覺醒：The Awakening（英文朗讀版）

　　Kate Chopin （1850-1904） was an American author of short stories and novels based in Louisiana. She is now considered by some scholars to have been a forerunner of American 20th-century feminist authors of Southern or Catholic background， such as Zelda Fitzgerald.　The Awakening was first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coast at the end of the 19th century. It is widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism， generating a mixed reaction from contemporary readers and critics.The novel's blend of realistic narrative， incisive social commentary， and psychological complexity makes The Awakening a precursor of American modernist literature; it prefigures the works of American novelists such as William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and echoes the works of contemporaries such as Edith Wharton and Henry James.Chopin did not write another novel after The Awakening and had difficulty publishing stories after its release. When she died five years later， she was on her way to being forgotten. In 1960s Per Seyersted， a Norwegian literary scholar rediscovered Chopin， leading The Awakening to be remembered as the feminist fiction it is today.

　　凱特·肖邦，美國女作家，本名凱薩琳·歐福拉赫蒂，出生于美國圣路易斯。肖邦在快四十歲時(shí)出版了第一本小說《故障》（At Fault 1890）。她的短篇小說開始出現(xiàn)在世紀(jì)（Century）和哈潑雜志（Harper's Magazine）。隨后又出版了兩個(gè)選集：《支流人》（Bayou Folk 1894）和《阿卡迪一夜》（A Night in Arcadie 1897）?！队X醒》（The Awakening 1899）是其代表作，但由于小說以對(duì)通奸同情的筆調(diào)刻畫女主人公"性意識(shí)"的覺醒，大膽表露追求婚外情的愛情觀，小說一出版便在美國文壇上引起了軒然大波，震驚了全美的書評(píng)人和讀者。