The Awakening and Selected Stories

by Kate Chopin

This is the first paperback edition to bring out in one volume Kate Chopin's extraordinary novel The Awakening (1899), along with the complete text of her two collections of short stories, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897), and twelve uncollected tales.

The Awakening is a strikingly modern, evocative story of self-discovery and female emancipation, set in the sensuous environment of Southern Louisiana, where the young Edna Pontellier reclaims her own individuality, refusing to be defined by her roles of wife and mother.

Chopin's stories are brilliantly observed, compassionate and often humorous, alert to the foibles, weaknesses and small triumphs of her characters. Overshadowed by the relatively recent fame of The Awakening, they contain some of the best work of this remarkably original author.
--back cover

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE AWAKENING
BAYOU FOLK
A No-Account Creole
In and Out of Old Natchitoches
In Sabine
A very Fine Fiddle
Beyond the Bayou
Old Aunt Peggy
The Return of Alcibiade
A Rude Avakening
The Bénitous Slave
Désirée's Baby
A Turkey Hunt
Madame Célestin's Divorce
Love on the Bon-Dieu
Loka
Boulöt and Boulotte
For Marse Chouchoute
A Visit to Avoyelles
A Wizard from Gettysburg
Ma'ame Pélagie
At the 'Cadian Ball
La Belle Zoraide
A Gentleman of Bayou Téche
A Lady of Bayou StJohn
A NIGHT IN ACADIE
A Night in Acadie
Athénafse
After the Winter
Polydore
Regret
A Matter of Prejudice
Caline
A Dresden Lady in Dixie
Nég Créol
The Lilies
Azélie
Mamouche
A Sentimental Soul
Dead Men's Shoes
At Chéniére Caminada
Odalie Misses Mass
Cavanelle
Tante Cat'rinette
A Respectable Woman
Ripe Figs
Ozeme's Holiday
UNCOLLECTED STORIES
Wiser Than a God
A Point at Issue!
Mrs Mobry's Reason
The Maid of Saint Phillippe
Dr Chevalier's Lie
The Story of an Hour
Lilacs
The Kiss
Her Letters
Fedora
A Pair of Silk Stockings
An Egyptian Cigarette
GLOSSARY
NOTES

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, The United States Of America

508 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

Kate Chopin was an American author whose fiction grew out of the complex cultures and contradictions of Louisiana life, and she gradually became one of the most distinctive voices in nineteenth century literature. Raised in a household shaped by strong women of French and Irish heritage, she developed an early love for books and storytelling, and that immersion in language later shaped the quiet precision of her prose. After marrying and moving to New Orleans, then later to the small community of Cloutierville, she absorbed the rhythms, customs, and tensions of Creole and Cajun society, finding in its people the material that would feed both her sympathy and her sharp observational eye. When personal loss left her searching for direction, she began writing with the encouragement of a family friend, discovering not only a therapeutic outlet but a genuine vocation. Within a few years, her stories appeared in major magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, and The Century, where readers encountered her local-color sketches, her portrayals of women navigating desire and constraint, and her nuanced depictions of life in the American South. She published two story collections, Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, introducing characters whose emotional lives were depicted with unusual honesty. Her short fiction often explored subjects others avoided, including interracial relationships, female autonomy, and the quiet but powerful inner conflicts of everyday people. That same unflinching quality shaped The Awakening, the novel that would later become her most celebrated work. At the time of its publication, however, its frank treatment of a married woman’s emotional and sensual awakening unsettled many critics, who judged it harshly, yet Chopin continued to write stories that revealed her commitment to portraying women as fully human, with desires and ambitions that stretched beyond the confines of convention. She admired the psychological clarity of Guy de Maupassant, but she pushed beyond his influence to craft a voice that was unmistakably her own, direct yet lyrical, and deeply attuned to the inner lives of her characters. Though some of her contemporaries viewed her themes as daring or even improper, others recognized her narrative skill, and within a decade of her passing she was already being described as a writer of remarkable talent. Her rediscovery in the twentieth century led readers to appreciate how modern her concerns truly were: the struggle for selfhood, the tension between social expectations and private longing, and the resilience of women seeking lives that felt authentically theirs. Today, her stories and novels are widely read, admired for their clarity, emotional intelligence, and the boldness with which they illuminate the complexities of human experience.

Reviews

[Mariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection. If it had just been the novel, it might have received a full five stars, but including the short stories drops it to four, as I enjoy them, but have never been truly blown away by anything in this format. I enjoyed the setting, created carefully and woven across all stories, as well as the characters. For The Awakening itself, I found it to be a wonderful, thoughtful and thought-provoking story, leaving room for the reader to make their own interpretations while creating vivid and interesting characters. Highly recommended.

[Tzurky · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best and worst I can say about this book is that it is a very vivid and accurate portrayal of its times and of a place, Louisiana towards the end of the 19th century. With all that that entails.

