Melville House 20th Anniversary: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

 

The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

Published August 2010 by Melville House, as part of their The Art of the Novella series.

From the cover: 

She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.

Edna Pontellier is married, twenty-eight, and at the cross road of her life. She is passionate and artistic, but has no one who understands her deep yearnings. But her life changes when she spends a summer away from her husband at a small coastal retreat.

When it was first published in 1899, The Awakening was universally vilified for its frank discussion of female sexuality, and the oppression of women. Willa Cather called it "sordid", others called it "immoral", and its publication effectively ended Kate Chopin's theretofore successful career.

But this is the story of a New Orleans woman trapped in her marriage has also come to be seen as more than just a proto-feminist classic, it's now recognised as one of the most influential works of the nineteenth century. In its dazzling blend of psychological acuity, complex characters, and exotic locale, it is, simply, a moving and absorbing work of literature.

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As part of the celebration to mark the 20th anniversary of Melville House Publishing, it is my absolute pleasure to showcase a little of their wonderfully varied catalogue by bringing you my thoughts on the 1899 classic The Awakening by Kate Chopin, which Melville House publish as part of their The Art of the Novella series.

The Awakening is one of those classic tales that has long been on my enormous to-be-read pile, but for one reason or another I have never got around to it... until now!

This is a compelling tale of a young woman, married with two young children, who comes to realise during an extended summer vacation that she wants something more from her life than the limitations society places upon her. Edna Pontellier whiles away this eventful summer with her children on Grand Isle, Louisiana, not far from her stately home in New Orleans, and yet a world apart from her usual life as the wife of her stuffy businessman husband Léonce, who only sees her as a beautiful possession.

During her husband's frequent absences, Edna spends many hours in the company of the curious collection of other vacationers, especially young Robert Lebrun, the son of the eccentric woman who rents out cottages in the grounds of her crumbling mansion. They spend the summer visiting the sights, wandering in the lush grounds, and relaxing on the beach as Edna attempts to learn how to swim.

There is an otherworldliness about this place that causes the usual social conventions to be cast aside, which gets under Edna's skin and causes her to ponder on the possibilities of a different sort of life. One sultry night, during an impromptu bathing session, she suddenly realises with joy that she has finally got the idea of this swimming lark, feeling a sense of power in the freedom it gives her. Something inside her, crying out for the autonomy to be mistress of her own life, has been awakened by this experience. She feels a heady mix of deep emotions, including the passionate stirring of feelings towards Robert.

But then summer is over and the Pontellier family remove back to their home in New Orleans. Edna cannot now settle into her former role, and to the bemusement of Léonce she gradually neglects the domestic and social duties he expects of her. As she makes moves to distance herself from her husband, she begins to mix with an altogether different crowd of decadent free-thinkers, and thoughts of being with Robert linger. As Edna follows her passions, crossing the bounds of expected behaviour for a woman of her station, she spirals towards disaster.

This story was seen as shocking when published in 1899, when the idea of a young woman, who should only be concerned with her duties as a wife and mother, wanting to live her own life, to think her own thoughts, and to follow her passions, was anathema to a society dominated by patriarchal views. As a result, this book sadly ended the writing career of Kate Chopin, but following the advent of second wave feminism in the 1960s it is now deservedly recognised for the fire-brand feminist classic it is. 

This is a beautifully written story, full of sensuous imagery, and I love the way Edna comes alive as she experiences her 'awakening', suddenly aware of feelings that have lain dormant within her. There are lovely threads here about the sights, sounds and smells that overwhelm her, stimulating her emotions - particularly in terms of food and music. And as the story progresses, her confidence in her own talents grows. 

It becomes pretty evident as you become immersed in Edna's tale that it cannot be a happy one, and indeed the ending is terribly tragic - and yet, there is something admirable in the way she ultimately decides her own fate. There is plenty here to rouse the soul to both joy and anger, as her life is eventually derailed by men, and it remains poignantly timeless. 

It's a story I will be thinking about for a long time to come, and I am very grateful to Melville House for finally giving me the opportunity to get acquainted with this powerful novella. I'm really looking forward to exploring more of the titles on offer in The Art of he Novella collection.

The Awakening is available to buy now in multiple formats.

Thank you to Melville House for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this celebratory blog tour.

About the author:

Born and raised in St. Louis, Kate Chopin (1850-1904) moved to Louisiana to marry the son of a cotton grower. A mother of six by the age of twenty-eight and a widow at thirty-two, she turned to writing to support her young family. She is best known today for The Awakening (1899), a portrait of marriage and motherhood so controversial it fell out of print shortly after publication and was not rediscovered until the 1960s.

The Art of The Novella Series

Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.