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The Awakening
The Awakening
The Awakening
Audiobook6 hours

The Awakening

Written by James E. Wisher

Narrated by Joe Hempel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

Nothing has gone right for Conryu Koda since learning he's a wizard. On his first day at The North American Alliance's Arcane Academy he's greeted by protestors and pelted with tomatoes. On the second day he nearly dies in a magical ritual. It's all downhill from there.

With enemies around every corner, not to mention a crazy professor, will Conryu even make it to winter break?

Conryu's journey down the wizard's path continues in the thrilling second book of the aegis of Merlin urban fantasy series.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 30, 2018
ISBN9781977371096
The Awakening
Author

James E. Wisher

James E. Wisher is a writer of science fiction and fantasy novels. He’s been writing since high school and reading everything he could get his hands on for as long as he can remember.

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Reviews for The Awakening

Rating: 3.6316615830721 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

2,552 ratings101 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The story was good, but it’s a little slow. It only covered 1/2 of a semester. It should have covered at least 1 semester.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I came to this book with a few criteria.The Awakening basically fulfilled my objective.The time period was late 19th century......The topic was controversial for the time....The writer was a woman----------------I might add, my e reader copy presented a nice biographical sketch of the authoras an addendum.3.5*
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Book Description The Awakening, originally titled A Solitary Soul, is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century American South. It is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, generating mixed reaction from contemporary readers and criticism. The novel's blend of realistic narrative, incisive social commentary, and psychological complexity makes The Awakening a precursor of American modernist literature; it prefigures the works of American novelists such as William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and echoes the works of contemporaries such as Edith Wharton and Henry James. It can also be considered among the first Southern works in a tradition that would culminate with the modern masterpieces of Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter, and Tennessee Williams.

