The Awakening

Now recognised as a pioneering exploration of gender freedom, from an era when female agency was rare and shocking.

Written in the late Victorian era The Awakening features a young woman who flings aside the norms of society and rejects her role as wife and mother. She abandons her family for a hedonistic and contrarian lifestyle before eventually committing suicide. The novel deals with the issues of interracial marriage and contains passages of overt sexuality, both of which contributed to...