Desiree's Baby

by Kate Chopin, Jacqueline Kinlow (Read by)

Kate Chopin was an American author of short stories and novels, mostly with a Louisiana Creole background. Today she is considered a forerunner of the feminist authors of the 20th century. This powerful little story concerns a Southern gentleman who disowns his wife because he fears she has "negro" blood. The truth makes for a dramatic ending.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, School, Historical Fiction, Read For School, Historical

7 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

Kate Chopin was an American author whose fiction grew out of the complex cultures and contradictions of Louisiana life, and she gradually became one of the most distinctive voices in nineteenth century literature. Raised in a household shaped by strong women of French and Irish heritage, she developed an early love for books and storytelling, and that immersion in language later shaped the quiet precision of her prose. After marrying and moving to New Orleans, then later to the small community of Cloutierville, she absorbed the rhythms, customs, and tensions of Creole and Cajun society, finding in its people the material that would feed both her sympathy and her sharp observational eye. When personal loss left her searching for direction, she began writing with the encouragement of a family friend, discovering not only a therapeutic outlet but a genuine vocation. Within a few years, her stories appeared in major magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, and The Century, where readers encountered her local-color sketches, her portrayals of women navigating desire and constraint, and her nuanced depictions of life in the American South. She published two story collections, Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, introducing characters whose emotional lives were depicted with unusual honesty. Her short fiction often explored subjects others avoided, including interracial relationships, female autonomy, and the quiet but powerful inner conflicts of everyday people. That same unflinching quality shaped The Awakening, the novel that would later become her most celebrated work. At the time of its publication, however, its frank treatment of a married woman’s emotional and sensual awakening unsettled many critics, who judged it harshly, yet Chopin continued to write stories that revealed her commitment to portraying women as fully human, with desires and ambitions that stretched beyond the confines of convention. She admired the psychological clarity of Guy de Maupassant, but she pushed beyond his influence to craft a voice that was unmistakably her own, direct yet lyrical, and deeply attuned to the inner lives of her characters. Though some of her contemporaries viewed her themes as daring or even improper, others recognized her narrative skill, and within a decade of her passing she was already being described as a writer of remarkable talent. Her rediscovery in the twentieth century led readers to appreciate how modern her concerns truly were: the struggle for selfhood, the tension between social expectations and private longing, and the resilience of women seeking lives that felt authentically theirs. Today, her stories and novels are widely read, admired for their clarity, emotional intelligence, and the boldness with which they illuminate the complexities of human experience.

Reviews

[Adina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was much better. It packs a strong emotional impact in a few pages. A woman of unknown origin is cast away be her plantation owner husband because their baby looks coloured. The ending is perfect...

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars.*

"...Desiree awoke one morning to the conviction that there was something in the air menacing her peace. It was at first too subtle to grasp..."

Published in 1894, Desiree’s Baby is set during colonial times, and gives an account of what life was like for women and their offspring at this particular time in history, especially women who happened to be married to a racist husband. Well written and thought provoking.

[Bren fall in love with the sea. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This was what made the gentle Desiree so happy,"
- Kate Chopin, Désirée's Baby




It’s almost impossible to say that much about this book and that is because it’s so short.


A plantation owner. His treatment of slaves.

The golden and beautiful Desiree.

The baby.

Although I rated this a four, don’t be surprised if I change my rating to a five. This story is still on my mind.


It is rare when such a short story can be so plaintive with such few pages. The ending may just bring you to your knees.

Amazing.

[Majenta · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles."

"'This is not the baby!' she exclaimed, in startled tones. "


"...Desiree awoke one morning to the conviction that there was something in the air menacing her peace. It was at first too subtle to grasp..."

[MihaElla · Rating 5 out of 5]

“She was thanking God for the blessing of her husband's love:– “But above all," she wrote, "night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.”

