Edna Pontellier, an elegant daughter of Southern gentry, is once again spending the summer with her husband and children at Grande Isle, a resort for wealthy New Orleans families. But this summer is very different for Mrs. Pontellier.

The sultry nights, the hypnotic, gentle lapping of the waves on the beach, the intoxicating scent of the breezes off the Gulf, the insouciant and guile- less ways of the Creoles—these all combine to bring strength to Edru* inner self, the person inside who she has too long stifled for her husband, family, and society.

Slowly, through that fateful summer, Edna changes, Her husband—caring if a bit insensitive—does. n't understand why more and more his wife is let" ting her housemaking duties slip and is increasingly rebellious. Edna herself is unable to fully explain what is happening to her, but she knows that she can no longer be untrue to herself.

The Awakening scandalized the public when it was first published in 1899. It was banned from bookstores and libraries and the author herself was vilified by the literary establishment. Though the book was to be out of print for fifty years, it was eventually recognized as a book ahead of its time. Its finely etched portrayal of a woman discovering herself is seen today as a forerunner of much feminist literature.
--front flap