By Aiyana Edmund | On October 4, 2018 | Updated October 7, 2025 | Comments (0)
The Awakening is an 1899 novella depicting one woman’s struggle with societal expectations in her role as a wife and mother. Following this introduction, you’ll find a collection of quotes from The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
This elegantly written novella tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young Creole woman who craves more than the society-sanctioned role available to her. The theme of marital infidelity from the unique perspective of the woman shocked reviewers and readers alike.
The Awakening was silenced by brutal reviews in newspapers and literary publications from coast to coast. Just a few years after publication, it fell out of print. Chopin was disheartened by its reception and her writings dwindled after its publication. She died unexpectedly in 1905, just in her fifties; The Awakening fell out of print shortly after, followed by her other works, which consisted of several novels and many evocative short stories.
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By Aiyana Edmund | On September 20, 2018 | Updated April 30, 2022 | Comments (0)
Emma by Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was first published in December, 1815. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.”
In the first sentence she introduces the main character as “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich.” Emma is privileged and headstrong, greatly overestimating her matchmaking abilities, her imagination often leading her astray.
Emma was the last novel to be completed and published during Jane Austen’s life, as Persuasion, the last novel Austen wrote, was published posthumously. Emma has been adapted for several films, many television series, multiple stage plays, and has been the inspiration for several novels. Following are a collection of quotes from Emma, a novel that has been said to have “changed the face of fiction”: Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On August 28, 2018 | Updated June 29, 2023 | Comments (2)
Vita Sackville-West (1892 – 1962), the British author known for All Passion Spent and The Edwardians (as well as for her great friendship with Virginia Woolf) was nearly equally known for her passion for gardening and garden design. Enjoy the selection of quotes by Vita Sackville-West on gardens and gardening in this post — they’re wonderful metaphors for life itself!
The gardens at Sissinghurst, the home she shared with Harold Nicolson, are masterful. Though she considered herself an amateur, she remains a respected name in garden design.
Vita had a voice that was at once authoritative yet never bossy, often acknowledging that the garden can become the master of its caretaker, rather than the other way around. Something that always comes through is her passion for gardens, gardening, and beauty in bloom. According to The Telegraph in a recent appraisal of Vita’s gardening legacy:
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By Aiyana Edmund | On August 23, 2018 | Updated April 6, 2023 | Comments (0)
George Eliot, the chosen pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819 – 1880), was an esteemed Victorian-era British author. Her writing was politically and socially perceptive and inventive.
Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner are considered some of the finest and most important literary works in British literature. In addition to these and other novels, George Eliot also wrote poems, short stories, translations, and essays.
Middlemarch (1871) follows the tale of Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, two characters destined to enter marriages that are not only unfulfilling, but also conflict with their personal aspirations. Read More→
By Aiyana Edmund | On August 3, 2018 | Updated December 7, 2020 | Comments (0)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle was published in 1962, but not without its share of challenges. The following selection of quotes from A Wrinkle in Time prove that this beloved novel is a timeless work of fiction for all ages.
“A Wrinkle in Time was almost never published,” Madeleine L’Engle wrote. “You can’t name a major publisher who didn’t reject it. When we’d run through forty-odd publishers, my agent sent it back. We gave up.”
Editors found the fantasy novel too dark and complex for children, but of course, the book eventually found its home. Published in 1962, A Wrinkle in Time is still in print, with millions of copies sold worldwide. Read More→
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