The Awakening (Wisehouse Classics - Original Authoritative Edition 1899)

The Awakening
Bok av Kate Chopin
The Awakening, originally titled A Solitary Soul, is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coast at the end of the 19th century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century American South. It is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, generating a mixed reaction from contemporary readers and critics. The novel's blend of realistic narrative, incisive social commentary, and psychological complexity makes The Awakening a precursor of American modernist literature; it prefigures the works of American novelists such as William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and echoes the works of contemporaries such as Edith Wharton and Henry James. It can also be considered among the first Southern works in a tradition that would culminate with the modern masterpieces of Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter, and Tennessee Williams.
En underbart vacker och poetisk bok om en kvinnas dröm att slå sig fri från samhällets inhängnad. Utspelas under sekelskiftet 18-1900 i de sk franska kvarteren i New Orleans. En kvinnas plats var i hemmet men Edna drömmer om något större, något mer, men det kan komma till ett stort pris.

Jag har läst många böcker men skulle jag välja en favorit så är det denna, tänker på den ofta. Språket och sättet att bära historian framåt är enastående och poetiskt, den kommer att stanna med dig länge. En juvel som många missat.

Nyckelord: Kvinnohistoria, New Orleans, sekelskifte, familj, kärlek, feminism och könsroller.