    Book Review This is a very controversial book on what it's like to be a woman. It gives a brilliant insight in gender roles at the end of the 19th and women's coping with their struggle for independence. Chopin's writing style makes it easy to follow the plot and feel for the protagonist. I recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about the old south from a woman's point of view. 
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A short 1899 novel (or maybe it's technically a novella?) about a married woman who finds herself falling for another man and reaching longingly for freedom, self-actualization, and passion outside her duties as a wife and mother.The dissatisfied housewife is practically a cliche now, but at the time, apparently, this novel caused a huge outcry and scandal. And given the things that society wanted to believe about women and motherhood and marriage at the time -- not all of which we've let go of today, now that I think about it -- I can see why. Because it feels so... true. There's no overwrought melodrama here, just the inner experiences of a woman who wants something more and different from the life she has, a life that she fell into almost by default, because it's what was expected of her. And those inner experiences are insightfully observed, well-conveyed, and utterly truthful.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this for Banned Books Week and I think that I enjoyed reading about Kate Chopin and her life far more than I enjoyed reading what she wrote. In "The Awakening" Edna Pontellier lives what was at that time an upper middle class life, I would think. She is married to a husband who treats her well, has two children, several servants and is rather comfortably well off. However she finds her life boring and wants to be more independent. She loves her children but is not emotionally connected with them. In trying to change her life to become what she feels she needs to be to become whole and independent, she looks to other men and in the end she turns out to be what appears to me a weak, feeble, simple minded and silly woman. The book just didn't work for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As I read through this at 45, knowing so much more than I did at 14 (yet nowhere near enough), I am struck by the obliviousness to racism. Again and again, the black servants are referred to not by name but by position and even more frequently by, well, percent of blackness - the mulatto, the quadroon, etc.The Awakening speaks, in a time where it was unheard of, with great sensitivity to the sexual nature of women, to women feeling lost and trapped in their roles and disconnected from life. Yet there seems to be no feeling for the roles forced upon the former slaves and children of former slaves. It touches on the way that not every woman feels a longing for motherhood or a maternal instinct yet is forced to play that role. Yet it utterly ignores the dual burden placed on women of color to perform the bulk of the labor to raise the children of affluent white women while still performing all the labor of raising their own.The writing is lovely and evocative, but now more so than before, it tells me both the story she meant to tell and another of our ignorance of anyone's suffering but our own.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I knew I started this book once long ago and it annoyed me, so I didn't get very far. At some point, however, I must have read it because scenes late in the book were so familiar. Loved it this time around.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the most amazing experiences it was reading is this masterpiece of women's literature about a woman struggling to find her own place in a world of men, where not only her public view but also essentially her needs are exclusively dictated by her social roles, in this case as a wife and mother. It is not that it was a marvellous read, with such beautiful writing, it was the shock of thinking how little has actually changed since the 19th century status of a woman. Because even today women have to struggle with their roles as mothers, wives and workers. And if they so happen as to also have intellectual or artistic concerns, like painting in the case of Chopin's protagonist, Edna, then it is a constant battle with time and decision making, what to leave behind. Edna only understands that she can rely on no one else but herself in the end, and it is devastating to discover that not even her so called liberators would allow her the freedom they allegedly lead her to find. Although I am not in favour of suicide as a road to emancipation, I like to believe that Edna's drowning is not out of despair but an ultimate act of free will, a declaration of self-determination, a statement that she is eventually mistress of herself and, if she chooses, it is her prerogative to take away from her "rulers" the very object of their rule. The Awakening is really among the books I would like to have been able to read again for the first time, but it is also a book that you can read again and again, each time discovering something new to contemplate on.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A woman on summer holiday with her husband and two little boys gains the attention of the resort owner's son. This flirtation sets off a realization in her that her life could be...more. And from there she begins to balk at the constrains that the life of a wife and mother place on her. In essence, she realizes that she's unhappy and she sets about to change that. It ends badly for her, because of course it does. The novel reads like a Greek myth in that sense: women who strive for independence, autonomy, or power of any kind generally don't make it out of the story alive. So I liked the book for its alignment with ancient myth, although in general I want my characters to get out of their heads and *do* more. It felt a bit like Madame Bovary but make it slightly less intolerable but also slightly less well written.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Pioneering feminist work bogged down by its emotionally distant atmosphere, without any room for complete immersion nor resonance, The Awakening tells the frustrating ambivalence and wavering desire of the unhappily married Edna Pontellier. Caught in the surging waters of domesticity, while living a comfortable life on its treacherously calm surface, she wades around for any sense of purpose. But she is tied by social norms, pulling her underneath. This is exacerbated by other women, wives and mothers both, swimming around her, docile and obedient, as they trap themselves happily within the borders of opportunities or lack thereof, entirely contented by the lacklustre life laid out before them. Be a wife, be a mother, they say. Be grateful, they say. But Edna could not accept such a fate, yet she does not know what she path to take for herself. She is neither an enthusiastic wife nor an enthusiastic mother. Kate Chopin writes it as an 'indescribable oppression, which seems to generate in some unfamiliar part of her (Edna's) consciousness'. So Edna moves her arms, tightens her muscles, does two, three strokes, cuts across these waters, 'she wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.' Edna rebels in immoral and disagreeable ways. However, not even the temporary (false) freedom and (sly) satisfaction and (tyrannous) thrill provided by anything forbidden—as an aspiring painter, as a pining lover—satiates her soul. Every choice is impeded by a society only interested in making her a woman like a million others. What's left is to take the only thing she tightly clasps between her fingers; the only thing she owns, even if it has been (unsuccessfully )shaped into everyone's expectations. So she let the strong current swallow her, drag her down—willingly and wantonly for once.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I came across this book when my nephew was reading it for school. First published in 1899, the book was famous (notorious) for its sympathetic portrayal of a woman in a loveless marriage who strays from her husband and responsibilities.The book was lost from view for more than 50 years, and only came back to notice when a Norwegian academic wrote about it.It's an OK book, nothing special. For me, the major interest was the historical context - the role of a woman and wife 120 years ago, and their limited opportunities to live a satisfying and productive life. While the role of women today may not be ideal, advances in education, employment, courtship and contraception mean that vastly fewer western women now face the stultifying existence of the main character of this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A trailblazing novel in its time, kind of boring to the modern reader.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I once tried to read this book, quite some years ago, when I wasn't ready for it and I didn't finish it. But today, many years older (and hopefully wiser), I finally understood it. And it was everything. While I didn't actually like anyone in the book, I have to admire Chopin's determination to write something like this, to write Edna's boldness in wanting to be more than just a wife and a mother.
    #booked2018 #feministclassic
