Her Letters

by Kate Chopin

Her Letters
Kate Chopin, american author of short stories and novels (1850-1904)

This ebook presents «Her Letters», from Kate Chopin. A dynamic table of contents enables to jump directly to the chapter selected.

Table of Contents
- About This Book
- Her Letters

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Audiobook, 19th Century

Audiobook

First published January 1, 1895

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

[a · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story begins with a woman trying to get rid of letters which are the only evidence of her having an affair outside her marriage. She has burned some of the letters but cannot burn the rest because she was overwhelmed with emotions. She then decides to trust her husband with the deed, leaving this message: "I leave this package to the care of my husband. With perfect faith in his loyalty and his love, I ask him to destroy it unopened." When the woman died, the husband threw the letters in the river. He is filled with constant paranoia of the contents of the letters. He is suspecting that his wife had another affair so he searched for evidence in her writing nook and the books she has read.

It ate him up until he went deep into the river to know his wife's secret. But I also think that his paranoia is only a substitute for his mourning. Instead of crying and being sad about it, he just kept himself busy by finding out if she had an affair. And when he went to the river and died, it is his surrender because he cannot handle her absence anymore. He believes that his death will make him join her.

I liked how the characters have no names. It added mystery to the eerie atmosphere.

[◈ ɣεɾɑ ◈ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everything I ever read by Chopin involves a selfish and self centered woman, this is no exception.

[Close Enough · Rating 4 out of 5]

When your thoughts lead you to death

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars rounded up to 5 Stars.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

She has a secret contained in her letters. She knows they should be destroyed. Her sentimental attachment prevents her from destroying them.

So she decides to trust the person who, if read, would be harmed most, her husband. Her request is worded “I leave this package to the care of my husband. With perfect faith in his loyalty and his love, I ask him to destroy it unopened."

After she passes her husband discovers the letters, realizes that unfaithfulness is the most likely reason they exist. He is torn, if read can he live with knowing the truth? Or if destroyed unread, can he live not knowing?

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have arranged my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:

"The indulgences
We selfishly grant ourselves
Aren’t victimless crimes."

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

youtube

[Tasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is why people need rebound relationships.

[Simran Bodhak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Letters exchanged with an lover was ultimately left behind by a woman with her husband with the wish that it be burnt and not opened. Her dutiful husband did not read them despite the curiosity but ended up going mad if he had been cheated by his wife or not.

[Anne (w/ an E) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending was the best part of this story, in my opinion. It wasn't quite what I was expecting.

[Cindy DeLong · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a self-centered woman! She was unloving to her devoted husband in life and in death.

[ashleigh eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for class
really enjoy her writing style, feels very familiar and comforting
this short story i found to be interestingly reminiscent of osamu dazai’s no longer human

[mika · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have a Thing for stories about obsessive curiosity... probably because i am also a victim of obsessive curiosity

i really want to know exactly what those letters were about though, if she was really cheating on him or if it was an old love

[summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

MAN.
MAN.
WOW.
okuduğum en iyi ghost?? hikâyelerinden biriydi INSANE

second reread 15.12.2025

i actually feel REALLY bad for the husband and i'm sorry but in this story i'm more of a #teamhusband because cheating is a horrible thing to do. but still, i feel like, the story really works well because the wife knows her husband but her husband doesn't know her very well. until she dies and he finds the letters that his wife wants him to destroy unopened, believing in his love and loyalty, he doesn't think about his wife that much. she is his wife. he knows everything about her already. so, he does as his wife has required and destroys the letters, missinh another chance to know what kind of person his wife is again. and this is what haunts him later on. his wife knows him well enough to trust him with the bundle which contains the letters of her affair with another man (girl......) however, her husband has no idea about who she really is. and he missed the chance by destroying the letters again. he reads his wife's books to find out her secret desires and secrets by looking at the lines underlined but he can't find any. when you think about it, this was something he should've done when his wife was still alive, but... it's too late now. haunted by the possible meaning behind the letters, he jumps into the river to join his wife and learn her secret. (i'm doubtful if his wife will ever talk to him in afterlife, to be honest)

i mean i feel like i'm being too hard on the poor guy but this is just one interpretation and i just wanted to share my discoveries upon second reading. my ideas might change (will change) (i'm a gemini)

i'm taking this story with me. will be in my thesis most probably!!! (if i don't change my thesis subject again 😃) (being a gemini is hard sometimes)

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has a sad, lyrical quality about it, but it reads almost like a rough sketch of an idea. Certainly there could have been more meat to the story, and it could have even been worked into a novella had Kate Chopin chosen to go that way. It's highly predictable, but the audio narration by Angela Brazil and Stephen R. Thorne was quite well done, and saved this from a two star rating from me.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am both of these people. There are also a lot of really lovely lines in this tale of, in the words of Dylan Moran, "the bundle of letters... too painful to look at or throw away! They have to be kept so they can never be looked at!"

[Rebecca Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

an intriguing little book