Collected Works: At Fault : Bayou Folks : The Awakening : A Night at Cacdie

by Kate Chopin

At Fault : Bayou Folks : The Awakening : A Night at Cacdie

Hardcover

Published June 1, 1990

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

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

At Fault - 3 Stars

Bayou Folk
A No-Account Creole - 4 Stars
In and out of Old Natchitoches - 3 Stars
In Sabine - 4.5 Stars
A Very Fine Fiddle - 3 Stars
Beyond the Bayou - 3 Stars
Old Aunt Peggy - 3 Stars
The Return of Alcibiade - 4 Stars
A Rude Awakening - 4 Stars
The Benitous' Slave - 3.5 Stars
Desiree's Baby - 5 Stars
A Turkey Hunt - 3 Stars
Madame Celestin's Divorce - 4 Stars
Love on the Bon-Dieu - 4.5 Stars
Loka - 3.5 Stars
Boulot and Boulotte - 2.5 Stars
For Marse Chouchoute - 4 Stars
A Visit to Avoyelles - 3 Stars
A Wizard from Gettysburg - 4.5 Stars
Ma'am E Pelagie - 4.5 Stars
At the 'Cadian Ball - 3 Stars
La Belle Zoraide - 3.5 Stars
A Gentleman of Bayou Teche - 5 Stars
A Lady of Bayou St. John - 3 Stars

A Night In Acadie
A Night in Acadie - 3.5 Stars
Athénaïse - 4 Stars
After the Winter - 4 Stars
Polydore - 4.5 Stars
Regret - 5 Stars
A Matter of Prejudice - 4.5 Stars
Caline - 4 Stars
A Dresden Lady in Dixie - 3.5 Stars
Nég Créol - 3 Stars
The Lilies - 3.5 Stars
Azelie - 3.5 Stars
Mamouche - 3.5 Stars
A Sentimental Soul - 4.5 Stars
Dead Men's Shoes - 5 Stars
At Cheniere Caminada - 3 Stars
Odalie Misses Mass - 4.5 Stars
Cavanelle - 3 Stars
Tante Cat'rinette - 4.5 Stars
A Respectable Woman - 4 Stars
Ripe Figs - 3 Stars
Ozeme's Holiday - 4 Stars

The Awakening and Selected Short Stories
The Awakening - 5 Stars
Beyond the Bayou - 3 Stars
Ma'ame Pelagie - 4.5 Stars
Desiree's Baby - 5 Stars
A Respectable Woman - 4 Stars
A Pair of Silk Stockings -4 Stars
The Locket - 4 Stars
A Reflection - 2.5 Stars
At the 'Cadian Ball -3 Stars
The Storm - 4 Stars

A Family Affair - 3.5 Stars
A Harbinger - 3 Stars
A Morning Walk - 3 Stars
A Point at Issue! - 2.5 Stars
A Shameful Affair - 4 Stars
An Egyptian Cigarette - 3 Stars
Doctor Chevalier's Lie - 4 Stars
Her Letters - 4.5 Stars
Juanita - 3 Stars
Lilacs - 3 Stars
Miss McEnders - 3.5 Stars
The Blind Man - 3.5 Stars
The Kiss - 4 Stars
The Night Came Slowly - 4 Stars
The Story of an Hour - 5 Stars
The Unexpected - 4 Stars

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated, but intereresting early feminist fiction.

[The Docta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read "Her Letters" Cruel of the woman to do that nasty to the poor guys.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved Kate Chopin since reading The Awakening and enjoyed reading more of her stories.

[holly gc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Chopin. Not Chopin Chopin as one of my teachers commented.