Kate Chopin

When first published in 1899, "The Awakening" shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to...

Edna Pontellier struggled to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century South....

On vacation in Grand Isle, Louisiana, a married woman falls in love with a charming, attentive young man. The relationship spurs Edna Pontellier to explore her longing for independence....

Kate Chopin’s novel, a landmark work of early feminism, is seen as a precursor to the works of American novelists such as William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway.....

“I would give my life for my children, but I wouldn’t give myself.” So said Edna Pontellier to her friend one summer as they sat beside the sea....

This powerful little story concerns a Southern gentleman who disowns his wife because he fears she has "negro" blood....

In this story of a woman’s plan to get a wealthy husband, Nathalie’s plans are almost spoiled by the action of a family friend, but she explains the situation on time. In the end, she marries Mr Brantain and his millions....

The short story focuses on two lovers torn apart by the American Civil War and the locket that inexorably binds them together....

"Beyond the Bayou" is about La Folle, an African American woman and former slave, who overcomes her crippling and irrational childhood fear of passing an imaginary territorial line or going beyond the bayou....

Mrs. Baroda, somewhat reluctantly, is playing the gracious host to her husband’s surprise guest, Gouvernail, an old friend of her husband’s from college. The story delves into Mrs. Baroda’s psychology as she struggles with her desires versus her self-made image and self-opinion....