'The Awakening' by Kate Chopin

Ciervo Blanco Book Club organizes a book discussion in English about the novel ‘The Awakening’ by Kate Chopin

This is a free book discussion in English. The only requirement is to have read the book!

About the novel

The Awakening is a novel that was first published in 1899. It tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a twenty-eight-year-old woman and mother of two who—with devastating consequences—rejects her conventional married life for a transgressive path of self-discovery.

Edna is vacationing with her husband and children on the Louisiana Gulf Coast when she meets and falls in love with the passionate, impulsive Robert Lebrun. Afterward, Edna can no longer find meaning and satisfaction in her comfortable domestic life and moves out, alone.

About the author

Kate Chopin (1850–1904) is an American author who wrote two published novels and about a hundred short stories in the 1890s. She is often credited for introducing the modern feminist literary movement.

Chopin’s short stories were well received in her own time and were published by some of America’s most prestigious magazines. Her early novel At Fault (1890) had not been much noticed by the public, but The Awakening (1899) was widely condemned. Critics called it morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable. The novel went out of print for more than 50 years and it was rediscovered in the 1950s.