A literature course called Great Novellas beckoned me. I enrolled on it in order to discover writers or works I had not encountered before, and to sample fine writing I might learn from in order to improve my craft. This was one of the books on that course.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Awakening. Set in the French part of New Orleans, and written in the 19th century, it depicts the kind of restrictions women had to endure, not least in terms of what was expected of them.

For example, it was “mandatory” to have an “at home” day when people could visit without, as I understand it, advanced warning. That would drive me insane, having a stream of visitors all day long.

The Awakening is very engaging. Somehow, the heroine of the story attracts the reader’s sympathy, even though (in my opinion) her actions are reprehensible.

I loved the writing. Some of it is very funny, all of it is well-observed. Indeed, there is one statement of advice from a (male) doctor that is so patronising it made me want to hurl the book across the room at the same time as laughing out loud.

The author is definitely not kind to men:

I haven’t read all of the other stories in this collection, even though they are a good deal shorter than the Awakening. Indeed, there is at least one that is only one page long, a masterpiece of concision.

A couple of stories that I read deal with slavery, and I found these quite harrowing. However, this book is worth buying for The Awakening alone.