FROM THE BACK COVER:

First published in 1899, this beautiful, brief novel so disturbed
critics and the public that it was banished for decades afterward.
This sensuous book tells of a woman's abandonment of her family,
her seduction, and her awakening to desires and passions that
threaten to consume her. Orginally entitled *A Solitary Soul*
this portrait of 28-year-old Edna Pontellier is a landmark in
American fiction.