The Awakening

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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. This tender, brilliant, and seductive novel is as beautifully written as it is politically engaging. 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.

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Kate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty in 1850, was one of the most individual and adventurous of nineteenth-century American writers, whose fiction explored new and often startling territory. She is the author of two novels, The Awakening and My Fault, and several short stories.