Without knowing your past you cannot know your future, because your future will be the child of your past, your future will be born out of your past. Sounds like a true-ism. In other words, first it is necessary that your entire memory track be exposed to view, and especially the most intimate level. Good enough- but how then to unlock the memory track?
Or, going downwards on a logical line- In order to become aware of the future, it is necessary to become aware of the past. In order to be aware of the past, it is necessary to read the inscriptions traced on your body and on your mind. There are inscriptions on your body and there are inscriptions on your mind. Am I able to read these inscriptions? Not really, scarcely on a superficial level.
PS: Actually I read some and starting from scratch again, deeper than skin layer. Not even the color of my skin stays the same 😔

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This tale is beautifully constructed to address the ludicrous nature of the racial divide. It was almost shocking to know it was written in 1892, when slavery was the past, but the issue of race and the "purity" of blood still so strong in Southern society.

https://www.katechopin.org/pdfs/desir...

[Imme [trying to crawl out of hiatus] van Gorp · Rating 4 out of 5]

|| 4.0 stars ||

Pfew, wow, so much to unpack here… I’m not sure what to say, but this was certainly a depressing, shocking, emotional, powerful and intense story.

It tells the story of a woman of unknown origin who’s rejected by her husband when their baby turns out brown. He assumes she must have a Black heritage and therefore loses all love for her, which leaves her absolutely shattered to pieces.
The end gives such a twist, though, that it puts the whole narrative on its head!


Kate Chopin’s stories:
Desiree’s Baby - 4.0 stars
The Story of an Hour - 3.0 stars

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

DO NOT READ BOOK SYNOPSIS SPOILER! So glad I didn't!

DESIREE'S BABY, my fifth Kate Chopin, was first published in 1893.

This one is short, sad, atmospheric of the time and full of content....with quite a twist for a racist husband of colonial times.

It moves quickly through love, happiness, shock, blame....and the gospel truth.

Another fine little read!

[Yani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estoy alucinada con la brevedad y la contundencia de los relatos de esta autora. Tal como me sucedió con The Story of an Hour (no lo reseñé, pero lo recomiendo sin ninguna duda), me quedé con la boca abierta en el final, anonadada por el efecto y por lo mucho que se puede extraer de unas pocas carillas leídas. Désirée’s Baby (1892) confirmó que lo mejor que pude haber hecho en estos días fue toparme de casualidad con Kate Chopin.

Désirée es una joven adoptada por los Valmondé desde que era pequeña. Su origen es un misterio, mucho más en una Louisiana esclavista. Sin embargo, el matrimonio Valmondé cría y cuida a la niña como si fuera una hija, sin importarle si sus padres biológicos eran blancos o negros. Désirée crece y se casa con un joven llamado Armand Aubigny, quien tampoco parece considerar la cuestión mencionada anteriormente. Pero hay ciertas cosas que empiezan a revelarse, casi necesariamente, con el bebé del título. Y ahora debo callar.

La edición que leí tenía sólo cuatro carillas. Sólo cuatro. En esa pequeña cantidad de páginas se condensan problemáticas del siglo XIX que mantienen atento a cualquier persona obsesionada con ellas. Me excluyo del grupo: lo mío es directamente una enfermedad. El racismo, la deshonra, la falta de identidad, la crueldad del amo… Algunas novelas necesitan quinientas páginas para tratar todo esto. Chopin lo hizo en nada. El cuento está narrado en tercera persona y la escritura no dificulta la lectura, a pesar de la inclusión de palabras en francés (soy una ignorante del idioma, así que recurrí al diccionario). Es muy efectiva y genera suspenso, sobre todo cuando se encarga de desarrollar el hilo de pensamiento y las sensaciones de los personajes. Estos últimos están muy bien planteados y Désirée me sorprendió por lo ingenua y por lo decidida que es al mismo tiempo. Y hablaría de Armand pero temo meterme en ciertos puntos que le conciernen al final. Me atrevo a decir que su descripción inicial es tremendamente irónica.

Es un cuento conciso, con alternativas de interpretación, pero lo más importante es que se disfruta y genera una reacción. No hay pasividad, ni siquiera para el lector que se concentra más en adivinar los desenlaces que en apreciar la belleza y el horror de lo que está leyendo. Por mi parte, Kate Chopin ya se convirtió en una de mis escritoras de confianza.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was a nice story until one of my former teachers gave us an interesting new theory. Then I thought it fantastic. Spoilersbahead. If you haven't read the story yet please scroll to the next review. The theory was that Armand knew the twist from the beginning. He was 7 when they moved from France where his mother was, so he probably could remember the dark woman who is his mother. His growing distance from Desiree was a form of anger at himself and shame/guilt of allowing her to take the blame. It's an interesting take on a look into the racial issue of the south in the story.