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A Book With Bad ReviewsI can only imagine that Kate Chopin's The Awakening received bad reviews due to its divergence from the morality of the era it was published in, because it is a well-written story which only hints at the indelicate thoughts and actions of its protagonist, Edna Pontellier. As a character she reminds me of Clarissa Dalloway or Mother from Doctorow's Ragtime, a dreamy woman who finds herself stifled by a romance-less marriage to a man who, typical of his age, possesses her as he does his house or furniture.The Awakening is a short, straight-forward tale, whose power comes from the anticipation and suspense Chopin builds in portraying Edna's budding realization that there is something missing in her life. The interplay between Edna and her two gentleman callers is a slow, entrancing waltz. Both men make love to Edna in the old-fashioned sense of the phrase - verbally, rather than physically - in sensuous (a favorite word of Chopin) flirtations that push the boundaries of acceptable behavior between a married woman and unattached men. Even the ending, easily foreseen, fits perfectly into the narrative.To enjoy this novel you must read it with a 19th century mentality. While readers of the time found it shocking and offensive, there is nothing even mildly titillating in it*. There are several scenes where Edna is alone with one of her paramours; these are so well written that you find yourself believing a tryst occurred but realize, upon a closer reading, that nothing more than kisses were exchanged. There is also a scene in which Edna visits a pregnant friend and stays for the birth, yet their is only the mildest of indications of what transpired.I could have assigned this as A Book You Can Read In A Day on my themed reading list; regardless, it is well worth including on your own list.* - My Dover Thrift Edition comes with a laughable warning to "[s]ensitive readers" who might be offended that Chopin uses the word darky (or perhaps black or mulatto - after reading the book I can't imagine what they're referring to) on several occasions in the novel. I expected the n-word, at a minimum, to merit such a silly forewarning. And in a version published in 1993, no less.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Regarded as highly scandalous when it was published in 1898, this story of a young wife who is bored with her lie as a proper wife and mother in late 19th Century New Orleans and seeks out her own independent life, seems fairly run of the mill in the 21st Century. It is, however, well written and held my interest from beginning to end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The written text was boring at times and the characters were not well developed but the story is highly impactful. I fully understand the the sentiments of the key character, Edna. The interests and desires of the individual are often trumped by societal expectations and pressures. It is not terribly surprising that Edna commits suicide, since life for her had become ruined by those she interacted with. I applaud her spirit. I recommend this book for anyone who is willing to think independently.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Required reading in too many English classes, normally I would hate such a text, but this actually is pretty good, and has always been very relevant. It stands the test of time like few do. Not my favorite period or writer, but among the best of each. Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Read in "The Awakening and Selected Short Stories"The novella The Awakening I found melancholy in the same way that Anna Karenina and Mrs. Dalloway were. The story has a lot in common with Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary & some other classics of this time; I can see that when it was first published in 1899 it might have been thought shocking or daring. However, just as with Anna, I found the main character Edna more annoying than sympathetic (although Edna was nowhere near as annoying as Anna!). I was much more sympathetic to Robert! I guess this is one instance to which my modern sensibilities just can't really relate.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    An appeasing novella, but dated and lacking in many instances. Altogether, did not enjoy very much.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was somewhat difficult to read, mainly because of the writing style of the time period, I think. I was overly dramatic. There were some lovely passages of description and I understood the point of the story, but the style was a little clumsy.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    WTF????? This book left me SHOOK. Also I guess I should add a trigger warning because Edna does struggle with not being able to see better days for herself and it did lead her to pick suicideEdna wants more out of life. After a vacation in the Mexican Gulf she goes home feeling unsatisfied with her role as dutiful wife and doting mother. Why? It all begins with an emotional affair she enters with a man named Robert Lebrun. When he sets off for Mexico Edna realizes how deep she is in her feelings for him and things just go downhill from there. Though Madame Adèle Ratignolle is a dear friend and a great role model to her she can't help but feel a stronger connection to Mademoiselle Reisz the type of woman she wishes she could've been.So this was part of the trifecta of IB/AP/Honors English Literature being swapped out from a pool of A Doll's House, Their Eyes Were Watching God, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Every year the English teacher would choose three of those books to read and analyze and all that jazz except when it came time for my group to study three of them, Awakening was not a part of the trio. But I kind of wish it had beat out Doll's House that one was really annoying to analyze.Honestly, this book was really close to getting a two because of how annoying I found Edna Pontellier but then it ended. Okay so with that out of the way what did I like? For one, I liked the exposition into Edna's life. She didn't have it all that bad but it wasn't ideal either especially for a woman that clearly wasn't happy as a wife or mother. It rang true to life. Also her love affair with music was just as juicy as her love affair with Alcée Arobin. The symbolism of certain things were also clever to the point I kicked myself for not noticing where it was all heading.So why such a low rating? I hated Edna. Yeah, I know, a good feminist would feel a connection with Edna and her breaking gender roles and all that but she was so childish. I'm all for a self aware character that knows they are different from what society expects from them but Edna's reactions to certain situations drove me mad. Okay so she's shocked that Robert's leaving, I get it, but did she have to go insane about it? Her lover wants her but she tries to reject him only to pounce on him the next chance she got. Her sister's getting married and she doesn't want to go because REASONS. To me it just felt like an excuse the author picked to get her to be alone and able to have her first physically sexual awakening. At some point Madame Adèle Ratignolle calls her out on her behavior and I had to take a pause and really think about it. Is it a good thing because I wasn't wrong that it's exactly how she was behaving? Or have I been conditioned just as Mdm R to perceive Edna's behavior as such? SHOOK.Also, I didn't think Mr. Pontellier was all that bad either. He did seem to care for her wellbeing but again, have I just been conditioned to think Edna the bad guy here or was Mr. P really just one of those nice white guys that wants us to clap for him just because he's not a bad guy? But then again I really liked Robert but was it just because he was able to act on what he wanted which made him so likeable, unlike Edna who couldn't do anything because of societal norms? - clearly I wish this had been used in my time at school because I have a lot to say about this book. But I'm sorry I didn't like it more.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The plot of this American classic revolves around Edna Pontellier, the wife of a New Orleans businessman during the cusp of the 20th century, who feeling restrained by feminine social roles of the times and rebels in unorthodox ways.Imagine if Lucy and Ricky slept in the same bed during their 1950s sitcom. Although this book pales in comparison to today's nightly entertainment, it would have been considered risque for the time because of the social commentary, which is why it has been included on the banned book list. Although several archaic words had me checking the dictionary from time to time, the dated language interfered little in my enjoyment of this paragon of feminist literature.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well written romantic. feminist tragedy. Considered a classic. The main character needed a good therapist. :-)
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I know this is suppose to be a huge book for feminism, but I didn't like it. She just seems so unsatisfied in every situation. I don't know why she became a mother in the first place, and I think committing suicide because you want to have an affair with someone that won't adjust their morals is pretty selfish. I didn't study this book at all so I'm probably way off the mark about a lot of it, but this is how it felt for me while reading.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I loved this book when I first read it in college. I decided to reread it as my daughter was reading it for school and unfortunately it didn't move me this time. I found that the story moved very slowly. That I really didn't like the entitled characters. And the first time I read it I could identify with Edna. This time I really disliked Edna. Perhaps I could forgive her leaving a husband that she didn't like. But her disinterest in her children made me angry. And the ending really bothered me this time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    ... oh my goodness me the reviews.

