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Title: Better than I remember
Review: I've been re-reading many novels and short fiction from the turn of the century and THE AWAKENING was a pleasant surprise. While emotional and sexual liberation have inspired some great artistic works in the last century, Chopin here is refreshing precisely because Edna Pontellier's "awakening" is portrayed as nebulous, ethereal, and above all, inarticulate. Edna is not sure what she is feeling. She knows only that her new feelings of love have no place in her society. Indeed, Chopin shows that for a woman to be awake emotionally at this time in history is to be psychologically isolated and socially estranged. The choices Edna faces are devastating, and so is this slight novel.
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