The Awakening and Selected Stories [Paperback]

Introduction by Kaye Gibbons
Edited and with notes by Nina Baym
Commentary by Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and fromThe Picayune’s Creole Cook Book
 
The Awakeningshocked turn-of-the-century readers with its forthright treatment of sex and suicide. Departing from literary convention, Kate Chopin failed to condemn her heroine’s desire for an affair with the son of a Louisiana resort owner whom she meets on vacation. The power of sensuality, the delusion of ecstatic love, and the solitude that accompanies the trappings of middle- and upper-class life are the themes of this now-classic novel. As Kaye Gibbons points out in her Introduction, Chopin “was writing American realism before most Americans could bear to hear that they were living it.” This edition includes selected stories from Chopin’sBayou FolkandA Night in Acadie.
 
Includes a Modern Library Reading Group Guide"A Creole Bovary is this little novel of Miss Chopin's."
--Willa CatherKaye Gibbonsis the author ofEllen Foster, A Virtuous Woman,andOn the Occasion of My Last Afternoon,among other books.

1. Many contemporary readers may feel that The Awakening articulates a clearly feminist agenda. Do you agree with this reading? Why or why not?

2. Discuss the Creole and Cajun influence in Kate Chopin's stories. How does Chopin's identity as a regional writer inform her work?

3. Critics have said that one of Chopin's most persistent themes is the interaction between one's sense of self and one's obligation to community. How does this dynamic play out in The Awakening?

4. How do you feel Chopin judges Edna in The Awakening, if at all? How do you interpret the meaning of the novel's ending?

5. What do you feel is the significance of the novel's title? What is the awakenil£)