Product Description
Short play adapted from the famous Kate Chopin short story of the same title.3 males, 3 females, one act - lasts about10 minutes. Louise Mallard hears here husband has been killed in a train accident and her family fears this news will cause the death of this sickly woman. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of Kate Chopin's Best Stories
This short play, adapted from a short story by Kate Chopin, concerns an hour in the life of the main character, Mrs. Millard. She is afflicted with a heart problem. Bad news has come about that her husband has died in a train accident. Her friends and relatives try to break the horrifying news to her as gently as possible. They both were concerned that the news might somehow put her in great danger with her health. Ironically, Mrs. Millard reacts to the news with excitement. Even though the news is heartbreaking she is finally free from the depressing life she was living. The story ends with an ironic twist. ... Read more

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Written in 1899, Chopin shocked readers by creating the passionate main character ofEdna Pontellier. Pentellier, a wife and mother of two sons living in conventional Creole society, rejects these roles and decides to live selfishly. The scandal created by the book haunted Kate Chopin for the rest of her life: she did not produce any new works during the last five years of her life, presumably discouraged by the critical and moralistic response to The Awakening.

This edition also contains a selection of short stories including "Beyond the Bayou", "Ma'ame Pelagie", "Desiree's Baby", "A Respectable Women", "The Kiss", "A Pair of Silk Stockings", "The Locket", and "A Reflection". ... Read more

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A collection of short stories by the author of The Awakening features a tale of a prejudiced woman touched and transformed by the affection of a child, plus ""A No-Account Creole"" and ""A Night in Acadie."" ... Read more

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When it was first published in 1899, The Awakening was charged with being sordid, immoral and repellent. Following such public condemnation the novel disappeared from bookshops and libraries for almost fifty years. Today, the story of Edna Pontellier's search for sexual and spiritual freedom is heralded as a classic.This volume includes other stories of Louisiana life which explore similar themes of love and marriage.Cambridge Literature is a series of study texts which presents writing in the English-speaking world from the 16th century up to the present day.The series includes novels, drama, short stories, poetry, essays and other types of non-fiction.Each edition has the complete text with an appropriate glossary.The student will find in each volume a helpful introduction and a full section of resource notes encouraging active and imaginative study methods. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

THE AWAKENING AND OTHER SHORT STORIES
Kate Chopin is definitely best known for enveloping the concepts of women's desires, independence, and control of their lives in her writing.Her masterpiece, 'The Awakening', is one example of how she used these concepts.While this book was condemned during its time, it is a very intriguing read.
"The Awakening" received condemnation in 1899 because of its sexual openness.It has since been rediscovered and taught in classrooms across America.Chopin's power to almost foresee the future reveals her insight.She knew women were eventually going to realize they deserved equal rights, and she was going to do something to help fight for it, even if it didn't result in immediate recognition or gratification.Chopin wanted women to be heard.
Because of her perseverance and confidence, eventually her words were shared.The reader doesn't need to be a feminist to be able to enjoy "The Awakening."Indeed, it is centered on the process of a woman freeing herself from her responsibilities in order to focus on what she wants for herself; therefore, this theme can and should be compelling and motivational to both males and females.It is for these reasons "The Awakening" should be celebrated and appreciated by people of any race, age, gender or background.

A classic story defining the struggle for identity.
Kate Chopin's novel was not widely appreciated until the women's movement rescued it from publishing oblivion.The story of Edna Pontillier's journey to discover herself is one that all women would probably enjoy-- whether they can identify with Edna or whether they are completely dissimilar.Whatever your final opinion about the story's outcome, this novel will spark thought, discussion, and awakenings of many kinds.Do not pass this book up. ... Read more

Product Description
Kate Chopin (born Katherine O'Flaherty) (1850-1904) was an American author of short stories and novels, mostly of a Louisiana Creole background. She is now considered to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century. From 1889 to 1902, she wrote short stories for both children and adults which were published in such magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The Century, and Harper's Youth's Companion. Her major works were two short story collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Her important short stories included The Father of Desiree's Baby, a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana; The Story of an Hour and The Storm. Chopin also wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), which is set in New Orleans and Grand Isle. The people in her stories are usually inhabitants of Louisiana. Many of her works are set about Natchitoches in north central Louisiana. In time, literary critics determined that Chopin addressed the concerns of women in all places and for all times in her literature. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1895Original Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin and CompanySubjects: LouisianaLouisiana - Social life and customs - FictionFiction / HistoricalFiction / GeneralFiction / ClassicsFiction / HistoricalFiction / LiteraryHistory / GeneralHistory / United States / State ... Read more

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Kate Chopin's extraordinary Naturalist work "The Storm," suppressed in her lifetime, as well as its prequel, At The 'Cadian Ball.The works give us Calixta and her class-approved mate Bobinot, as well as Alcee, the man she truly loved. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

HoustonE reviews The Storm
The short story "The Storm by Kate Chopin" is a book on realism, addressing a problem that isnt normally addressed in literary works at that time and that's adultery. It's a really short read divided into sections and basically it starts off with a man and his son out in the town store to buy canned shrimp for his wife because that's her favorite thing to eat. Then it gets dark and a big storm hits. The man and son stay in the store to wait out the storm, but back at home a couple of miles away the wife is doing chores and notices the laundry is still out. She goes out to get it and notices her ex lover is riding towards the house and asks for shelter from the rain. She lets him in, and as the storm rages on their feeligns resurface and they get it on. The storm dissapates and the guy, Alcee leaves and then the father and son comes home and she carries on as if nothing happens. I enjoyed this short story and recommend it for anyone who loves to read. ... Read more

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A mixed bag
This collection holds a mixture of lesser-know stories with a few of her classics, all well-worth reading.It includes A Dresden Lady in Dixie, A Family Affair, A Matter of Prejudice, A No-Account Creole, A Rude Awakening, A Sentimental Soul, A Wizard From Gettysburg, After the Winter, At Cheniere Caminada, Athenaise, Beyond the Bayou, Dead Men' Shoes, For Marse Chouchoute, In and Out of Old Natchitoches, In Sabine, La Belle Zoraide, Lilacs, Love on the Bon-Dieu, Ma'ame Pelagie, The Lilies, Neg Creol, Tante Catrinette, The Return of Alcibiade, and Wiser Than God. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

She awakens
The lot of women in the 19th century wasn't a terribly impressive one -- many of them had been reduced to babymakers and inoffensive "property" for the men.

And Kate Chopin caused a massive scandal when she wrote about one woman who drifted from societal normal in "The Awakening," leading to a world of exploration, love, and ultimately tragedy. Her misty, vaguely dreamlike writing can pull a reader into the world of 1900s New Orleans and its society, but her heroine sometimes feels more like a vessel than a fully-realized person.

Edna Pontellier is the wife of successful New Orleans businessman Léonce, and mother of two lovely young boys. Yet she is dissatisfied by her life, and feels no connection to the other wives and mothers, who idolize their motherhood and subservience. And when she encounters handsome young Creole Robert Lebrun while on vacation, she begins to "awake" to the feelings she has left behind during her marriage.

Distancing herself from Leonce and her sons, Edna begins exploring art and emotions that have been denied her by the strictures of her society -- as well as an affair with the flirtatious Alcée Arobin. She even moves out into a cottage of her own, much to the horror of those who thought they knew her. Her romantic feelings have not moved on from Robert, but his return makes her realize how different she has become...

Kate Chopin's most famous work is often cited as a sort of proto-feminist work, with a woman rebelling against the male-dominated role she has been given. The fact that a story about a woman abandoning her husband and kids caused such a scandal only adds to that belief.

But that's a rather restricted label to give such a versatile author, and "Awakening" is a book with too many facets to be so restrained. In many ways Chopin resembles a Southern version of Edith Wharton, exploring the stultifying society that she once dwelled in, and the often-tragic consequences of people -- particularly women -- who dared to step outside those unforgiving boundaries.

Chopin's lush writing elevates this story even further, weaving an atmospheric, vaguely dreamlike web around everyday New Orleans. She makes readers feel the heat of a summer's day, the remote beauty of a party, the eerie majesty of an empty sea. And though "The Awakening" is infused by a feeling of languid dreaminess, Chopin creates a feeling of tension and inevitability that grows as the book goes on. It's almost a shock at the book's finale, when that tension releases in a quiet burst of poetic language.

