Kate Chopin

Advantages: good for insomniacs looking for something to put them to sleep
Disadvantages: it's on sale

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Ciao members have rated this review on average not helpful

Advantages: none
Disadvantages: Not very much of an eye opener

...I found Kate Chopin's novel,The Awakening, about a woman discovering her sexuality and all that femminist stuff, to make me feel a bit of anger towards those feminists women. The story revolves around a married woman who feels trapped in a world dominated by social conventions and so she sets out to "find" herself and be "reborn" by leaving her husband and children and even getting involved with a younger man. I frankly thought that this book was too femminist. It's one thing for women to be treated like objects or not be given the opportunity to pursue something better in life, but it's another to be like the character in the book, where she just give's up on her life. It's almost as though the woman basically grows tired of her husband so she dumps him, and she simply doesn't want the responsibility of being a mother. I remember... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Very readable, fascinating topic
Disadvantages: None

...Introduction A friend recently suggested that I read this book. I didn't really have any idea what it was about; finding out that it was about a woman trying to 'discover' herself in the late nineteenth century did not make it any more appealing. I was surprised to find that the book was actually very compelling and beautifully written. Sadly, it caused such a scandal in American society for suggesting that a woman could have another life outside of her husband and children that Kate Chopin was discouraged from writing any more novels. The story Edna Pontellier, a young woman belonging to the New Orleans Creole community, is married with two young sons. While spending the summer at a seaside resort, she begins to doubt that her role in life is simply to be a good wife and mother and starts to think about what she wants from life... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: It makes you open up your heart and notice how lucky we are
Disadvantages: It is quite a sad book, but such a good read

...The Awakening by Kate Chopin was written at the end of the nineteenth century. This was a time of tension between the older generation and the new generation and to follow the traditional, or the modern way of life. The times were slowly changing but still at that time the law and mind of property still remained the husband’s responsibility and everything belonged to him even though it may have belonged to the wife first. Lower class women could earn wages as factory worker and this was a beginning of their independence. Their husbands or fathers legally controlled the pay low and their income. Middle and upper class women were still expected to stay at home as a decorative symbols of their husband’s wealth. As for the social stigma of older single women and women that would not stand for this type of role, they seem to me as being... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Very readable, fascinating topic
Disadvantages: None

...Introduction A friend recently suggested that I read this book. I didn't really have any idea what it was about; finding out that it was about a woman trying to 'discover' herself in the late nineteenth century did not make it any more appealing. I was surprised to find that the book was actually very compelling and beautifully written. Sadly, it caused such a scandal in American society for suggesting that a woman could have another life outside of her husband and children that Kate Chopin was discouraged from writing any more novels. The story Edna Pontellier, a young woman belonging to the New Orleans Creole community, is married with two young sons. While spending the summer at a seaside resort, she begins to doubt that her role in life is simply to be a good wife and mother and starts to think about what she wants from life... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: good for insomniacs looking for something to put them to sleep
Disadvantages: it's on sale

...... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average not helpful