The Awakening

By: Kate Chopin

Narrated by: Shelly Frasier

Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Edna Pontellier is married, twenty-eight, and at the cross road of her life. She is passionate and artistic, but has no one who understands her deep yearnings. She jumps at the chance to spend a summer away from her husband and the heat of New Orleans at a small costal retreat.

Here she is enveloped in a small circle of friends where she can begin to throw off the strictures and moires of the 1890s bourgeoisie. Stepwise Edna renounces her obligations, takes a lover, and is propelled in a course that frees, consumes, and eventually destroys her.

In what was to be her last novel, Kate Chopin shocked the readers of her day, by showing a woman fulfilled by throwing off the ties of marriage and children.

(P)2005 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Interesting and timely...Chopin's oracular feminism and prophetic psychology almost outweigh her estimable literary talents." (Newsweek)

Freedom isn’t free

Sometimes you think you want your freedom but it turns out to be worse than it was before. Freedom is a relative thing, and as the old saying goes, freedom isn’t free. You have to pay the price. It is a trade off. I just watched the movie about Charles Dickens’ writing A Christmas Carol, called The Man Who Invented Christmas. Charles’ father was no paragon of virtue, but he had some pretty cool sayings, one of which went something like this: No one is without value who brings joy to someone else. That is a paraphrase, but it gives the general idea. So very few people get a perfect life. Most people, in the end, would have to say, “my life turned out quite different than I expected it to.” Most of us have to settle for bringing joy to another person, in spite of our own discomfort, at least to a point. It is sad that Edna could not see that. It is too bad she could not be content with loving her children, being a good wife to her husband, and bringing joy to others.

On the other hand, her life would have been much better and happier if her husband had treated her better, and not like a commodity. I think he really loved her but had no idea how to treat her. There are always two ways to look at it, for sure. But when all is said and done, our own happiness is up to us. I know this novel was written at the very beginning of the feminist movement and was shocking at the time. Edna took some shocking steps away from the traditional role of wife and mother, but did it make her any happier? I don’t think so. So where is the balance? That is the question.

The narrator was ok, but sometimes her southern accent made me think it was listening to Dep’ty Dawg.

very nice.

i enjoyed the pronunciation as well as the voices the reader portrayed for every character

Marvelous Performance!

The ending was unexpected and will leave me in brooding contemplation for a long time. Shelly Frasier did an amazing job, her voice, her character voices, were all very soothing. Great listen!

Timeless

At once classic and modern. Truer than the Bible. A journey from an invisible cage to freedom and ultimately to the real limits of her time. Great narrator.

Basically Anna Karenina

The story is close to Anna Karenina. Not bad. I’d like it more if she didn’t use the word ‘delicious’ to describe things. Gross.

Brilliant prose

I read this in my first year of college, and remember being moved by it but not as much as this reading or listening provided. Chopin wrote such a lyrical, relatable character and her story, that most modern readers will identify with her self discovery and emotion. Although the time and location settings may be that of readers grandparents, or even great grandparents, a wonderful examination of the e reader's interior is undoubtedly brought forth. A true classic!

I love this reading!

I love the way this was read and the story was so interesting the voices kept me captivated

The quality of the recording is awful

The story is ok (very 19th century) and I like the narrator's voice, but the quality of the production is really bad. There's a constant background noise, quite loud, similar to white noise, that is present from beginning to end.

A Classic

This will always be one of my favorite stories. Also the narration isnt bad as some of the other reviews claim, however I don't know French so I am unbothered by the pronunciations of French words and whether they're correct or incorrect.

The Awakening (unabridged)

Exquistely narrated by Shelley Frasier, who captures the accents, cadence, and tone of the New Orleans Creoles with near perfection. Her timbre and languid pacing vividly recreates the atmosphere and sense of culture of that unique corner of the South called New Orleans.

The book, itself a classic, is almost painterly in its use of language and is abundantly reviewed elsewhere including an excellent annotated version of Cliff Notes! Suffice it to say this review is about the narration; listening to this version is worth every minute of time spent tethered to your computer, ipod or parked car (I did all three)!