The Awakening and Selected Short Stories - Kate Chopin - This collection of Kate Chopin's works includes her novel The Awakening and eight of her most well-known short stories. The Awakening was condemned by most critics when it was first published in 1899 but now is celebrated for its early feminist views. Chopin advocates for women's rights in this novel, chronicling a housewife's evolution from an obedient wife and mother into a liberated, independent woman.The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation. Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity."Also included in this collection is Chopin's celebrated short story "Desiree's Baby, " which addresses the subject of racial prejudice. The novel and stories in this unabridged collection reflect the best of this American author's life work.The Awakening and Selected Short Stories contains 11 stories: The Awakening | Beyond the Bayou | Ma'ame Pelagie | Desiree's Baby | A Respectable Woman | The Kiss | A Pair of Silk Stockings | The Locket | A Reflection | At the 'Cadian Ball | The Storm