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• Review of The Awakening When I retired a few years ago, I embarked on a goal of reading as many of the great classics as I could, including writing reviews of the books as I read them. One thing to bear in mind when reading the classics is that many of the classics to a modern reader appear ablest, colonist, racist, sexist, and all the other isms that some modern readers might find objectionable, including free use the N-word and other pejorative words. The key is to acknowledge that fact, and then read and enjoy the novel on its own, terms in its own time and place. and not get too hung up on dealing with the racism etc that may be found in the book. Here’s my review of Kate Chopin’s novel, the Awakening, first in verse and then in prose. The Awakening The Awakening A proto-feminist novel By Kate Chopin. Shocked the world Back at the turn Of the 20th century. With its depiction Of a young woman Awakening to desire Awakening to eroticism. Throwing off conventional Morality and all that entails. In a futile search For self-fulfilment That cannot be achieved. And in the end She takes her life Unfulfilled desires Awakening her fears in the end. Kate Chopin’s novel, the Awakening is a proto-feminist novel written by Kate Chopin set in Grand Isle Lousiana and New Orleans in the late 1880s. It tells the story of Edna Pontellier who is married with two children to a Creole businessman although she had grown up in a protestant family and faced social pressure against the marriage from her family who did not want her to marry a French-speaking Catholic. She is a sensitive unhappy soul seeking self-fulfilment and not finding it within the convention of marriage and motherhood. She has an affair with Robert a young man she meets on vacation. The affair awakens erotic desires in her that ultimately can not be reconciled with the idea of being a married woman with children in an upper-class family. The novel ends with her drowning herself. A powerful novel about a woman trying to free herself from the shackles of conventional morality. The novel was widely condemened at the time for its anti-family and anti-Christian themes. But it has remained an influential early feminist icon of a novel. • • Qoutes • “The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.” • “The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude.”― Co-pilot provides more backgroud Synopsis "The Awakening" is set in the late 19th century and follows Edna Pontellier, a young woman vacationing with her husband, Léonce, and their children at a resort on Grand Isle1. Edna begins to question her life and societal roles after forming a close bond with Robert Lebrun and Mademoiselle Reisz. She embarks on a journey of self- discovery, exploring her desires and independence, which leads to conflicts with her family and society. Literary Reputation Initially, "The Awakening" was met with harsh criticism for its themes of female sexuality and independence. It was considered controversial and even "poisonous" by some critics3. However, it has since been recognized as a feminist classic and a significant work in American literature3. The novel's exploration of female autonomy and its lyrical, impressionistic style have earned it a lasting place in literary history. Author Bio Kate Chopin (born Katherine O'Flaherty, February 8, 1850 – August 22, 1904) was an American author known for her short stories and novels set in Louisiana5. She was a forerunner of feminist literature, and her works often focused on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women6. Author's Works Chopin's most notable works include "Bayou Folk" (1894), "A Night in Acadie" (1897), and her two novels, "At Fault" (1890) and "The Awakening" (1899)5. Novels: "At Fault" (1890) "The Awakening" (1899) Short Story Collections: "Bayou Folk" (1894) "A Night in Acadie" (1897) Notable Short Stories: "Désirée's Baby" (1893) "The Story of an Hour" (1894) "The Storm" (1898) Adaptations "The Awakening" was adapted into a film titled "Grand Isle" in 1991, directed by Mary Lambert and starring Kelly McGillis as Edna7. For more info see the following www.sparknotes.com www.literaryladiesguide.com www.cambridge.org www.katechopin.org I have been reading books from