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Title: The Awakening: Complete, Authoritative Text With Biographical, Historical, and Cultural Contexts, Critical History, and Essays from Contemporary Critical (CASE STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM) by Kate Chopin, Nancy A. Walker ISBN: 0-312-19575-3 Publisher: Bedford Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.10 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.9 (281 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: The Awakening [ABRIDGED]
Comment: Although Chopin's masterpiece can be life altering when the complete text is read, I found the abridgement on audio to be quite disappointing. Liza Ross's affectation of Edna Pontellier's journey through her awakening makes Edna seem whimsical and weak. The abridgement makes too many cuts which are essential to understanding Edna's break from her husband and from society's standards at the time of the novella's occurrence. Other characters also seem trite and their actions come across as incomprehensible.
Robert Lebrun is certainly not worthy of Edna's affections throughout the course of the abridgement. He is much more seductive and enticing in the complete story. The same holds true for Madomoiselle Reisz. The two characters are essential to internalizing Edna's plight and understanding her ultimate fate.
I have listened to many audio abridgements. In this case, the lack of story does a disservice to the listener's understanding of Napoleonic Law in Louisiana at the turn of the century. It is easy to listen to this rendering not realizing that Edna and all of her personal effects are actually Leonce's property.
My advice, read the book if you truly want to appreciate the mastery of the work that made Chopin give up writing.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Awakening: a not so simple book
Comment: Kate Chopin's controversial novel The Awakening was greeted with immediate attack by critics who believed it to be too provocative and questioned her motives and morals. Set in Louisiana, the protagonist Edna Pontellier, struggles to reach her awakening through her journeys and experiences in New Orleans and the Grand Isle. The Awakening is filled with symbols and different themes which reveal Edna as a complicated and intricate character. Throughout the novel, there is a constant dualism between Edna Pontellier's outward existence and her inner self. Her outward existence conforms to society and her duties as a wife and mother, and in contrast, her inner self is represented through her dreams. Her dreams are to be free and to no longer be viewed as an ornament hanging off of her husband. Symbolized by the parrots who are tamed and domesticated in the gilded cage, she feels restricted by her current life and desires to escape. The birds also foreshadow her departure by their cries of "Allez vous-en!" (Get out!) and reveals the theme of escape from maternal and matrimonial bondage. When she moves out of her husband's house, her new home is known as "the pigeon house." This is significant because pigeons are not caged and therefore, able to roam free. The dualism between New Orleans and the Grand Isle symbolizes constraint and freedom. New Orleans is proper society and extremely hectic, whereas Grand Isle possess more of an relaxed atmosphere and is much like the Garden of Eden. It is in Grand Isle where she meets and falls in love with Robert Lebrun. Edna faces a dilemma of choosing between her husband and children or Robert Lebrun. She believes that in Robert she has found her true self and identity, but later realizes that her infatuation with Robert is only a sexual desire and can be satisfied by any other man. It is ironic that in the end Mr. Pontellier and Robert Lebrun turn out to be the same-a common man. Like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, Edna becomes alienated from society. Her final dinner party parallels the Last Supper where she invites 12 guests symbolizing the 12 disciples. After the conclusion of her party, she returned to Grand Isle where the voice of the sea "speaks to the soul" and attracted Edna for a spiritual and emotional cleansing. Kate Chopin's novel with its simple short sentences and chapters is actually not simple at all. The Awakening is filled with many symbols and themes, all of which helps increase the readers understanding of Edna Pontellier. It must be read with close attention to detail. Although the ending was some what disappointing, it is still worth reading. This book about feminism that shocked the literary world over a hundred years ago will still shock readers today.
Rating: 2
Summary: This is not feminism
Comment: When my friend and I ran across a list of 101 books that were recommended to be read before college, we realized we had only read a small percentage of the books and made a vow to read more. One of the books on the list was "The Awakening," and as we had studied Kate Chopin in school and it was readily available online, we decided to both read it. Both of us had read it by the next day, and we both reached the same conclusion: Chopin's protagonist, Edna, was a selfish woman who was not strong at all, as a truly strong woman would have continued on even after the man she loved left her.
The book is written beautifully, hence the two stars. But Edna is completely unidentifiable. She is twenty-eight, yet she seems to do everything on impulse. Yes, maybe she did rush irrationally into an ultimately loveless marriage -- but her husband is not a monster, so doesn't she at least owe him some consideration? Not to mention her children -- she seems to not have the slightest regard for them, only showing affection in fits and starts.
This book should be read, if only to show what strength is not -- strength is not what Edna does in the end of this story. However, you may find yourself struggling to get through it, as Edna is often very frustrating. In conclusion -- this is NOT feminism. In fact, before reading this story I had immense respect for Kate Chopin, respect gained from reading her short stories. I lost some of that respect after seeing what she apparently believed was the solution for Edna's problems.
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Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060931418 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Matthew J. Bruccoli ISBN: 0684801523 Publisher: Scribner Book Company Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Scarlet Letter by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE ISBN: 0553210092 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 April, 1965 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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Title: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison ISBN: 0679732764 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Penguin Classics) by Mark Twain, Guy Cardwell, John D. Seelye ISBN: 0142437174 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 31 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.00 |
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