Kate O'Flaherty Chopin was a 19th century author of short stories and novels with a Louisiana Creole setting. She is most noted for two short story collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Her novel The Awakening (1899) is set in New Orleans and Grand Isle. The short stories included in this collection include, Beyond the bayou - Maame Pelagie -- Desiree's baby -- A respectable woman -- The kiss -- A pair of silk stockings -- The locket and A reflection.

She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.
Condemned as "sordid" and "immoral" on its publication in 1899, this story of a woman trapped in her marriage effectively ended Chopin's career but was revived as a proto-feminist classic in the 1970s. What Newsweek calls Chopin's "prophetic psychology" insures its timeliness today.
The Art of The Novella Series
Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's...

Beautifully designed edition of Kate Chopin's classic "The Awakening."

2011 Reprint of 1899 Edition. "The Awakening" is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot centers around Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century South. It is one of the earliest American novels to focus on womens issues without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism. The novels blend of realistic narrative, incisive...