The Awakening and Selected Short Stories (Legend Classics)

<b><i>&#147;The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised exhausted fluttering back to earth.&#148;</i></b></p><p><i>The Awakening</i> follows Edna Pontellier a resident of coastal Grand Isle of Louisiana in her late twenties who has a quintessential set-up for a content housewife. Indeed her husband makes good money and her daily routine should gleefully hinge on the two children but Edna is neither a self-sacrificing mother nor a devoted wife. Instead she is gradually awoken to rebel against this &#145;perfect set-up&#146;. Edna finds herself in the middle of two extremes. On one hand she finds selfless Madame Ratignolle who is a model wife. On the other there is dejected Mademoiselle Reisz who pursues her artistic aspiration in solitude. While taking bold decisions and carving her niche she explores her sexuality with a womanizer Alcee and an intimate understanding with a young man Robert Lebrun. Will this awakening predetermine her ultimate happiness or signpost personal tragedy? Will the duality of the &#145;outward existence&#146; and &#145;inward life&#146; be reconciled for Edna to signify her emancipation?</p><p>This short novel is widely acknowledged to do both encapsulating the features of fin de si&#232;cle realism in its linear narrative and anticipates literary modernism of the early twentieth century. Edna&#146;s defiance of the American alternative of Victorian &#145;Angel in the House&#146; is reminiscent of such classics as Anna Bront&#235;&#146;s <i>Tenant of the Wildfell Hall</i>. <i>The Awakening</i> also procures modernist works where the heroines look for the self - namely <i>Mrs Dalloway</i> <i>Their Eyes Were Watching God</i> and <i>The Bell Jar</i>. The condensed and intense prose style gives the novel a cryptic charm in line with Fitzgerald&#146;s classic The Great Gatsby. Besides vivid natural symbolism of water birds and the moon are the calling card of the novel that enhances its level of ambiguity and multivalence.</p><hr><p>The <i>Legend Classics</i> series:<br />Around the World in Eighty Days<br />The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn<br />The Importance of Being Earnest<br />Alice's Adventures in Wonderland<br />The Metamorphosis<br />The Railway Children<br />The Hound of the Baskervilles<br />Frankenstein<br />Wuthering Heights<br />Three Men in a Boat<br />The Time Machine<br />Little Women<br />Anne of Green Gables<br />The Jungle Book<br />The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories<br />Dracula<br />A Study in Scarlet<br />Leaves of Grass<br />The Secret Garden<br />The War of the Worlds<br />A Christmas Carol<br />Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde<br />Heart of Darkness<br />The Scarlet Letter<br />This Side of Paradise<br />Oliver Twist<br />The Picture of Dorian Gray<br />Treasure Island<br />The Turn of the Screw<br />The Adventures of Tom Sawyer<br />Emma<br />The Trial<br />A Selection of Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe<br />Grimm Fairy Tales<br />The Awakening<br />Mrs Dalloway<br />Gulliver&#146;s Travels<br />The Castle of Otranto<br />Silas Marner<br />Hard Times</p>