The Awakening and Selected Stories, Hardcover

The groundbreaking depiction of a woman who dares to defy the expectations of society in the pursuit of her desire, with an insightful introduction by author Claire Vaye Watkins.

A Penguin Vitae Edition

When Kate Chopin's classic was first published in 1899, charges of sordidness and immorality seemed to consign it into obscurity and irreparably damage its author's reputation. But a century after her death, The Awakening is widely regarded as Kate Chopin's great achievement and a celebrated work of early feminist literature. Through careful, subtle changes of style, Chopin shows the transformation of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother, who - with tragic consequences - refuses to be caged by married and domestic life, and claims for herself moral and erotic freedom.

Penguin Classics launches a new hardcover series with five American classics that are relevant and timeless in their power, and part of a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from almost seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives, and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration, intellectual engagement, and creative originality.

Kate Chopin (1851-1904) did not write until she was thirty-six years old. Her first novel, At Fault (1890), had difficulty finding a publisher, so she brought it out at her own expense. From her many stories, she culled two well-reviewed collections: Bayou Folk in 1894 and A Night in Acadie in 1897. The Awakening, now her best-known work, appeared in 1899.

Claire Vaye Watkins is the author of Battleborn and Gold Fame Citrus. Her stories and essays have appeared in Granta, Tin House, Freeman's, The Paris Review, Story Quarterly, New American Stories, Best of the West, The New Republic, The New York Times, Pushcart Prize XLIII, The Believer, and others. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Lannan Foundation Fellow, one of the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" and one of Granta's "Best Young American Novelists."