This Second Edition of a perennial favorite in the Norton Critical Edition series represents an extensive revision of its predecessor.

The text is that of the first edition of the novel, published by Herbert S. Stone in 1899. It has been annotated by the editor and includes translations of French phrases and information about New Orleans locales, customs, and lore, the Bayou region, and Creole culture.

This Second Edition of a perennial favorite in the Norton Critical Edition series represents an extensive revision of its predecessor.

The text is that of the first edition of the novel, published by Herbert S. Stone in 1899. It has been annotated by the editor and includes translations of French phrases and information about New Orleans locales, customs, and lore, the Bayou region, and Creole culture.

"Bibliographical and Historical Contexts", expanded and introduced by a new Editor’s Note, presents biographical, historical, and cultural documents contemporary with the novel’s publication.

Included are a biographical essay by the acclaimed Chopin biographer Emily Toth, "An Etiquette/Advice Book Sampler" with selections from the conduct books of the period in which Chopin lived and wrote, and period fashion plates from Harper’s Bazar.

A comprehensive "Criticism" section, introduced by a new Editor’s Note, contains expanded selections from hard-to-find contemporary reviews of the novel; two letters of mysterious origin written in response to the novel; and Chopin’s "Retraction," which followed The Awakening’s negative reception.

These are followed by twenty-seven interpretive essays, twelve of them new to the Second Edition, that provide a variety of perspectives on The Awakening, including essays by Cynthia Griffin Wolff, Nancy Walker, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Paula A. Treichler, Sandra M. Gilbert, Lee R. Edwards, Patricia S. Yaeger, Elizabeth Ammons, and Elaine Showalter.

A Chronology of Chopin’s life and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included.

The Text of The Awakening

　Illustration: Page from Kate Chopin’s Notebook: "A Solitary Soul"

　The Awakening

Biographical and Historical Contexts

　Editor’s Note: Biography

　Emily Toth, A New Biographical Approach

　Editor’s Note: Contexts of The Awakening

　An Etiquette/Advice Book Sampler

　　Duties of the Wife

　　Avoid All Causes of Complaint

　Beware of Confidants

　　In　fluence of Mothers

　　Reception Days

　　Rules for Summer Resorts

　　Flirtation and Increasing Fastness of Manner

　　Musicales

　　The Street Manners of a Lady

　　Places of Amusement

　　Formal Dinner Parties

　　Dress to Suit the Occasion

　　Carriage Dress

　　The Full Dinner Dress

　　Costumes for Country and Sea-side

　　Bathing Dresses

　　Fashion Plates from Harper’s Bazar

　　Mary L. Shaffter, Creole Women

　　Wilbur Fisk Tillett, [Southern Womanhood]

　　Dorothy Dix, Are Women Growing Selfish?

　　The American Wife

　　Summer Flirtations

　　A Strike for Liberty

　　Women and Suicide

　　Charlotte Perkins Stetson (Gilman), From Women and Economics

　　Thorstein Veblen, [Conspicuous Consumption and the Servant-Wife]

Criticism

　Editor’s Note: History of the Criticism of The Awakening

　CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS

　　From Book News (March 1899)

　　From The Mirror (May 4, 1899)

　　From the St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat (May 13, 1899)

　　From the St. Louis Daily Post Dispatch (May 20, 1899)

　　From the Chicago Times-Herald (June 1, 1899)

　　From The Outlook (June 3, 1899)

　　From the Providence Sunday Journal (June 4, 1899)

　　From the New Orleans Times-Democrat (June 18, 1899)

　　From Public Opinion (June 22, 1899)

　　From Literature (June 23, 1899)

　　From the New York Times (June 24, 1899)

　　From the Pittsburgh Leader (July 8, 1899)

　　From The Dial (August 1, 1899)

　　From The Nation (August 3, 1899)

　　From The Congregationalist (August 24, 1899)

　　Letters from "Lady Janet Scammon Young" and "Dr. Dunrobin Thomson"

　　Chopin’s "Retraction"

　　ESSAYS IN CRITICISM

　　Percival Pollard, [The Unlikely Awakening of a Married Woman]

　　Daniel S. Rankin, [Influences Upon the Novel]

　　Cyrille Arnavon, [An American Madame Bovary]

　　Kenneth Eble, [A Forgotten Novel]

　　Marie Fletcher, [The Southern Woman in Fiction]

　　Larzer Ziff, From The American 1890s

　　George Arms, [Contrasting Forces in the Novel]

　　Per Seyersted, [Kate Chopin and the American Realists]

　　George M. Spangler, [The Ending of the Novel]

　　John R. May, Local Color in The Awakening

　　Lewis Leary, [Kate Chopin and Walt Whitman]

　　Jules Chametzky, [Edna and the "Woman Question"]

　　Donald A. Ringe, [Romantic Imagery]

　　Ruth Sullivan and Stewart Smith, [Narrative Stance]

　　Cynthia Griffin Wolff, [Thanatos and Eros]

　　Suzanne Wolkenfeld, Edna?s Suicide: The Problem of the One and the Many

　　Margo Culley, Edna Pontellier: "A Solitary Soul"

　　Nancy Walker, [Feminist or Naturalist?]

　　Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, [Progression and Regression in Edna Pontellier]

　　Paula A. Treichler, [Language and Ambiguity]

　　Sandra M. Gilbert, [The Second Coming of Aphrodite]

　　Lee R. Edwards, [Sexuality, Maternity, and Selfhood]

　　Patricia S. Yaeger, [Language and Female Emancipation]

　　Anna Shannon Elfenbein, [American Racial and Sexual Mythology]

　　Helen Taylor, [Gender, Race, and Religion]

　　Elizabeth Ammons, [Women of Color in The Awakening]

　　Elaine Showalter, [Chopin and American Women Writers]

Kate Chopin: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography