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Summary: The awakening; should be called the abandoning
Review: It is a great mystery to me why female supremists love and adore this book. Kate Chopin's character Edna ruins the lives of her children by selfishly taking her own. Does a woman really demonstrate her strength by wimping out in the face of life?
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Summary: Newspaper Woman Goes Bananas
Review: Kate Chopin was a 48-year-old newspaper woman from St. Louis, Missouri, when she wrote this lovely idyllic evocation of New Orleans and a nearby Gulf Coast summer resort for Creoles a century ago. "Creole" is a word with several different meanings, but Chopin uses the word to refer to the French-speaking population of New Orleans (except for the French-speaking descendants of the Acadians, whom she refers to as Cajuns). But the heroine of the piece, Edna, is unfortunately a bit of a dullard - pretentious, vain, unpleasantly coy - and a bit intolerant too. It is very difficult to warm up to her. The author has not a smidgen of critical detachment from Edna, in fact she dotes on her embarrassingly, and even though the book is written in the third person it's painfully autobiographical. It's hard to see how this book could have created so much widespread and continuing academic interest, even if it was touted as a feminist classic, at a time when the feminist movement was badly in need of classics. When The Awakening was published (in 1899), Chopin was vilified for having written a scandalous, amoral book, sales were abysmal, and she apparently restricted herself to little stories from the newspaper from then on. The Awakening is the only work for which she is remembered. "Miss Highcamp played some selections from Grieg upon the piano. She seemed to have apprehended all of the composer's coldness and none of his poetry. While Edna listened she could not help wondering if she had lost her taste for music." "...Life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation."
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Summary: An unbelievably whiny, obnoxious, and self-centered heroine
Review: Although I am certain that some individuals would beg to differ, I found Chopin's The Awakening an exercise in masochism. I found the main character, Edna, did not elicit any sense of pity. The notion of societal pressures on an indivdual is certainly valid, but Chopin's dull (at least in my personal opnion)prose made the point too blatant, and Edna's so-called escape is a very poor resolution to such problems.
Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: This piece of genius by Kate Chopin is one of my favorite books. Her complex pattern of storytelling weave together the issues that all women navigate, including love, marriage, motherhood and how to be independant. This is something every woman should read for her own awakening.
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Summary: A novel of wonder and free spirt!
Review: This novel was truely and awakening. As a young woman of 21, this book opened my eyes regarding the patriarchal powers that existed in the Victorian era, and still today. Edna Pontellier is a character caught in a life she was not meant for. All women who wish to be motivated and break free should read this book.
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Summary: Quick read, but not too pleasant
Review: I think that this is a good book to have read to get a different perspective on feminism at the turn of the century, but it bothered me greatly while I was reading it. The main character, Edna, is SO selfish, childish, and self-absorbed that I can't see why the novel is so highly acclaimed as a piece of feminist literature. Perhaps it is because a woman takes the main role. Perhaps it is because of the sexual images that do not relate to men. I consider myself a feminist, but I had little respect for Edna or for this book.
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Summary: This isn't one for everyone
Review: Some find Chopin's way of writing dull, I on the other hand find it a very interesting and concise way of description, a different type of writer out of a houndred. Only a few people will be able to fully comprehend and appreciate what Edna does and why she does it. The little shadow on her two boys only enhances the pain of this book. Tragic, but wonderful. It kind of reminded me of MADAME BOVARY (slightly), then THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP (excluding the trashiness).
Rating: 
Summary: Okay...
Review: BAD FEATURES OF THE BOOK 1) narrative is mediocore. 2) first half of the story is quite boring and the book is hard to "get into". 3) at times edna's akwakening seems to be her unwillingness to take on her responsibilities. 4)edna often seems bitchy. GOOD FEATURES OF THE BOOK 1)towards the end the narrative becomes interesting. 2)many ideas of freedom, especially that of women, are presented well. 3)desciptons of characters are good. 4)book is realistic in that it does not portray men as evil [leonce is very sympathetic]. instead it attacks aspects of society that oppress women.
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Summary: Magical
Review: I was in awe after reading this book...such a simple and short tale, yet full of life and vibrance. Let things be...that's what this book says.
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Summary: Morally courageous; rhetorically--er--flaccid
Review: While bold in its emancipatory theme--a theme I applaud--Chopin's novel left me groaning at times because of narrative strategies that seemed archaic or melodramatic to modern sensibilities. After reading The Awakening I immediately turned to a writer about whom I'm normally ambivalent: Hemingway. Had to cleanse the palate I'm afraid.
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