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 psycho¬logical 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 master¬pieces of Faulkner, Flannery
O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter, and Tennessee Williams.