the collection titled "50 Books You Must Read Before You Die" which consists of three volumes. I finished all of Volume Three first and am working my way through Volume One and Two. Hope to finish it all by the end of the year. I am currently reading “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin and will write a review when I am finished with it. Here’s the list of the books I am reading, with the ones I completed in bold:. Here’s the list of the books I am reading, bolded are the ones I completed Harvard Classics (1) Franklin, Woolman, Penn (2) Plato, Epictetus, Marcus, Aurelius Meditations (3) Bacon, Milton's Prose, Thomas Browne (4) Complete Poems in English: Milton (5) Essays and English Traits: Emerson ( 6) Poems and Songs: Burns (7) Confessions of St. Augustine. Imitation of Christ (8) Nine Greek Dramas (9) Letters and Treatises of Cicero Pliny (10) Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith (11) Origin of Species: Darwin (12) Plutarch's Lives (13) Aeneid Virgil (14) Don Quixote Part 1: Cervantes (15) Pilgrim’s Progress. Donne Herbert. Bunyan, Walton (16) The Thousand and One Night (17) Folk-Lore and Fable. Aesop, Grimm, Andersen Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales (18) Modern English Drama (19) Faust, Egmont Etc. Doctor Faustus, Goethe, Marlowe (20) The Divine Comedy: Dante (21) I Promessi Sposi, Manzoni (22) The Odyssey: Homer (23) Two Years Before Mast. Dana (24) On the Sublime French Revolution Etc. Burke (25) Autobiography Etc. Essays and Addresses: J.S. Mill, 1. Carlyle (26) Continental Drama (27) English Essays: Sidney to Macaulay (28) Essays. English and American (29) Voyage of the Beagle: Darwin ( 30) Faraday, Helmholtz, Kelvin, Newcomb, Geikie (31) Autobiography: Benvenuto, Cellini (32) Literary and Philosophical Essays: Montaigne, Sainte Beuve, Renan, Lessing, Schiller, Kant, Mazzini (33) Voyages and Travels (34) Descartes, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hobbes (35) Chronicle and Romance: Froissart, Malory, Holinshed (36) Machiavelli, the Prince More, Luther (37) Locke, Berkeley, Hume (38) Harvey, Jenner, Lister, Pasteur (39) Famous Prefaces (40) English Poetry 1: Chaucer to Gray (41) English Poetry 2: Collins to Fitzgerald (42) English Poetry 3: Tennyson to Whitman (43) American Historical Documents Federalist Papers Constitution Bill of Rights Declaration of Independence (44) Sacred Writings 1 (45) Sacred Writings 2 The Bible The Quaran The Analects of Confucius Mencius Buddist Writing Bhaga Vita Lao Tzo The Tao (46) Elizabethan Drama 1 (47) Elizabethan Drama 2 (48) Thoughts and Minor Works: Pascal (49) Epic and Saga ( 50) Introduction, Readers Guide, 50 Books to Read Before You Die Vol 1 starts with Volume One Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice Austen, Jane: Emma Balzac, Honoré de: Father Goriot Barbusse, Henri: The Inferno Brontë, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Brontë, Charlotte: Jane Eyre Brontë, Emily: Wuthering Heights Burroughs, Edgar Rice: Tarzan of the Apes Butler, Samuel: The Way of All Flesh Carroll, Lewis: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Cather, Willa: My Ántonia Cervantes, Miguel de: Don Quixote Chopin, Kate: The Awakening Cleland, John: Fanny Hill Collins, Wilkie: The Moonstone Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness Conrad, Joseph: Nostromo Cooper, James Fenimore: The Last of the Mohicans Crane, Stephen: The Red Badge of Courage Cummings, E. E.: The Enormous Room Defoe, Daniel: Robinson Crusoe Defoe, Daniel: Moll Flanders Dickens, Charles: Bleak House Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: The Idiot Doyle, Arthur Conan: The Hound of the Baskervilles Dreiser, Theodore: Sister Carrie Dumas, Alexandre: The Three Musketeers Dumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte Cristo Eliot, George: Middlemarch Fielding, Henry: Tom Jones Flaubert, Gustave: Madame Bovary Flaubert, Gustave: Sentimental Education Ford, Ford Madox: The Good Soldier Forster, E. M.: A Room With a View Forster, E. M.: Howard End Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: The Sorrows of Young Werther Gogol, Nikolai: Dead Souls Gorky, Maxim: The Mother Haggard, H. Rider: King Solomon’s Mines Hardy, Thomas: Tess of the D’Urbervilles Hawthorne, Nathaniel: The Scarlet Letter Homer: The Odyssey Hugo, Victor: The Hunchback of Notre Dame Hugo, Victor: Les Misérables Huxley, Aldous: Crome Yellow James, Henry: The Portrait of a Lady Volume 2 - Little Women [Louisa May Alcott] - Sense and Sensibility [Jane Austen] - Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy) [J.M. Barrie] - Cabin Fever [ B. M. Bower] - The Secret Garden [Frances Hodgson Burnett] - A Little Princess [Frances Hodgson Burnett] - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland [Lewis Carroll] - The King in Yellow [Robert William Chambers] - The Man Who Knew Too Much [Gilbert Keith Chesterton] - The Woman in White [Wilkie Collins] - The Most Dangerous Game [Richard Connell] - Robinson Crusoe [Daniel Defoe] - On the Origin of Species, 6th Edition [Charles Darwin] - The Iron Woman [Margaret Deland] - David Copperfield [Charles Dickens] - Oliver Twist [Charles Dickens] - A Tale of Two Cities [Charles Dickens] - The Double [Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky] The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes [Arthur Conan Doyle] - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [Francis Scott Fitzgerald] - A Room with a View [E. M. Forster] - Dream Psychology [Sigmund Freud] - Tess of the d'Urbervilles [Thomas Hardy] - Siddhartha [Hermann Hesse] - Dubliners [James Joyce] - The Fall of the House of Usher [Edgar Allan Poe] - The Arabian Nights [Andrew Lang] - The Sea Wolf [Jack London] - The Call of Cthulhu [Howard Phillips Lovecraft] - Anne of Green Gables [Lucy Maud Montgomery] - Beyond Good and Evil [Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche] - The Murders in the Rue Morgue [Edgar Allan Poe] - The Black Cat [Edgar Allan Poe] - The Raven [Edgar Allan Poe] - Swann's Way [Marcel Proust] - Romeo and Juliet [William Shakespeare] - Treasure Island [Robert Louis Stevenson] - The Elements of Style [William Strunk Jr. Vol 3 finished keeping for the historical record - What's Bred in the Bone [Grant Allen] - The Golden Ass [Lucius Apuleius] - Meditations [Marcus Aurelius] - Northanger Abbey [Jane Austen] - Lady Susan [Jane Austen] - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz [Lyman Frank Baum] - The Art of Public Speaking [Dale Breckenridge Carnegie] - The Blazing World [Margaret Cavendish] - The Wisdom of Father Brown [Gilbert Keith Chesterton] - Heretics [Gilbert Keith Chesterton] - The Donnington Affair [Gilbert Keith Chesterton] - The Innocence of Father Brown [Gilbert Keith Chesterton] - Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [John Cleland] - The Moonstone [Wilkie Collins] - Lord Jim [Joseph Conrad] - The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe [Daniel Defoe] - The Pickwick Papers [Charles Dickens] - A Christmas Carol [Charles Dickens] - Notes From The Underground [Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky] - The Gambler par Fyodor [Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky] - The Lost World [Arthur Conan Doyle] - The Hound of the Baskervilles [Arthur Conan Doyle] - The Sign of the Four [Arthur Conan Doyle] - The Man in the Iron Mask [Alexandre Dumas] - The Three Musketeers [Alexandre Dumas] - This Side of Paradise [Francis Scott Fitzgerald] - Curious, If True: Strange Tales [Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell] - King Solomon's Mines [Henry Rider Haggard] - The Hunchback of Notre Dame [Victor Hugo] - Kim [Rudyard Kipling] - Captain Courageous [Rudyard Kipling] - The Jungle Book [Rudyard Kipling] - Lady Chatterley's Lover [David Herbert Lawrence] - The Son of the Wolf [Jack London] - The Einstein Theory of Relativity [Hendrik Antoon Lorentz] - The Dunwich Horror [Howard Phillips Lovecraft] - At the Mountains of Madness [Howard Phillips Lovecraft] - The Prince [Niccolò Machiavelli] - The Story Girl [Lucy Maud Montgomery] - The Antichrist [Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche] - The Republic [Plato] - The Last Man [Mary Shelley] - Life On The Mississippi [Mark Twain] - The Kama Sutra [Vatsyayana] - In the Year 2889 [Jules Verne] - Around the World in Eighty Days [Jules Verne] - Four Just Men [Edgar Wallace] - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ [Lewis Wallace] - Jacob's Room [Virginia Woolf] |
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