The Awakening vs Three Lives: Which Should You Read?

The Awakening Kate Chopin · 1899 ★★★★☆ 3.7 224 pages · ≈ 4 h 09 m · Demanding

“A GREEN AND yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: “Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!”

The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coast at the end of the 19th century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle between her…

Three Lives Gertrude Stein · 1909 ★★★☆☆ 3.1 299 pages · ≈ 5 h 32 m · Demanding

Gertrude Stein, as a college student at Radcliffe and a medical student at Johns Hopkins Medical School, was a privileged woman, but she was surrounded by women who were trapped by poverty, class, and race into lives…