The Awakening and Selected Stories

by Chopin, Kate

• ISBN13: 9780142437322
• ISBN10: 0142437328
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-04
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Kate Chopin was one of the most individual and adventurous of nineteenth-century american writers, whose fiction explored new and often starting territory. When her most famous story, The Awakening, was first published in 1899, it stunned readers with its frank portrayal of the inner word of Edna Pontellier, and its daring criticisms of the limits of marriage and motherhood. From her first stories, Chopin was interested in independent characters who challenged convention.

Author Biography

Kate Chopin (1850–1904) was born in St. Louis. She moved to Louisiana where she wrote two novels and numerous stories. Because The Awakening was widely condemned, publication of Chopin’s third story collection was cancelled. The Awakening was rediscovered by scholars in the 1960s and 1970s and is her best-known work.

Sandra M. Gilbert teaches at the University of California, Davis.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Second Coming of an Aphrodite	p. 7
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 35
A Note on the Text	p. 39
The Awakening	p. 43
Emancipation: A Life Fable	p. 177
At the 'Cadian Ball	p. 179
Desiree's Baby	p. 189
La Belle Zoraide	p. 195
At Cheniere Caminada	p. 201
The Story of an Hour	p. 213
Lilacs	p. 216
Athenaise	p. 229
A Pair of Silk Stockings	p. 262
Neg Creol	p. 267
Elizabeth Stock's One Story	p. 274
The Storm: A Sequel to "The 'Cadian Ball"	p. 281
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