CHOPIN, Kate. The Awakening. 8vo, original decorated light green cloth, t.e.g., others untrimmed. Chicago & N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1899. First edition, in a rare and unrecorded variant binding with a picture of a woman on the spine, possibly a preliminary or trial binding. The image of a fashionable, self-confident woman stepping out in red hat and cloak at the base of the spine would seem to depict Edna Pontellier, the main character of The Awakening. If a trial binding, it may be that the image on the spine of this copy was intended to pique curiosity and increase sales. It may be, too, that the image of a jaunty "Scarlet woman" was finally considered inappropriate, or at the very least misleading, particularly in light of the controversial nature of the story, the adverse reaction to which might well have caused the publisher to reject the more colorful and alluring design. Originally entitled A Solitary Soul, The Awakening was published in April 1899 to a chorus of moralistic and censorious reviews, including a rather conventional one by a twenty-three year old Willa Cather in the Pittsburgh Leader. Although Cather praised Chopin's "flexible iridescent style", she deplored wasting "so exquisite and sensitive" a style on a story that she considered merely "a Creole Bovary." The Awakening remained dormant, out of print, for more than fifty years until it was republished in Per Seyersted's edition of Chopin's Complete Works in 1969. Since then, The Awakening has achieved the status of an American classic. Emily Toth, Chopin's biographer, considers it "the most radical American novel of the 1890s... $17,500.00 (more info)