Cuentos completos

by Kate Chopin, Enma Cotro (traductor), Maite Fernández Estañán (traductor)

No son pocas las dificultades –algunas personales, y muchas literarias– que tuvo que superar Kate Chopin (1850-1904) para que hoy, desde el siglo xxi, podamos leer y valorar su obra como siempre se ha merecido.

Autora de un centenar de cuentos y dos novelas, Chopin fue víctima del silencio y la exclusión del canon literario debido a la mojigatería y la censura de su época. La absoluta modernidad y libertad de sus cuentos, que conectan directamente con temas contemporáneos como la maternidad o la sexualidad, o su inusitada elegancia narrativa fueron algunas de las causas. Y tendrían que pasar muchas décadas hasta que la crítica fuera consciente de la necesidad estudiar y diseminar la obra de una extraordinaria escritora por la originalidad y la valentía de su literatura.

Reunidos por primera vez en español –y traducidos por Emma Cotro, Maite Fernández Estañán, Eva Gallud y Juan Carlos García– estos Cuentos completos incluyen no solo las dos colecciones publicadas en vida -Las gentes de bayou y Una noche en Acadie–, sino también aquellos cuentos que dejó proyectados para un tercer libro –Una vocación y una voz– y el resto de los que permanecieron dispersos y olvidados. Es momento de recuperarlos. Recuperar a Kate Chopin.

LAS GENTES DE BAYOU
UNA NOCHE DE ACADIE
UNA VOCACIÓN Y UNA VOZ
CUENTOS DIPERSOS

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Short Stories, 19th Century, Literature, American, Feminism

900 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 1899

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

[Susan Budd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t read this book, but why let that stop me from rating it? Actually, I just bought it and removed the plastic wrap. Ah ~ plastic wrap! All books should be so well packaged!

Complete Novels and Stories is #136 in the Library of America series and I couldn’t resist having all of Kate Chopin’s fiction in one attractive and compact volume. It’s going to replace my four Penguin paperbacks: The Awakening and Selected Stories, Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, A Vocation and a Voice, and At Fault.

Perhaps a word of explanation is due for the book titled A Vocation and a Voice. This collection was never published in Chopin’s lifetime, but it was released by Penguin Books in 1991 with an introduction by Emily Toth. It includes twenty-three stories that Chopin intended for this collection.

The volume The Awakening and Selected Stories includes, in addition to The Awakening, twelve short stories, six of which are in Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie and three of which are in A Vocation and a Voice.

That means, of the fifty-five uncollected stories in Complete Novels and Stories, twenty-nine are not included in any of these four paperbacks. That is my rationalization for buying this book and I think it’s a pretty good one. (Some of my rationalizations for buying books would be quite unconvincing to anyone who wasn’t a fellow book lover.)

Of my paperbacks, I’ve read everything except At Fault. I suspected I wouldn’t like it because I didn’t like The Awakening. Now everyone will yell at me because this is her masterpiece so what business do I have not liking it? But I don’t, and I realize the problem lies with me, not Chopin. The prose in The Awakening is as beautiful as in the short stories. I just didn’t like the ending and I didn’t like Edna.

I read The Awakening for the first time in college and I read it again years later, hoping to like it better the second time. But nope. I still didn’t like it. Nevertheless, I wasn’t about to give up on Chopin, so I got Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie and I just loved those two short story collections. I was surprised at how much I loved them considering my reaction to The Awakening. But it’s probably not that big of a mystery. I’ve long been a fan of local color literature.

So one of these days I’m going to stop fondling Complete Novels and Stories and read it through from beginning to end, giving At Fault my first reading, revisiting Bayou Folk, A Night in Acadie, and The Awakening, and then reading the uncollected stories, which will be a mixture of rereads and first time reads.

For anyone interested in knowing which of the uncollected stories are in A Vocation and a Voice, here’s the list:

An Idle Fellow
The Story of an Hour
Lilacs
The Night Came Slowly
Juanita
The Kiss
Her Letters
Two Summers and Two Souls
The Unexpected
Two Portraits
Fedora
The Recovery
The Blind Man
A Vocation and a Voice
A Mental Suggestion
Suzette
A Morning Walk
An Egyptian Cigarette
Elizabeth Stock’s One Story
A Horse Story
The Godmother
Ti Démon
The White Eagle

And these are the three stories that are in The Awakening and Selected Stories (along with six stories from Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie).

Emancipation. A Life Fable
A Pair of Silk Stockings
The Storm

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

At Fault 3⭐

Bayou Folk
A No-Account Creole 4⭐
In and Out of Old Natchitoches 3⭐
In Sabine 4.5⭐
A Very Fine Fiddle 3⭐
Beyond the Bayou 3⭐
Old Aunt Peggy 3⭐
The Return of Alcibiade 4⭐
A Rude Awakening 4⭐
The Bênitous’ Slave 3.5⭐
Désirée’s Baby 5⭐
A Turkey Hunt 3⭐
Madame Célestin’s Divorce 4⭐
Love on the Bon-Dieu 4.5⭐
Loka 3.5⭐
Boulôt and Boulotte 2.5⭐
For Marse Chouchoute 4⭐
A Visit to Avoyelles 3⭐
A Wizard from Gettysburg 4.5⭐
Ma’ame Pélagie 4.5⭐
At the ’Cadian Ball 3⭐
La Belle Zoraïde 3.5⭐
A Gentleman of Bayou Têche 5⭐
A Lady of Bayou St. John 3⭐

