Shocking and scandalous in its day, this novel of a young woman's artistic and sexual awakening is now revered as a captivating and sensual feminist classic. Edna has it all, a loving husband, two adoring little boys, summers at the beach with friends, a life of luxury - but something is missing. She's not content like the "mother-women" around her. Her husband and friends think she is behaving strangely and becoming unbalanced as she begins to push against her restraints. Will she find the freedom she seeks or be swept away on her journey of self-discovery?
Keynote Classics unabridged classic literature feature a no-spoiler Introductory Key, explanatory footnotes, and wide margins for note-taking to help readers get more from their reading experience, and remember, discuss, or write more confidently about classic literature.
Annotated Keynote Classics¿ begin with an Introductory Key to the work with hints about what to look for to find deeper meaning. Unlike other literature study guides, they contain no spoilers and don't specify themes, motifs, and symbols found in the novel. Instead, they point out general ideas and things to pay attention to that help you find your own interpretations. Footnotes help foster understanding, and historical context about the author and the prevailing culture provides important perspective. Questions are provided at the end to help inspire discussion or essay topics. Teachers recommend that you read actively and engage with the text to help you draw on your own knowledge and experience to get more out of a novel. Keynote Classics¿ paperbacks provide more space in the margins for writing down thoughts, connections, and interpretations as you read.

Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was born in St. Louis and spent much of her life in Louisiana. Widowed with six children at age thirty-two, she published stories and articles often set in the Creole culture of late-nineteenth-century New Orleans. The candor and sympathy with which she explored the contours of modern women's lives were unprecedented. So prescient were Chopin's fictions that, many decades after her death, they would become touchstones for second-wave feminism.