And to her credit, Chopin is able to make her points about women and society without setting up straw-men. Such characters as "angel of the house" Adèle Ratignolle and the stuffy Leonce (who sees Edna as his personal property and expects her to obey) are examples of the usual society of the time, yet Leonce is a fully realized character who loves -- but can never understand -- his wife.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that Edna herself is at times rather thin as a character. While she has many conflicting desires, she sometimes seems like a mere vessel for all those desires to be displayed over time. But there are some scenes where she does seem like a fully realized person, such as when she meditates on her lack of housewifely virtues, is struck by wild mood swings around her sons, and befriends Mademoiselle Reisz.

"The Awakening" is more than just an early feminist novel -- it's an exquisitely written story about the roads that our own desires can take us down, and the tragedies that can come from it. A must-read, if nothing else for Kate Chopin's powerful writing. ... Read more

Product Description
Edgar Degas traveled from Paris to New Orleans during the fall of 1872 to visit the American branch of his mothers family, the Mussons. This war-torn, diverse, and conflicted city elicited from Degas some of his finest paintings. He arrived at a key moment in the cultural history of this most exotic of American cities, still recovering from the agony of the Civil War. This decisive period of Reconstruction, in which his American relatives were importantly involved, was also the time when the American writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable were beginning to mine the resources of New Orleans culture and history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Everyone in New Orleans... and Degas shows up for about 15 pages.
This book is quite informative, just not about Edgar Degas. For the first few chapters I had the feeling that all this information about everyone else was setting the stage for Degas to become, as the title would suggest, a focus of this book. I still had that same feeling while reading the final chapter.

The book would have been more aptly titled "New Orleans from 1865 to 1879, with a Brief Visit by Edgar Degas in 1872". If you've been to New Orleans or are interested in its history or never gave it much thought until Hurricane Katrina and are now curious, this book could be good for you. If you really want a book that focuses on Degas the artist, man, etc... this is not your book.

Beyond that, 1 thing that still bothers me is that I've never read anything by Kate Chopin. In fact I'd never heard of her or Cable until I grabbed this book. I was substantially into their portions of the book, so much so that I'd decided to see which (if any) of their books I could find at my library. I was none too pleased when this book suddenly gave away the ending of one of Chopin's books I'd already planned to read. Let that warn you. In those last couple chapters if you're beginning to care about those books being discussed, skip those sections until you've already read the books.

Of the 2 books I've just reviewed, All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s, Includes 35-track CD of audio clips of poetry readings was greatly preferred.

Absolutely original
Benfey's study is an elegant, exciting study with many facets. He truly evokes a vanished world. An interdisciplinary study which does not meander or bore. Highly recommended.

Great book!
This is one of the best books I have read.It's so fascinating, easy to read, and just interesting in general.I highly recommend it.

New Orleans Jazz....
Maybe the most important thing for you to know about this book is that it isn't just, or even mostly, about Edgar Degas. If you're in the market solely for an art book about Degas, you may not like this book. What this book is really about is 19th century New Orleans. Degas' 1872-1873 trip is the main theme which the author has used as his framework. Mr. Benfey "improvises" on this theme and goes off in interesting directions. He talks about what made New Orleans unique- theearly Creole settlers vs. the "Americans" that arrived after the Louisiana Purchase; the free black population (pre-Civil War) vs. the slaves who became free because of the war; the rupture caused by the war- as New Orleans was occupied by Federal forces through almost all of the conflict. (Many of the local women proved to be fairly feisty in showing their contempt for the Yankees. One woman in the French Quarter supposedly downloaded the contents of a chamber pot onto Admiral Farragut's head. On another occasion, the soldier in charge of keeping order, General Benjamin "Beast" Butler, was riding by some women and they all turned their backs to him. Butler remarked, "those women evidently know which end of them looks best.") After the Civil War the economy, based almost solely on King Cotton, took a beating in the Depression of the 1870's. Yankee "carpetbaggers" were despised. Liberals who wanted integration of the races did battle, sometimes literally, with reactionary forces who yearned for a return to the days of slavery. Mr. Benfey works in some analysis of the writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, who were interested in some of the above themes. The author does devote a fairly good portion of the book to discussing Degas' "Louisiana Connection," (his mother was born in New Orleans; he had relatives who were involved in the cotton trade; and his younger brother, Rene, left France to try to make his fortune in New Orleans). If you enjoy Degas' art, you will find Mr. Benfey's musings on the portraits and "genre scenes" that Degas did during this period to be interesting and informative. For example, from a purely painterly standpoint, Degas enjoyed the juxtaposition of black and white skin, as well as the white of cotton against the black suits and hats commonly worn by businessmen of the time. Mr. Benfey also, convincingly, shows that Degas' started to use, in these paintings, certain compositional effects- such as slanted floors, the arrangement of figures in interior spaces, and certain hand and head movements- that would shortly reappear in the more famous "ballet paintings." We also see Degas in transition from his early "realistic" phase to a looser, more "Impressionistic" style of painting. I also found it interesting that Degas was fascinated by many things he saw while walking around New Orleans, but he was limited mostly to painting interior scenes because the light of New Orleans was bothering his eyes. (He started to have problems with his vision while serving in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. By the time of his death in 1917 he was nearly blind.) There was enough about Degas and his family and art in this book to satisfy me, plus I enjoyed Mr. Benfey's "improvisations." If, in addition to being a Degas fan, you have any interest in the antebellum and post-Civil War worlds of New Orleans, I think you will get a lot of enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from this book.

