The Awakening: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Awakening, credited to Kate Chopin, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. Owing to its highly personal content focused on feminine sexuality, this LibriVox edition was recorded by eight female readers. The Modern Library edition of The Awakening has an introduction by Kay Gibbons, who writes: “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 Kay Gibbons points out, Chopin “was writing American realism before most Americans could bear to hear that they were living it.” To give you an idea of the subject matter, Project Gutenburg catalogues The Awakening under “Adultery — Fiction — Women — Louisiana — New Orleans — Social conditions.” (Summary by Denny Sayers)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Awakening
• Author credits: Kate Chopin
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 8
• Listed recording duration: 4:47:49

Catalogue topics

• chopin
• adultery

Track guide

1. Section 01 — 36:13
2. Section 02 — 52:53
3. Section 03 — 40:09
4. Section 04 — 42:06
5. Section 05 — 44:07
6. Section 06 — 33:30
7. Section 07 — 30:55
8. Section 08 — 34:42

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.