Kate Chopin (1851–1904)
Author of The Awakening
About the Author
Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 8, 1851. Although she was brought up in a wealthy and socially elite Catholic family, Chopin's childhood was marred by tragedies. Her father was killed in a train accident when Chopin was just four years old, and in the show more following years she also lost her older brother, great-grandmother, and half-brother. In 1870, at the age of 19, she married Oscar Chopin, the son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Louisiana. The couple had seven children together, five boys and two girls, before Oscar died of swamp fever in 1883. The following year, Chopin packed up her family and moved back to St. Louis to be with her mother, who died just a year later. To support herself and her family, Chopin started to write. Her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890. Her most famous work, The Awakening, inspired by a real-life New Orleans woman who committed adultery, was published in 1899. The book explores the social and psychological consequences of a woman caught in an unhappy marriage in 19th century America, is now considered a classic of the feminist movement and caused such an uproar in the community that Chopin almost entirely gave up writing. Chopin did try her hand at a few short stories, most of which were not even published. Chopin died on August 22, 1904, of a brain hemorrhage, after collapsing at the World's Fair just two days before. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: from Wikipedia
Works by Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin: Complete Novels and Stories: At Fault / Bayou Folk / A Night in Acadie / The Awakening / Uncollected… (2002) 350 copies, 2 reviews
Three Classics by American Women: The Awakening; Ethan Frome; O Pioneers! (1990) 25 copies, 1 review
British Mystery Megapack Volume 4: The Secret Adversary, Tales of Chinatown, At The Villa Rose, Egyptian Cigarette, A… (2014) 13 copies
Kate Chopin: Complete Collection of Works with analysis and historical background (Annotated and Illustrated)… (2013) 8 copies
Il sogno di un᾽ora 3 copies
At the 'Cadian Ball 3 copies
Kate Chopin's Collected Works: At Fault, Bayou Folk, Juanita, Lilacs, The Kiss, Her Letters, A Family Affair, A… (2013) 3 copies
A História de uma Hora e Outros Contos (Coleção Folha Inglês Com Clássicos Da Literatura, #24) 3 copies
The Awakening Cane Maggie : A Girl of the Streets Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Norton Critical Editions Ser) (1999) 2 copies
Kate Chopin: The Complete Novels and Stories (The Greatest Writers of All Time Book 22) (2016) 2 copies
Short Fiction 2 copies
O Beijo 2 copies
No title 2 copies
“Lilacs” 1 copy
Works by Kate Chopin: Novels by Kate Chopin, Short Stories by Kate Chopin, Desiree's Baby, the Awakening, the… (2010) 1 copy
“The ‘Cadian Ball” 1 copy
Athénaïse (texto bilingüe) 1 copy
Meias de Seda 1 copy
Loka 1 copy
Charlie; and other stories 1 copy
En kvinde vågner 1 copy
The Awakening & Other Short Stories: Kate Chopin (Short Stories, Classics, Literature) [Annotated] (2021) 1 copy
Chopin, Kate Archive 1 copy
Associated Works
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 947 copies, 7 reviews
The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English (1985) — Contributor — 873 copies
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps (2009) — Contributor — 266 copies, 3 reviews
Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin-de-Siècle (1993) — Contributor — 187 copies, 2 reviews
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (2013) — Contributor — 151 copies, 1 review
Two Friends and Other 19th-century American Lesbian Stories (1994) — Contributor — 99 copies, 1 review
In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe: Classic Tales of Horror, 1816-1914 (2015) — Contributor — 91 copies, 1 review
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Concise Edition (2003) — Contributor — 68 copies, 1 review
The Signet Classic Book of Contemporary American Short Stories (1985) — Contributor — 43 copies, 1 review
Women in the Trees: U.S. Women's Short Stories About Battering and Resistance, 1839-1994 (1996) — Contributor — 41 copies
Civil War Memories: Nineteen Stories of Battle, Bravery, Love, and Tragedy (2000) — Contributor — 34 copies, 1 review
The Strange History of Suzanne LaFleshe and Other Stories of Women and Fatness (2003) — Contributor — 27 copies, 1 review
Classic American women writers: Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather (1980) — Contributor — 26 copies
Discovering Fiction Student's Book 1: A Reader of American Short Stories (2001) — Contributor — 20 copies
Haunted Women: The Best Supernatural Tales by American Women Writers (1985) — Contributor — 17 copies, 2 reviews
Great Classic Stories II: Eighteen Unabridged Classics (2010) — Contributor, some editions — 15 copies
Isaac Asimov Presents the Best Horror and Supernatural of the 19th Century (1983) — Contributor — 15 copies, 1 review
For Want of a Horse: Twenty-Three Tales of Supernatural Stallions, Magical Mares, and Paranormal Ponies (2015) — Contributor — 2 copies, 2 reviews
