These different covers of The Awakening show how some readers today interpret important images from the work-- the sea, a solitary woman, women together-- these are all important elements in the novel. I'm particularly interested in the way so many of them also use the color red-- is this intentional, or an accident of our association of "red" with "scarlet women"? What about the one with a woman reading? That's certainly different from the others . . . food for thought.

Book covers courtesy amazon.com.

Marilynne Robinson, in the introduction to the Bantam edition of The Awakening, published in 1989, says: In discovering herself Edna is discovering her fate. In exploring Edna's regression, as she puts aside adult life, retracing her experience to its beginnings, for her its essence, Chopin describes as well a journey inward, evoking all the prodigal richness of longing, fantasy, and memory. The novel is not a simulated case study, but an exploration of the solitary soul still enchanted by the primal, charged, and intimate encounter of naked sensation with the astonishing world. (xx). Only when we discuss Chopin as more than a "one-trick pony" can we discover more about ourselves. Recently, Emily Toth, one of the foremost Chopin scholars, published a critical biography of Chopin, which I recommend highly for anyone who is interested in Chopin's work called Unveiling Kate Chopin (cover, left). To quote Toth, Mystique, open marriages, women's liberation, talk shows, Mars vs. Venus, self-help and consciousness raising. But in 1899 she was a lonely pioneer. (xix)

Publishers' note: Quotations on this page come from:
Robinson, Marilyn. Foreward. The Awakening. By Kate Chopin. New York: Bantam. 1989.
and Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: UP of Mississippi. 1999.