Kate Chopin published The Awakening in 1899. Critics condemned it; libraries removed it. Chopin wrote almost nothing after its reception, and died five years later. The novel vanished for sixty years.
It was rediscovered in the 1960s and is now recognised as one of the most important American novels of the 19th century.
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What The Awakening Is About
Edna Pontellier is twenty-eight, married to a successful Creole businessman, the mother of two children, and the mistress of a household she runs with competence and no enthusiasm. She is spending the summer at Grand Isle, a resort community south of New Orleans, when she begins to change.
The change is brought on by several things: the sensuous atmosphere of the Creole community, where physical affection and emotion are more openly expressed than in American society; Robert Lebrun, a young man who pays her marked attention; Mademoiselle Reisz, a pianist whose music moves Edna to tears and who represents a woman who has prioritised art over social convention; and the sea — the Gulf of Mexico — which she is learning to swim in for the first time.
Edna learns to swim. She learns to be alone. She gives up her reception days. She stops running her household according to schedule. She takes a lover. She moves out of her husband's house into a small cottage she calls "the pigeon house." She pursues her painting.
The world she is building has no place in the world available to her. The novel ends accordingly.
How Long Is The Awakening?
| Reading speed | Time to finish |
|---|---|
| 200 WPM | ~4.2 hours |
| 250 WPM (average) | ~3.3 hours |
| 350 WPM (practised) | ~2.4 hours |
| 500 WPM (RSVP) | ~1.7 hours |
How to Read It
The Grand Isle chapters (opening) are slow and sensuous — the heat, the sea, the Creole social world. warpread's RSVP mode at 300 WPM here; the atmosphere matters.
The New Orleans chapters (middle) — Edna's growing independence in the city. 350 WPM. The changes come through specific acts: skipping reception days, sleeping in the hammock, moving to the pigeon house.
The return to Grand Isle (closing) — read at your slowest pace. Chopin's prose in the final chapter is the most controlled she ever wrote.
Mademoiselle Reisz — pay attention to every scene in which she appears. She is the novel's conscience and its warning: the cost of artistic freedom in a world hostile to it.
For the full speed reading technique, see how to read faster.
Where to Read The Awakening Free
- warpread library — instant reading, RSVP mode, no account needed
- Project Gutenberg — complete text, EPUB and download
- Standard Ebooks — best-formatted free EPUB
Related Reading
- The Yellow Wallpaper — the companion text; shorter, more Gothic, same decade
- Madame Bovary — Flaubert's earlier, French version of the same story
- Little Women — a contrasting American vision of what a woman's life can be
For the full list of free classics, see the 50 best free classic novels to read online.
Topics
Frequently asked questions
Is The Awakening free to read online?
Yes. The Awakening was published in 1899 and is in the public domain. You can read it free at warpread.app's library (Project Gutenberg ID 160), Standard Ebooks, and many other sites — no account, no download, no payment.
How long does it take to read The Awakening?
The Awakening is approximately 50,000 words. At 250 WPM it takes about 3.3 hours. At 350 WPM around 2.4 hours. At 500 WPM with RSVP reading, about 1.7 hours. A powerful short novel that can be read in a single afternoon.
What is The Awakening about?
Edna Pontellier, a married woman in New Orleans Creole society at the end of the 19th century, begins to awaken to her own desires — artistic, emotional, sexual — during a summer at Grand Isle. She begins to refuse the social roles assigned to her as wife and mother, takes a lover, moves into her own house, and pursues her painting. The novel follows her growing sense of self and the impossibility of living that self within the world available to her.
Why was The Awakening suppressed?
The Awakening was received with hostility by critics in 1899 who found Edna Pontellier's rejection of her marital and maternal duties immoral. One critic called it 'too strong a drink for moral babes.' Libraries removed it from circulation. The novel fell into obscurity for sixty years until feminist literary criticism in the 1960s and 1970s rediscovered it as a foundational text. It is now widely taught and considered one of the first American feminist novels.
What is the ending of The Awakening?
Edna returns to Grand Isle alone and swims out into the Gulf of Mexico until she cannot return. The ending is ambiguous — it can be read as suicide, as an act of liberation, or as both simultaneously. Chopin does not judge it. Edna reflects on the voices of her past as she swims — her father, her husband, the 'little children' who were 'part of her life' — and then the voices fade. The sea is described as 'seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring.'
How does The Awakening compare to The Yellow Wallpaper?
Both The Awakening (1899) and The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) are about women constrained by 19th-century domestic and medical authority, and both end in the woman's destruction rather than triumph. The Yellow Wallpaper is shorter, more Gothic, and more claustrophobic. The Awakening is more expansive, more sensuous, and more explicitly about desire. Together they constitute the foundational American feminist fiction of the 1890s.
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