The Awakening and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was my second time to read Kate Chopin's The Awakening, the last time being in the late 1990's when I was in my twenties. I think I appreciated it even more now after decades of adulthood and years of marriage.

I also understood it differently. It seemed less like the standard narrative of a woman rebelling against her social situation and marriage (though there is obviously that), in other words, less like Madame Bovary and A Doll's House, and more like a Virginia Woolf novel in which a unique feminine consciousness is awakened.

I was also even more appreciative of Chopin's lovely writing, though this was not new to me. I remember my first encounter with her. I was in high school and was driving home late one night listening to NPR. The station we picked up locally sometimes had readings of short stories. That night I caught part of "Desiree's Baby" (which was also included in a small number of short stories in this volume supplementing the novel). I found the story startling to listen to and lyrically beautiful. It was the first time I'd even heard of Chopin, leaving me wondering why we hadn't learned about her in school (which I hope has been corrected in school curricula of recent decades?).

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