Kate Chopin

Author profile

born

February 08, 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri, The United States

died

August 22, 1904

gender

female

genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories

About this author

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Kate Chopin was an American novelist and short-story writer best known for her startling 1899 novel, The Awakening. Born in St. Louis, she moved to New Orleans after marrying Oscar Chopin in 1870. Less than a decade later Oscar's cotton business fell on hard times and they moved to his family's plantation in the Natchitoches Parish of northwestern Louisiana. Oscar died in 1882 and Kate was suddenly a young widow with six children. She turned to writing and published her first poem in 1889. The Awakening, considered Chopin's masterpiece, was subject to harsh criticism at the time for its frank approach to sexual themes. It was rediscovered in the 1960s and has since become a standard of American literature, appreciated for its sophistication...more

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Books by Kate Chopin

Average rating: 3.63 · 57,579 ratings · 2,964 reviews · 43 distinct works

	The Awakening 3.58 avg rating — 50,002 ratings — published 1899 — 167 editions	My rating:
	The Story of an Hour 4.08 avg rating — 2,379 ratings — published 1894 — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Awakening and Selected Stories by Kate Chopin, Cynthia Brantley Johnson (Editor), Alyssa Harad (Supplement by) 3.80 avg rating — 3,661 ratings — published 1899 — 119 editions	My rating:
	A Pair of Silk Stockings And Other Short Stories by Kate Chopin, Dover Thrift Editions 3.91 avg rating — 309 ratings — published 1996 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Desiree's Baby by Kate Chopin, Jacqueline Kinlow (Read by) 4.07 avg rating — 260 ratings — published 1893 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Kate Chopin: Complete Novels and Stories: At Fault / Bayou Folk / A Night in Acadie / The Awakening / Uncollected Stories by Kate Chopin, Sandra M. Gilbert (Editor) 4.30 avg rating — 177 ratings — published 1899 — 7 editions	My rating:
	At the 'Cadian Ball by Kate Chopin, Chopin, Kate 3.72 avg rating — 158 ratings — published 2008	My rating:
	Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie by Kate Chopin, Bernard Koloski (Editor) 3.91 avg rating — 91 ratings — published 1999 — 4 editions	My rating:
	A Vocation and a Voice: Stories by Kate Chopin, Emily Toth 3.95 avg rating — 81 ratings — published 1991 — 4 editions	My rating:
	At Fault by Kate Chopin, Bernard Koloski 3.48 avg rating — 65 ratings — published 1890 — 23 editions	My rating:

More books by Kate Chopin…

Quotes by Kate Chopin

“Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life.”
― Kate Chopin, The Awakening, and Selected Stories

923 people liked it

“There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why,--when it did not seem worthwhile to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation.”
― Kate Chopin

tags: depression , worms

167 people liked it

“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.”
― Kate Chopin, The Awakening

99 people liked it

See all Kate Chopin's quotes »

Polls

What book should For the Love Of Books Book Club read for March 2010?

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

9 votes, 39.1%

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

8 votes, 34.8%

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

3 votes, 13.0%

The Piano Tuner A Novel by Daniel Mason

3 votes, 13.0%

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien

0 votes, 0.0%

23 total votes

1 comment

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