The Awakening, Kate Chopin’s most famous work, was greeted with cries of outrage and charges of immorality upon its publication in 1899. Its frank portrayal of a woman’s emotional, intellectual, and sexual awakening shocked the sensibilities of the time and destroyed the author’s reputation and career. Many years passed before this short pioneering novel was recognized as a major achievement in American literature. Set in and around New Orleans, The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother. While on vacation, Edna meets the son of a Louisiana resort owner, with whom she gradually falls in love. As she pulls away from her husband, Edna begins to develop a sense of herself as a whole person with unique wants, interests, and desires. Determined to control her own life, she flouts convention by moving out of her husband’s house, indulging in an adulterous affair, and becoming an artist. Beautifully written, with incredibly sensuous imagery and vivid local descriptions, The Awakening has lost little of its power to provoke and inspire. Additionally, this edition includes thirteen of Kate Chopin’s short stories: “Emancipation: A Life Fable,” “A Shameful Affair,” “At the ’Cadian Ball,” “Désirée’s Baby,” “A Gentleman of Bayou Têche,” “A Respectable Woman,” “The Story of an Hour,” “Athénaïse,” “A Pair of Silk Stockings,” “Elizabeth Stock’s One Story,” “The Storm,” “The Godmother,” and “A Little Country Girl.” Introduction and Notes by Rachel Adams "Chopin’s stories often depict the pain of betrayal, disappointment, or loss of an intimate friend or relative. A woman with few close friends who avoided association with organized groups, she wrote of women who suffer the burden of unwanted social and emotional bonds. The Awakening directly confronts the paradox of being surrounded by loving friends and family but longing for freedom." —from the Introduction by Rachel Adams Having published articles on American literature, film, disability, race, and gender studies, Rachel Adams teaches nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature at Columbia University. She is the author of Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001) and the co-editor of The Masculinity Studies Reader (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2002). Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri. As a student at the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, Chopin kept a “commonplace book,” a diary of her daily life, and wrote poetry. After the death of her husband in 1882, she became more serious about her writing. Since she wrote about the people and culture of New Orleans, Chopin was first known as a Creole writer. She composed more than 100 short stories, which were compiled in Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie. Chopin transcended her local status with the publication of The Awakening, a novel—influenced by the urbane stories of Guy de Maupassant—which boldly questions and defies the constraints on a woman’s freedom and individuality.