New Orleans Jazz....
Maybe the most important thing for you to know about this book is that it isn't just, or even mostly, about Edgar Degas. If you're in the market solely for an art book about Degas, you may not like this book. What this book is really about is 19th century New Orleans. Degas' 1872-1873 trip is the main theme which the author has used as his framework. Mr. Benfey "improvises" on this theme and goes off in interesting directions. He talks about what made New Orleans unique- theearly Creole settlers vs. the "Americans" that arrived after the Louisiana Purchase; the free black population (pre-Civil War) vs. the slaves who became free because of the war; the rupture caused by the war- as New Orleans was occupied by Federal forces through almost all of the conflict. (Many of the local women proved to be fairly feisty in showing their contempt for the Yankees. One woman in the French Quarter supposedly downloaded the contents of a chamber pot onto Admiral Farragut's head. On another occasion, the soldier in charge of keeping order, General Benjamin "Beast" Butler, was riding by some women and they all turned their backs to him. Butler remarked, "those women evidently know which end of them looks best.") After the Civil War the economy, based almost solely on King Cotton, took a beating in the Depression of the 1870's. Yankee "carpetbaggers" were despised. Liberals who wanted integration of the races did battle, sometimes literally, with reactionary forces who yearned for a return to the days of slavery. Mr. Benfey works in some analysis of the writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, who were interested in some of the above themes. The author does devote a fairly good portion of the book to discussing Degas' "Louisiana Connection," (his mother was born in New Orleans; he had relatives who were involved in the cotton trade; and his younger brother, Rene, left France to try to make his fortune in New Orleans). If you enjoy Degas' art, you will find Mr. Benfey's musings on the portraits and "genre scenes" that Degas did during this period to be interesting and informative. For example, from a purely painterly standpoint, Degas enjoyed the juxtaposition of black and white skin, as well as the white of cotton against the black suits and hats commonly worn by businessmen of the time. Mr. Benfey also, convincingly, shows that Degas' started to use, in these paintings, certain compositional effects- such as slanted floors, the arrangement of figures in interior spaces, and certain hand and head movements- that would shortly reappear in the more famous "ballet paintings." We also see Degas in transition from his early "realistic" phase to a looser, more "Impressionistic" style of painting. I also found it interesting that Degas was fascinated by many things he saw while walking around New Orleans, but he was limited mostly to painting interior scenes because the light of New Orleans was bothering his eyes. (He started to have problems with his vision while serving in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. By the time of his death in 1917 he was nearly blind.) There was enough about Degas and his family and art in this book to satisfy me, plus I enjoyed Mr. Benfey's "improvisations." If, in addition to being a Degas fan, you have any interest in the antebellum and post-Civil War worlds of New Orleans, I think you will get a lot of enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Kate Chopin (born Katherine O'Flaherty) (1850-1904) was an American author of short stories and novels, mostly of a Louisiana Creole background. She is now considered to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century. From 1889 to 1902, she wrote short stories for both children and adults which were published in such magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The Century, and Harper's Youth's Companion. Her major works were two short story collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Her important short stories included The Father of Désirée's Baby, a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana; The Story of an Hour and The Storm. Chopin also wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), which is set in New Orleans and Grand Isle. The people in her stories are usually inhabitants of Louisiana. Many of her works are set about Natchitoches in north central Louisiana. In time, literary critics determined that Chopin addressed the concerns of women in all places and for all times in her literature. ... Read more