come together in the last handful of pages and was exceedingly sad and tragic. Now I look back over the book I think Kate Chopin actually did a very good job of portraying a stifled and unhappy women caught in the shackles of Victorian society and a marriage that doesn't make her happy. It was worth it.

“And she found it good to dream and to be alone and unmolested.”

As probably one of the first landmark novels of the feminist movement, The Awakening highlights the daily struggle and emotional turmoil of Edna, married to Robert Pontellier for several years now, and with two children. The narrative keeps true to the title and we follow through the illuminating and yet extremely burdening awakening process of the female protagonist—the now age-old and overly familiar story of a woman waking up to the overbearing daily struggles of domesticated existence and motherly sacrifice.

The story is kind of old nowadays, but the ending this book offers—and the continuity of narrative Chopin weaves the story into—is so poignant that it is bound to leave a memorable impression on the dear reader.

For the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her.

Written in 1899, this is the radical story of a married woman's 'awakening', not just to sexual desire ('It was the first kiss of her life to which her nature had really responded. It was a flaming torch that kindled desire') but also to a sense of self-hood ('But I don't want anything but my own way') and independence ('I am no longer one of Mr Pontellier's possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose').

The aspect that I found most unexpected is not so much Edna's embracing of her sexuality but the way she contests society's view that motherhood is the only route to fulfilled femininity - Edna loves her children, she just doesn't think that her life should be solely confined to them.

Chopin writes with precision, with some passages of lyricism, but mainly in a straightforward way: we're not left in any doubt about her message here and while there's some use of symbolism (birds, the sky, the sea, the claustrophobic interior of Edna's family home), there's nothing difficult, obtuse or oblique about her style - it's there on the surface.

Despite that, it's easy to see this as a founding feminist text: it may not have the complexities of Edith Wharton or Virginia Woolf, say, but it makes a bold statement all the same.

Set in the late 1800's this is a beautifully written, gentle book about the awakening of a woman to a side of herself she had never suspected existed.

Edna married her businessman husband Leonce "quite by accident" when he fell madly in love with her. He appears to be a good husband, provides well for his wife and family, but is quite controlling, his life, and therefore Edna's, dictated by the social mores of the time.

She has had a slightly unorthodox upbringing and holds some radical views on motherhood and femininity, stating that while she would die for her children, she would never 'lose herself' for them. But perhaps she is already 'lost', or at least wandering.

Slowly she starts shedding the confines placed upon her, and despite veiled warnings from those she considers friends, she allows her own personality and desires to come to the fore.

The Awakening, originally titled "A Solitary Soul" caused an outcry when it was first published, dealing with marital infidelity instead of the norm of that time, romantic fiction.

This is a book that I fully intend to revisit, and savour. Modern authors could learn a lot from MS Chopin.

The audio version is beautifully narrated, and the music is sublime. 4 1/2 stars from me.