ESSENTIAL COLLECTION OF CLASSIC BANNED BOOKS: Adam Bede, Fanny Hill, Candide, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The… — Contributor — 2 copies
Discovering Fiction Level 2 Student's Book: A Reader of North American Short Stories (2012) — Contributor — 2 copies
La nueva mujer: Relatos de escritoras estadounidenses del siglo XIX — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Chopin, Kate
- Legal name
- O'Flaherty, Katherine (birth name)
Chopin, Katherine - Other names
- Chopin, Kate
- Birthdate
- 1851-02-08
- Date of death
- 1904-08-22
- Burial location
- Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- Place of death
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- Cause of death
- brain hemorrhage
- Places of residence
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Grand Coteau, Louisiana, USA
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, USA - Education
- Sacred Heart Academy, St. Louis
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer - Organizations
- Wednesday Club
- Awards and honors
- St. Louis Walk of Fame
- Short biography
- Katherine O’Flaherty was the daughter of an Irish immigrant father and a French-Creole mother. She was educated at the St. Louis Sacred Heart Academy and then made a debut into Southern society. In 1870, she married Oscar Chopin, a cotton trader from Louisiana, and the couple had six children. Widowed in 1882, and needing to support herself and her young children, Kate Chopin began to write sketches of her former plantation life, which appeared in periodicals such as Bayou Folk. These received immediate acclaim, as did her first novel At Fault (1890). Kate Chopin published two novels and about 100 short stories in the 1890s. Most of her fiction was set in Louisiana and her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. Her short stories were most popular in her own day and appeared in some of America's most prestigious magazines. After her death her work was temporarily forgotten, but then in the 1920s her short stories began to appear in anthologies, and the public and literary scholars again began to take notice of her.
Members
Reviews
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
In 1890’s New Orleans society, Edna begins to question her life as a wife and mother. This is the original woman seeking to find herself story. As she gradually distances herself from her husband and children and societal expectations, she explores her art, her feelings, her decision-making and her romantic needs. This leads to several challenges and not the life she hopes for. The result is tragedy. This was a shocking novel at its publication in 1899.
The Awakening is one of those books which my sense is has never quite escaped its national context—Americans, I think, are likely to read it in high school or uni but as a "classic" it's far less known in other countries. I only heard of it, and Kate Chopin's other short stories, a few years ago, and decided to read it out of curiosity about it as a piece of early feminist literature.
Having now read it, I can certainly appreciate why Chopin's work was rediscovered by second wavers, grappling as it does with questions of freedom, control, marriage, and motherhood. Both Edna—the main character in The Awakening—and several of Chopin's other female characters struggle with these questions in various ways. But while Chopin's prose is well-crafted, and there are some lovely moments of character observation, I found myself largely unmoved by her work. Her writing is not bad, but it didn't speak to me. I didn't particularly connect with any of the characters in The Awakening itself, and the short stories felt too much like hybrids of O. Henry/Just So Stories with uncomfortable racial undertones (or just... tones) to engage me at all.… (more)
Having now read it, I can certainly appreciate why Chopin's work was rediscovered by second wavers, grappling as it does with questions of freedom, control, marriage, and motherhood. Both Edna—the main character in The Awakening—and several of Chopin's other female characters struggle with these questions in various ways. But while Chopin's prose is well-crafted, and there are some lovely moments of character observation, I found myself largely unmoved by her work. Her writing is not bad, but it didn't speak to me. I didn't particularly connect with any of the characters in The Awakening itself, and the short stories felt too much like hybrids of O. Henry/Just So Stories with uncomfortable racial undertones (or just... tones) to engage me at all.… (more)
I liked the first half of the novel set in the Gulf Islands, as our heroine awakens, more than the final half where she explores her new self back in New Orleans- but both were good. I'd say a solid 3.5 stars. The writing is very good, at times excellent, and as every blurb on the novel states extremely bold for its time in the late 1800's.
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Statistics
- Works
- 174
- Also by
- 65
- Members
- 18,864
- Popularity
- #1,159
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 298
- ISBNs
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- Favorited
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