Moreover, the book consists of one novella and a large number of very short stories with repetitive motifs and sometimes protagonists. This is not the type of book you get through in one sitting.

Personally, I loved it. I consider the author a keen observer of human nature and of the customs of the people surrounding her in that particular time and place (she herself was an outsider as far as I can tell). And reading the stories is more of a sociological and historical (including linguistic) endeavour than a literary one. Which is precisely why I loved it and also why it took me so long and was sometimes so painful to get through.

Each story immediately transported me back to the wonderful couple of late summer days I spent in Louisiana a year ago. The languorous atmosphere and the attitude of the people was instantly familiar. At the same time, the late (and sometimes even only second half) of the 19th century is not a very pleasant period to spend any time in as a modern person. The foibles of the Acadians may be very entertaining and all, but the often overt discrimination, racism and sexism made this very difficult to get through.

While the author does have some (proto-)feminist leanings and her writing is certainly not regressive for her time period, it’s a straightforward look at the customs and behavior of the times. The most painful to read were the portrayals of the psychological effects of slavery on the enslaved, even years and decades after it ended. The portrayals of old African American men and women mentally regressing back to their days of slavery (due to dementia or a similar illness one could nowadays identify) chilled me to the bone. It’s almost a disservice to the reader that the author was such an acute observer of humanity.

Compared to such stories, the trite (and ever repetitive) trials and tribulations of lovers (which make up the vast bulk of the stories) seemed almost offensive. I’ve never been particularly fond of romances because I’m not prone to the ‘mad love’, the only type of love that ever seems to be featured, but I’ve really got to hand it to the author - she manages to write at least 50 variations on the love story which are different enough as to seem dissimilar.

In my view, the best stories were the unpublished ones and a few of the published ones where the author dared to write as boldly as she seemed to have lived and thought. Awakening itself was at least an interesting take on the “woman in dreary marriage awakens to the possibilities of life”-trope. While the catalyst of the awakening was, as always in such stories, a man, at least the story does not end there and the affair takes a surprising turn and is fairly boldly written, at least up to the ending which annoyed me but I suppose was necessary to get the thing published in the first place.

So, do I even recommend this? Honestly, only if you have an interest in the place and time period and can stomach being smacked in the face with the stark contrast between our modern way of life and that of a hundred years or so ago (including the unbelievable abundance and material comfort we have achieved in the meantime). It was a very worthwhile, if difficult, read for me.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just wanted to know what all the fuss was about. The writing sounded so modern, there wasn't any Victorian "olde Engishe" in this book at all. Which even modern writers slip into when they get too wordy trying.

Kate Chopin isn't excessively wordy. She narratives everything semi-removed, sort of describing an outline, but nothing in a way where I felt attached to the characters. Even in the short stories, with the exception of Desiree's Baby, they seem to stop short. Some of the stories I was puzzled, what the point of the story was, perhaps it was meant to be very subtle, and for me, was so subtle it was almost non-existent.

It definitely was an insight into New Orleans style Creole life, which I am fairly ignorant of. But otherwise, I just wasn't feeling this reading experience.

[Ben Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Awakening is an 1899 proto-feminist text that documents one Louisiana woman's journey to self-discovery by way of her eventual self-annihilation. Its style is very much 19th Century naturalism giving way to social commentary that scandalised Ms Chopin's staid readership of the time.

[Rocío Molina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novela publicada en 1899 que fue un inicio a la literatura feminista que todavía no existía en esa época. Kate fue atacada por sus representaciones de la sexualidad femenina pero posteriormente ha llegado a ser una de las novelas más importantes escrita por una mujer estadounidense en el siglo XIX. Ambientada en Nueva Orleans y Luisana Edna sólo quiere ser libre en todos los aspectos de su vida pues se casó y fue madre por obligación y aunque ama a sus hijos se siente esclava de su destino y sólo quiere ser libre y dueña de sus decisiones. Edna es para mí una Madame Bovary menos caprichosa y una Ana Karenina más responsable y centrada. Tiene un inglés bastante comprensible aunque a veces lioso por que mezcla mucho con el francés.

[Blue Sunshine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would say this book is definitely not for the weak-hearted. Not in the horror manner, but rather a linguistic point of view. As a non-native, the language was, for the most part, a constant struggle. I would say that is the reason why I had to take a lot of breaks from reading it. Still, I appreciate the beauty, sadness, and rawness depicted in the various stories presented of society in the 19th century.

[Camilla Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5

[Isla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories in this book describe a time that no longer exists, French speaking parishes, plantations and slavery. The stories themselves describe the loves and wants of everyday people. Not all have a happy ending, reflective of the changes with the author, and some I felt could be read with Lovecraft in mind.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not see that end coming....

[Giannis · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 actually. Liked "The Awakening" and the uncollected stories ( 3stars ). Next is "Bayou Folk" ( 2stars ) and last "A night in Acadie" which is the worst collection to me (1star).