The Awakening shocked turn-of-the-century readers with its forthright treatment of sex and suicide. Departing from literary convention, Kate Chopin failed to condemn her heroine's desire for an affair with the son of a Louisiana resort owner, whom she meets on vacation. The power of sensuality, the delusion of ecstatic love, and the solitude that accompanies the trappings of middle- and upper-class life are the themes of this now-classic novel. As Kaye Gibbons points out in her Introduction, Chopin &quot;was writing American realism before most Americans could bear to hear that they were living it.&quot;<br><br>This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition includes selected stories from Chopin's Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie.