The Awakening Audiobook (Free)

Kate Chopin’s riveting, daring story of 1 woman’s search for personal freedom was so far before its time that its publication aroused a storm of controversy violent enough to get rid of its author’s profession.

With an effortless, sure-handed artistry, Chopin tells the storyplot of Edna Pontellier, a young mom and model wife, whose romantic involvement with a young man throughout a vacation at a seaside holiday resort allows her for the very first time to imagine a fresh, freer life. Upon her return to New Orleans, Edna leaves her husband’s home for her very own cottage and starts an affair, only to discover that the constraints of sociable custom may be stronger than she believed. Contemporary readers and reviewers had been shocked by the frank, unapologetic treatment of adultery in The Awakening. The fact that we possess the book whatsoever is the most convincing tribute to its enduring, irrepressible power.