The Awakening

by Kate Chopin

American · 1899Fiction
49,661 words39 chapters~199 min read
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Set in 1890s Louisiana, this groundbreaking American novel follows Edna Pontellier, a married woman who begins to question the constraints of her conventional life during a summer at Grand Isle. As Edna discovers her own desires and artistic ambitions, Chopin's 1899 work explores themes of independence, sexuality, and the limited roles available to women in turn-of-the-century society.

Opening lines

A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: “_Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi!_ That’s all right!” He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence.
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