Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Oct 17, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

(**SPOILERS in the comments**)

One of the earliest sleep-with-whoever-you-want feminist rhetoric books. I think much of what feminists fought for and accomplished was vital for protecting women. Women have never lived with such freedom. I stand behind many of the advances. This book, however, as part of the general 60’s feminist philosophy(not the major thinking of the early feminists), I believe has had a destructive effect. Instead of promoting a philosophy that men should be more More...

17 comments like (74 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2010

Brother rated it:

I'd like to give this book ZERO stars, but it's not an option. This is hands down the worst book that I've ever read. I will never say that again in a review, because this one wins that prize.

BIG SPOILER AHEAD - Be warned.

I had to read this thing twice in college, and it is a horrible story. We are supposed to feel sympathy for a selfish woman with no redeemable qualities. Just because her marriage is bad it does not give her the right to be a lousy, despicable person. Ge More...

14 comments like (49 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2007

Houston rated it:

“It sometimes entered Mr. Pontillier’s mind to wonder if his wife were not growing a little unbalanced mentally. He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.”(p. 79)

“What have you been doing to her, Pontillier?”
“Doing! Parbleu!”
“Has she,” asked the Doctor, with a smile, “has she been associating of l More...

3 comments like (20 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2008

Sanjina rated it:

I guess I can understand why The Awakening is considered so important in the development of the feminist canon. At the same time, I can understand why it was rejected so adamantly in its own time. Chopin is an okay writer. Her work, however, seethes ignorance. Her work was ignored in its time because it really was not worth the recognition. Anyway, that’s my humble, and not so intellectual, opinion.

The protagonist, 29, seems to awaken into an adolescence of sorts in this book. More...

3 comments like (25 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

10 comments like (16 people liked it)

Sep 22, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2010

Alison rated it:

"But they need not thought that they could possess her, body and soul."

If there ever was a Feminist Manifesto, it truly is Kate Chopin's "The Awakening."

Edna Pontellier is a 28-year-old wife and mother in New Orleans, 1900. Her husband is well-off, and Edna's days consist of watching the nanny take care of her two young boys, scolding the cook over bad soup, giving and attending champagne-filled dinner parties, and receiving formal calls from high soc More...

6 comments like (14 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2010

Dolly rated it:

Kate Chopin wrote this story of female self-actualization back in the late 19th century, but it's as applicable today as it was then. I think we all feel trapped by decisions we've made capriciously, and we all consider, even briefly, escape. The main character in this novel not only realizes that she has trapped herself, but she actively seeks to free herself. Her action, rather than just emotion and despair (a la Goethe), is what separates her from the herd.

Here's the low-down: Edn More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Carson rated it:

Angsty "other" novel in which the "other" is a white woman from Louisiana. Huh? Yes. She speaks French, you see - hence making her an "other" and somehow her selfish acts make her a feminist, and the woman who is unselfish is demonized for fitting into a more "traditional" role (if by "traditional" you mean she doesn't cheat on her husband or abandon her family, then yes she is traditional). Whoops, spoiler. ANYwho, so this woman speaks Fren More...

10 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2010

Crystal rated it:

I hated this book. I didn't necessarily enjoy it throughout, but when I got to the end, and saw how she ended it all, I was so mad! there is nothing likable about this woman. She is spoiled and selfish--her children may have grieved her loss, but they were better off without a self-absorbed trollop like herself in their lives. the way to self-realization, as this book seems to imply she's finding, is NOT to break every vow you've made, betray every relationship, abandon your children, and kill More...

6 comments like (9 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2010

Heather rated it:

A few of my all time favorite excerpts are from this book ...

When Mlle Reisz asks Edna why she loves him, when she shouldn't and she says:

"...Because his hair is brown and grows away from his temples; because he opens and shuts his eyes, and his nose is a little out of drawing; because he has two lips and a square chin, and a little finger which he can't straighten from having played baseball too energetically in his youth. Because '"

"Because y More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Jul 08, 2011

Kristen rated it:

Why so many ugly one star reviews? All about as insightful as the ubiquitous one star reviews of Lolita which call Nabokov the man a child molester, raving morons who can't distinguish a character from an author and go beyond simply missing the point. And how ironic that all these reviews seem to be from women raging that this book (which they all obviously read for their 'gender theory' class) features a character who abandons her children. Ugh, women who criticize this as a feminist novel b More...

69 comments like (25 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2010

Skylar rated it:

This book is considered a classic partly, I think, because it is considered to be one of the earliest feminist novels. It seems to me to have a lot more to do with the contrast between two cultures, Anglo and Creole. I guess it must be a feminist novel, though, because the main character engages in a profound and courageous assault on the domineering patriarchal establishment: she gets bored with her average life to her mostly decent husband, commits adultery, and then kills herself. How liber More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Teresa rated it:

"He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation."

This line is typical of this novel. While I respect its place in history as one of the first books to openly address the issue of feminism within a marriage, I can't help but think it could have been written a little less....obviously. Everything felt like a "The More You Know" m More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2010

Christy rated it:

I loved this story for the beautiful writing and the intricate way of exploring the life of a tragic woman. I saw this as a tragic story, not as the example that feminists having been using it as for decades.

