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THE NATION (REVIEW DATE 3 AUGUST 1899)

SOURCE: "Recent Novels: The Awakening." The Nation 69, no. 1779 (3 August 1899): 96.

In the following review of The Awakening, the critic condemns Chopin for having written an immoral novel.

[Mrs. Chopin's] The Awakening is the sad story of a Southern lady who wanted to do what she wanted to. From wanting to, she did, with disastrous consequences; but as she swims out to sea in the end, it is to be hoped that her example may lie for ever undredged. It is with high expectation that we open the volume, remembering the author's agreeable short stories, and with real disappointment that we close it. The recording reviewer drops a tear over one more clever author gone wrong. Mrs. Chopin's accustomed fine workmanship is here, the hinted effects, the well-expended epithet, the pellucid style; and, so far as...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
   1. Kate Chopin (Novel Date 1899)
   2. The Nation (Review Date 3 August 1899)
4. General Commentary
   1. Sandra M. Gilbert And Susan Gubar (Essay Date 1989)
   2. Rebecca Dickson (Essay Date Spring-Summer 1999)
5. Title Commentary
   1. The Awakening
6. Further Reading
7. Copyright

1. Kate Chopin
2. Feminism