The Awakening

Now recognised as one of the classics of nineteenth- century literature, The Awakening was a scandal of its time, and had to wait until the 1970s to be rediscovered.

It is the deeply moving story of Edna Pontellier, a young woman living in New Orleans. She is fond of her husband, proud of her sons, but she cannot accept that for women it is 'a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals'. Her fight is a contemporary one. It is for spiritual and sensual freedom, and for self- determination. --back cover