The Awakening is not only one of the most important novels in the history of American women's writing, it is an acknowledged American masterpiece . . . Chopin offers a compelling portrait of female experience, one of the first of its kind -- SARAH CHURCHWELL I still marvel at Chopin's realism, her impatience with conventional trappings, her arresting honesty -- BARBARA KINGSOLVER Chopin's deceptively slight novel is the kind of book revolutions are made of . . . Reissued with a forward by Barbara Kingsolver, this angry, eye-opening novel is well worth adding to your reading list * * Harper's Bazaar * * Even more powerful than I remembered -- MARGARET DRABBLE A Creole Bovary is this little novel of Miss Chopin's -- WILLA CATHER Chopin's slight, brittle and fierce novel became a classic and a cult, shocking readers with its candid and unsentimental portrait of marital infidelity . . . it remains delicately bitter and acidly angry * * Observer * * Incisive, brilliant and haunting -- MAGGIE O'FARRELL This landmark feminist novel, first published in 1899, remains startlingly relevant -- JUDY BLUME, My Life in Books * * Elle * * Sometimes bold, fearless writing really does have to wait for 'someone in some future time' for readers yet to come. Sleeping Beauties, once awakened, will always serve a contemporary agenda. But Chopin's The Awakening is now justly regarded as an American classic and read with passion and delight * * Literary Review * * Plucky and masterly * * The Lady * * A quietly explosive study of female impotence, it is quite superb * * Independent on Sunday * *