The Awakening
Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
Kate Chopin's 1899 novel of a woman who wakes up — and the scandal it caused. On Grand Isle, off the Louisiana coast, Edna Pontellier is a comfortable wife and mother who cannot say why her life feels like a role she is playing. What begins as a friendship with a young man at the resort becomes, back in New Orleans, a refusal: of her husband's expectations, of motherhood as she understands it, of the piano-and-visiting routine of the Creoles around her. She paints, she moves out, she takes a lover. Condemned on publication and almost forgotten, it is now read as the first great American novel about a woman's claim to herself.
Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (public domain in the United States); the Project Gutenberg trademark and license text have been removed on import. Public-domain status determined by the author's death year + 50 years rule.
Table of Contents
- 001 THE AWAKENING I A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage… 2537 words
- 002 Mr. Pontellier gave his wife half of the money which he had brought… 2516 words
- 003 VI Edna Pontellier could not have told why, wishing to go to the… 2586 words
- 004 Edna did not reveal so much as all this to Madame Ratignolle that… 2512 words
- 005 “Would you like to hear Mademoiselle Reisz play?” asked Robert… 2539 words
- 006 “Are you asleep?” he asked, bending down close to look at her. 2624 words
- 007 She slept lightly at first, half awake and drowsily attentive to the things about her. 2577 words
- 008 Victor had grown hilarious, and was attempting to tell an anecdote… 2522 words
- 009 Mademoiselle laughed maliciously. 2586 words
- 010 Edna was on her way to Madame Ratignolle’s. 2680 words
- 011 That lady was still clad in white, according to her custom of the summer. 2508 words
- 012 “Pontellier,” said the Doctor, after a moment’s reflection, “let your… 2594 words
- 013 When Edna was at last alone, she breathed a big, genuine sigh of relief. 2500 words
- 014 She lit a candle and went up to her room. 2550 words
- 015 It was the first kiss of her life to which her nature had really responded. 2531 words
- 016 “_Sapristi!_” exclaimed Arobin. 2548 words
- 017 “At any time—any time of the day or night, dear,” Edna assured her. 2504 words
- 018 “Oh! Lebrun. To be sure! I heard yesterday you were back. How did… 2523 words
- 019 “Why have you been fighting against it?” she asked. 2519 words
- 020 Célina’s husband was a fool, a coward, and a pig, and to prove it to… 2504 words
- 021 She spoke no more to Chéri, but muttered constantly, “Bon Dieu, ayez pitié La Folle! 2563 words
- 022 “Pauline, you must cease that sobbing, now, and sleep. 2622 words
- 023 She sat in her room, one hot afternoon, in her _peignoir_, listlessly… 2502 words
- 024 THE KISS It was still quite light out of doors, but inside with the… 2625 words
- 025 There was still money in her purse, and her next temptation presented… 2678 words