
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04dk864
Description: Holidaying on Grand Isle in 1899, Edna Pontellier feels she is living in a dream, so the attentions of the dashing young Robert Lebrun serve merely to amuse her.
When it was published in 1899, Kate Chopin’s novel shocked society and divided critics. Respectable, married Edna Pontellier, 28, is away from her home in New Orleans, holidaying on Grand Isle in the Gulf of Mexico with her husband and children. Teaching her to swim is the debonair young Robert Lebrun, known for forming an attachment with a different woman every summer. Despite warnings from her more conventional friend, Adele, Edna falls incontrovertibly for Robert. When he leaves Louisiana for Mexico, Edna realises she’s been “awakened” and questions everything: her marriage, her position, the society she lives in. But what is left for her? The novel is regarded by many as the first in a new wave of modern American literature.
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
Dramatised by Janice Okoh
1/5 Holidaying on Grand Isle in 1899, Edna Pontellier feels she is living in a dream.
2/5 After a disagreement with her husband, Edna plans a trip alone with Robert.
3/5 Edna continues to be enraptured by Robert’s company, but there is a shock in store for her
4/5 Leonce hopes a visit from her father will stop Edna’s unconventional behaviour.
5/5 Edna thinks Robert’s return will make her happy, but events are to overtake them both.
How kind of BBC to help me shift a long-term TBR item. I’m sure this was a pearl-clasping tale back then and opened many a young lady’s eyes.