The feminist themes are there, no doubt, but I don't think that Chopin intended it to be used as an example of what a woman in a similar situation should do.

The Awakening is a story of a woman who feels bound and oppressed by her marriage and by motherhood. This stuff More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2011

Christina rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 08, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2008

Kathleen rated it:

7/16: This is my second time reading this book. It definitely went a lot smoother the second time and I was able to pay more attention to the characters, particularly Edna. I was able to see and understand how certain words were able to convey feelings of a person "waking up their senses" and being aware of their own feelings, thoughts, and emotions. Although the ending was not what I expected (from the first reading), I was able to understand why Edna did what she did, not that it m More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2008

Claudine rated it:

Read this book for a study/essay...didn't pick it out to read for fun. The writing style is strange and very romantic...sometimes I assumed I was reading a poor romance novel (and I'm not a fan of those).

However, this wasn't for fun, so I had to really read it and let it sit for a while. No, I don't like Chopin's writing, but understand where she was coming from in 19th Century America as a female -- and although I don't agree with her heroine's actions (three in particular) that e More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 05, 2011

Taylor rated it:

Books like this make me both angry and happy. They make me upset, because I hate that there was a time when women and men weren't considered equals, but they make me happy because somebody had to point the finger and say "this is fucked up," and Kate Chopin was unafraid to do just that.

When we first started reading this book in my frosh year literature course at Hofstra, I was pissing and bitching and moaning about it. I was not remotely interested in reading it. But I plow More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2010

Sarah rated it:

This wasn't a book that caught my interest right away- I picked it up only to read a few pages and then put it down again several times.

However, as the protagonist came more to life so too did the book. I found Edna both more interesting and more sympathetic as the book progressed.

Chopin's style was interesting, too- sometimes lushly descriptive, sometimes spare- and generally quite Modernist in tone.

I can see why some people loathe this book: there isn't More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2010

Linds rated it:

This is supposedly a milestone in feminist literature. It's important on a historical level, but it was impossible for me to for me to get this book. The "heroine" Edna is naive at best, and a selfish spoiled brat at worst.

I love historical romance novels set during the 1800's. While those books are fun, I realize that this situation was much more realistic. Women were married to men they were very distant to and trapped in a world of ennui and as the author put it, a " More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Yulia rated it:

Bravo! I was very won over by this. I only held back in rating it a five because I thought it occasionally melodramatic, but then people can be naturally and sincerely melodramatic, so I shouldn't hold that against Chopin and the stakes were so much greater than they are now, yet the story still resonates so much with me. Inspiring and thought-provoking, over a century later. What a feat that is. I see why this is timeless, though it's so sad to think of how it's outlives New Orleans itself More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

bup rated it:

I barely remember anything about this except how it ends, but I know I read it, and someday my biographer will need this information, dammit!

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2008

Lisa rated it:

Final Response:

“When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity”.

In my opinion, the description of “female marital infidelity” may have been depicted as the norm in today’s society, where it wasn’t considered to be as appalling compared to the past. In this century, it is actually okay to be divorced once or multiple times; however, when it comes to dealing with the status of religion, marriage is viewed More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2009

Tracy rated it:

Brilliant portrayal of a woman's refusal to lose her own self among marriage and children.
One of the most insightful comments in the book was about why marriage is not what we expect: "The trouble is, that youth is given up to illusions. It seems to be a provision of Nature; a decoy to secure mothers for the race. And Nature takes no account of moral consequences, of arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged to maintain at any cost."

Also loved More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2011

Lu rated it:

I thought that I wouldn't like this book. I knew the basic plot and the whole idea of it seemed selfish. But now that I have read it, I realized how wrong that perception was. This book is, beyond its basic plot, absolutely beautiful. I felt so completely transported to turn of the century New Orleans. You feel Edna's frustration and entrapment. It's rare that I have such an emotional experience with a classic, but I did with this novel.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 25, 2009

Kiki rated it:

I enjoyed this book as a window into the mind of a young, if atypical, Victorian era woman. However, I was extremely disappointed in the ending, and it soured my taste for the whole book. Without including a spoiler, all I can say is that I cannot sympathize with a character who handles her problems the way Edna does.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 14, 2007

Shannon rated it:

The Awakening undermines the myth of woman in favor of a recognition of women as individuals. The character of Edna Pontellier subverts traditional ideas about the nature of womanhood as expressed through selfless devotion to husband and children. Rather than entering the realm of caricature with her rendering of the domestic angel Edna Ratignolle, Chopin weaves a sincere portrayal of both women; one who naturally wears the myth of woman like a glove, and the other who does not. One of the firs More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2008

Amy rated it:

I read this book in my AP Lit class in high school and disliked it so much I don't think I ever finished it. Years later I thought about the story line and decided to give it another shot. I LOVED IT!!! It's amazing what a little maturity and change in perspective can do! This is feminist literature at its finest, and I believe this book was banned at one point to silence Chopin's story of a housewife who, feeling unhappy and unable to continue in her current course of action, takes the step More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)