The Awakening
by Kate Chopin [1899]
dramatised by Janice Okoh
15 Minute Drama: 18 to 22 August 2014
Omnibus on Radio 4 Extra, Saturday 23 August 2014
Pippa Bennett-Warner and Petra Letang star in this steamy adaptation of the Kate Chopin novel which shocked America in 1899.
When it was published in 1899, Kate Chopin's novel shocked society and divided critics. Respectable, married Edna Pontellier, 28, is away from her home in New Orleans, holidaying on Grand Isle in the Gulf of Mexico with her husband and children. Teaching her to swim is the debonair young Robert Lebrun, known for forming an attachment with a different woman every summer. Despite warnings from her more conventional friend, Adele, Edna falls incontrovertibly for Robert. When he leaves Louisiana for Mexico, Edna realises she's been "awakened" and questions everything: her marriage, her position, the society she lives in. But what is left for her? The novel is regarded by many as the first in a new wave of modern American literature.
Edna Pontellier ... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Leonce Pontellier ... Guy Paul
Celestine ... Petra Letang
Robert Lebrun ... PJ Brennan
Adele Ratignolle ... Sasha Pick
Madame LeBrun / Catiche ... Adjoa Andoh
Mlle Reisz ... Lucy Newman-Williams
Dr Mandalet ... Peter Marinker
Alcee Arobin ... Richard Laing
Colonel ... David Cann
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
160/44; 78.2 MB; sound quality excellent
1. Holidaying on Grand Isle in 1899, Edna Pontellier feels she is living in a dream, so the attentions of the dashing young Robert Lebrun serve merely to amuse her.
2. Edna is still holidaying on Grand Isle and, after a disagreement with her husband, plans a trip alone with Robert.
3. Edna continues to be enraptured by Robert's company, but there is a shock in store for her.
4. Leonce hopes a visit from her father will stop Edna's unconventional behaviour, but very soon the notorious Alcee Arobin has begun to visit....
5. Edna thinks Robert's return will make her happy, but events are to overtake them both.
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Woman's Hour: The Awakening
Monday 18 August 2014
Duration: 6 minutes
The Awakening by Kate Chopin is seen as one of the most important novels in the history of American women’s writing. Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot centres on Edna Pontellier - a middle class woman whose attraction to a young man over one long, hot summer awakens her sexual desires and longing for independence. Edna feels smothered by marriage and motherhood, yet as a woman she is expected to be a good ‘mother-woman’ who surrenders her sense of self for her family. Helen Taylor, Professor of English & American Literature at the University of Exeter, joins Jane to discuss why the book is celebrated as an early feminist work, how it still speaks to feminists today, and why it provoked an outcry when first published in 1899.
160/44; 7 MB; sound quality excellent
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Replies
Thanks, Rick!