[Janete on hiatus due health issues · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stupid man!

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

[Gohnar23 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books read & reviewed: 7️⃣6️⃣🥖4️⃣0️⃣0️⃣


╔⏤⏤⏤╝❀╚⏤⏤⏤╗


4️⃣🌟, a short, meaningful allegory in seven pages
——————————————————————
➕➖0️⃣1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣5️⃣6️⃣7️⃣8️⃣9️⃣🔟✖️➗

All of this book in seven points because this has seven pages.

•Racial Prejudices
•Immaturity and discrimination
•Desiree is such a strong character
•Symbolic nature in a simplistic prose
•Allegory for real life events
•Plot twist go brrr
•All in 2000 words

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*Pre-Read✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

It's seven pages long :/

[Christy Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Chopin’s short stories have so much heart and cruel touches of fate in their twist endings. Desiree’s Baby is a terribly sad story about a young married couple who have a baby. Desiree does not know her parentage but her husband, Armand, doesn’t care and marries her anyway. Armand and Desiree have a baby but Armand notices that the baby isn’t fully white. He blames his wife for being part black. She and the baby disappear - the reader can infer that they die in the bayou. At the end of the story, Armand feeds all of Desiree’s and the baby’s things into a bonfire. He finds an old letter from his French mother to his father where she admits that she is the same race as the slaves in America. So much to unpack in such a short story, which is very much Chopin’s style. The effects of racism, inequality of the sexes, and love of another no matter who they are - these ideas make this small story stay with a reader for a long time after finishing it.

[Liz Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening, one amazing feminist novel, and her most regarded piece of work, yet there is another work of hers that I often compare and put at par with the novel, it is this short story. In Desiree’s Baby we have a story of miscegenation in a Creole Louisiana, as well as a morally grey area, in which one must make their own choice on the ending, sort of like the ending of “The Giver” or “Life of Pi”.

It follows Désirée, who is adopted by Monsieur and Madame Valmondé, as she was abandoned as a baby. She is courted by the wealthy son of another family and marries him, and soon they have a child. But this child has the skin colour of a quadroon (one-quarter African), therefore making the baby not white. Of course, Désirée is accused of being part black, due to her ambiguous background.

I was not sure if such a short story could, through realism and naturalism, bring about undertones of racism, and the treatment of people of colour in the South. But it delivered brilliantly, and has become one of my favourite short stories of all time.

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I read this story, I'm blown away by how deceptively simple it is.

And, I've arranged my thoughts into a haiku:

"Some sons and fathers
Fail to share the same values.
And one's a coward."

[Antusa de Ory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conocí a esta escritora por “El Despertar”, ambientada en Nueva Orleans a finales del siglo XIX. Es una de las primeras novelas estadounidenses que se centra en temas de la mujer sin condescendencia. Es también una de las más importantes novelas escritas por una mujer estadounidense del mismo siglo.

Este pequeño relato, de tan solo 10 hojas, tiene el mismo escenario. No hablaré de él porque se tardaría más en escribirlo que en leerlo. Solo diré que es una maravilla y te deja así 😳

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Chopin is a master of the twist ending to her short stories, and I have come to expect them, to anticipate them, to note the foreshadowing and draw my own conclusions.

However here I did not anticipate anything, and despite the complications of the text (think antebellum literature of the South U.S.A.), by the end of this short story I was shocked and surprised and once more full of admiration for this powerful writer.

No spoilers here, but there is a reason I am searching out these very short tales from Kate Chopin and devouring them — they are the size of an appetizer yet manage to be completely satisfying.

[Helga · Rating 5 out of 5]

a short story which managed to rip my heart to pieces in such a short time!

[Dannii Elle · Rating 2 out of 5]

My motivation for reading this short classic was that it was briefly featured in The One-in-a-Million Boy, and I felt I needed added context to understand its presence in the tale.