    Some of them are so unkind, so cruel and so scathing. And for everyone criticising Chopin's writing and saying how they would write this book -- Go! Go write a book with feminist themes that you'd like to see in a book.

    Edna, as a female protagonist, stands for so much more than a selfish woman who has had an affair. She is brave enough, and bold enough to completely abandon society and realise that she is so much more than a mother and a wife. She realises, during the course of the book, that she has a self that neither her husband or her children would ever see.

    This book is full of metaphors and beautifully written. I loved how Chopin created atmosphere and texture and colour, and how she drew on her environment to enhance her writing. It was written in 1899, and was so ground-breaking for its time.

    I don't like books about cheating, or with cheating tropes. I think it's lazy, and I don't find it interesting.

    But I loved this book. This is an important book.

    But more than anything, I love Edna. She is a beautiful, flawed women, and I saw part of myself in her. Furthermore, all these negative comments and reviews make me realise that this is why we need feminism. This is why I need feminism.

    And I will love and defend Edna and her choices till the end of my days. Chopin, I tip my hat to you. I will give this book to my friends, and to anyone who asks.

    (I feel like this review is a little bit harsh - we're all entitled to our different opinions but it makes me a bit sad that people are so unfair to a female protagonist.)
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I don't remember the writing, only that I didn't like the story. It falls into a category of stories that I find problematic -- in which female characters who have affairs must somehow die.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved it as much this time as the first time I read it in college.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    romantic and bitter sweet.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Edna Pontellier “awakens” during another summer spent with her husband and children on Grande Isle, LA. The sultry nights, the hypnotic lapping of the waves on the beach, the intoxicating scents and the attentions of one person in particular all combine to bring strength to Edna’s inner self. Slowly, she comes to feel that she has stifled the person inside her for her husband, her family and society. She is unable to fully explain what is happening to her, but she knows that she can no longer be untrue to herself.

    I really enjoyed this novella. I could not help but think about Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth; I see so many parallels between Lily Bart and Edna. The time frame is similar (late 1890s), as is the inner turmoil of our heroine as she tries to make decisions about her life. While Edna is older than Lily, and has already achieved a measure of success in society (i.e. she has married well, has two charming children and a lovely home), she, like Lily, longs for something that will result in her removal from the society she knows.

    The novella unfolds slowly, with limited dialogue, but a vivid sense of place. There is languorousness about the writing that mimics the languor felt on a hot and humid summer day on Grand Isle. Two scenes provide a perfect contrast and illustrate Edna’s awakening spirit. In one she sits with her husband on the veranda all night with scarcely a word between them and a palpable distance. In the other she spends an afternoon napping, while her friend Robert sits outside under a tree waiting; and despite the physical distance and lack of personal contact portrayed there is a palpable intimacy between them.

    Without expressing her feelings exactly, the novel gave me insight into how Edna must have felt – excited by this new phase of her life, afraid to reveal how much it means to her, unsure she’s chosen wisely, full of regret, and finally accepting.