The tale was short and fairly well executed, but my problem with it arose from that I found it to be a pointless story. The synopsis of the mother discovering her child was of mixed-race, only after seeing him paired next to another mixed-race child felt unfeasible, and her husband's treatment of her after discovering this fact led to me believing that she would be better free from his tyrannical ways.

Perhaps it is my modern perspective, but I found nothing shocking or note-worthy about this, apart from its exemplification of historical slavery and the treatment of race.

[Eloise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a review, more like an analysis.

"Désirée's Baby" points out the absurdity of attempting to classify human beings neatly into distinct racial categories. To the characters in the story, a person is "not white" if they have even a tiny amount of African heritage. But some people clearly appear white in spite of such heritage. Status is not conferred on people because they earn it or because they look a certain way; it comes through the circumstances of birth. People assume Armand is white, even though his mother was not, because his father was white and well-respected and, most importantly, because his father treated Armand as his son. In contrast, some light-skinned people in the story are enslaved merely because their mothers were enslaved. One woman, La Blanche, has a name meaning "the white one," suggesting that she is light-skinned, but she lives as a slave on Armand's plantation. La Blanche's children are also light-skinned and are probably Armand's children. Kate Chopin shows one of La Blanche's boys forced to labor at caring for Désirée's baby—possibly his own brother while the baby naps on a luxurious bed. The obvious disparities between the two boys' lives emphasize that it is social acceptance, not any other quality, that allows one to live in privilege while the other lives as a slave.

Kate Chopin subtly reinforces this point with her choice to refrain from describing the baby's physical features. Instead, she shows her characters' reactions—Madame Valmondé's suspicion and surprise, Désirée's horror, and Armand's fury. The author only hints at what causes all these emotions until Armand says the reason out loud: "It means ... that the child is not white." But even he does not say how the child is different from white people. He simply states the problem and rejects the child forever. The consequences of this are so enormous that Désirée appears to give up on life, apparently choosing to kill herself and her baby rather than go on living.

It is absolutely clear that the baby is an innocent victim of racism. It is absurdly cruel for his father to reject him and his mother to likely kill him because they and others see mixed-race features in him. By making this cruelty a focal point of her story, Kate Chopin may be suggesting that it is also absurd to exclude a mixed-race child from high-status society.

[Adan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

To be a woman, then a woman of colour— God forfend!

Double Colonisation — one postcolonial term that befittingly sheds some light on the tale at hand.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this short story for a class, and my jaw dropped by the end. It is an amazing account of what life was like for many women and very heart-wrenching. I could read this over and over and each time find something I hadn't noticed before, even though it is so short. I simply loved it and everyone should read this.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! So good.

[Noha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Whoa! one of the saddest stories i've read till now and it contains an absolutely brilliant plot-twist

[Ashley Mlyniec · Rating 4 out of 5]

great plot twist

[عبدالرحمن · Rating 4 out of 5]

تدور أحداث القصة في لويزيانا يوم أن كانت مستعمرة فرنسية يقوم فيها البيض باستعباد السود. دزيري فتاة لقيطة تتزوج من رجل أبيض ذو وجاهة وحضوة فتنجب فتى أسود. هل كان أحد والدي دزيري أسوداً أم العكس صحيح. تثير هذه القصة العنصرية والتعذيب الذي تعرض له السود في ذلك الزمن الأسود.

[غزلان · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great story with a shocking unexpectedly ending..
i truly admire kate chopin's work.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short story about the 19th century society that did not tolerate the "mixing of the races", and considered African Americans as being less worthy than white people. I just loved, how the impeccable husband who considered himself holier than thou gets his ass handed in the end, and realizes that he has lost everything due to his ignorance and bias that now has to be directed against himself as well.

[Bidisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short story is a chilling reminder of the times we still trying to shake off. A woman of disputed origins, her baby, a father and a shocking inter-racial revelation .. in a few words laced with abundant
emotions, Ms Chopin manages to lay bare the unthinkable prejudice and illogical discrimination for their color.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually wrote a college paper on this story comparing the evolution of the plot to slavery and gender roles among African Americans and Women of the time period versus today's standards. The piece was very well written and thought provoking.