A Night in Acadie
A Night in Acadie 3.5⭐
Athénaïse 4⭐
After the Winter 4⭐
Polydore 4.5⭐
Regret 5⭐
A Matter of Prejudice 4.5⭐
Caline 4⭐
A Dresden Lady in Dixie 3.5⭐
Nég Créol 3⭐
The Lilies 3.5⭐
Azélie 3.5⭐
Mamouche 3.5⭐
A Sentimental Soul 4.5⭐
Dead Men’s Shoes 5⭐
At Chênière Caminada 3⭐
Odalie Misses Mass 4.5⭐
Cavanelle 3⭐
Tante Cat’rinette 4.5⭐
A Respectable Woman 4⭐
Ripe Figs 3⭐
Ozème’s Holiday 4⭐

The Awakening 5⭐

Uncollected Stories
Emancipation A Life Fable 4⭐
Wiser Than a God 2.5⭐
A Point at Issue! 2.5⭐
Miss Witherwell’s Mistake 3.5⭐
With the Violin 3.25⭐
Mrs. Mobry’s Reason 3⭐
The Going Away of Liza 3.25⭐
The Maid of Saint Phillippe 3.5⭐
A Shameful Affair 4⭐
A Harbinger 3⭐
Doctor Chevalier’s Lie 4⭐
An Embarrassing Position: Comedy in One Act 3⭐
Croque-Mitaine 3⭐
A Little Free-Mulatto 2.5⭐
Miss McEnders 3.5⭐
An Idle Fellow 3.5⭐
The Story of an Hour 5⭐
Lilacs 3⭐
The Night Came Slowly 4⭐
Juanita 3⭐
The Kiss 4⭐
Her Letters 4.5⭐
Two Summers and Two Souls 3⭐
The Unexpected 4⭐
Two Portraits 3.5⭐
Fedora 4⭐
Vagabonds 3⭐
Madame Martel’s Christmas Eve 3⭐
The Recovery 3⭐
A Pair of Silk Stockings 4⭐
Aunt Lympy’s Interference 4⭐
The Blind Man 3.5⭐
Ti Frère 3.25⭐
A Vocation and a Voice 5⭐
A Mental Suggestion 3⭐
Suzette 3.5⭐
The Locket 4⭐
A Morning Walk 3⭐
An Egyptian Cigarette 3⭐
A Family Affair 3.5⭐
Elizabeth Stock’s One Story 4⭐
A Horse Story 3.5⭐
The Storm 4⭐
The Godmother 4.5⭐
A Little Country Girl 4⭐
A Reflection 2.5 ⭐
Ti Démon 3.25⭐
A December Day in Dixie 2.5⭐
Alexandre’s Wonderful Experience 3.5⭐
The Gentleman from New Orleans 3.5⭐
Charlie 5⭐
The White Eagle 4.25⭐
The Wood-Choppers 3.25⭐
Polly 2.5⭐
The Impossible Miss Meadows 2.25⭐

[Leniwa Wenus · Rating 5 out of 5]

She’s never boring, nor predictable. You can never be sure where the twist will bring you.

[Cor T · Rating 4 out of 5]

In which I masquerade as a Women’s Studies major: Edna Pontellier is an unlikely heroine who seeks escape from her comfortable if loveless marriage, but the author succeeds in portraying her courage even to think independently within the context of societal norms. The Awakening is viewed as an important “Bildungsroman” novel of development in which Edna Pontellier comes to the conclusion that she has to choose between the expected and connected home-centered life of a wife and mother and the eccentric and lonely life of an artist (and lover), neither of which she ultimately feels willing or able to do. When we meet her at 28, “Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her." At this age, Edna feels she is “a grown young woman when [she was] overtaken by what she supposed to be the climax of her fate.” We know it’s going to end badly, it’s just a question of how. Did I enjoy reading it? So little actually happens that I felt like I was looking for meaning in every word, but “awakening” was on almost every page. This untrained reader wondered whether Kate Chopin may have hammered that metaphor a little too hard, but an actual Women’s Studies major explains that Edna has two awakenings: one to awareness of her individuality, and one to the despair of being unable to act upon it.

Recap for the forgetful: Written in 1899, the setting is Creole society in New Orleans, where everyone who’s anyone summers on Grand Isle. Here young Robert Lebrun, whose attentions to Mrs. Pontellier (as she’s referred to in this chapter) make him much more the BFF than her at-work-in-the-city-all-week husband and could be taken the wrong way. Leonce or Mr. Pontellier is unfailingly generous to his young wife but wonders at her inattention to their two sons. He can’t put his finger on why she’s not a “mother-woman,” but notes maybe it’s because Mrs. P is not one of us - she was not born a Creole - that she does not appear to idolize her children or worship her husband. It turns out that Edna (some chapters refer to her this way) may have an “outward existence which conforms,” but she also has an “inward life which questions.” She also has an artistic nature, which makes her susceptible to sensual beauty, and which awakens or deepens over the course of the summer holiday. Robert teaches her to swim and in doing so she feels the power and confidence of achievement and independence (which Robert congratulates himself for). As she begins to acknowledge her desire for him, Robert makes the dramatic decision to leave for Mexico, as per Creole standards she was NOT supposed to take him seriously.

The Pontelliers head back to their charming home on Esplanade Street in New Orleans, where to no one’s surprise, Mrs. P does not meet the Creole standard as an attentive and demanding housekeeper. She begins to “do as she liked and to feel as she liked.” Mr. P is bewildered. She visits her pianist spinster friend Mademoiselle Reisz, who tells her “to succeed, the artists must possess the courageous soul...The brave soul. The soul that dares and defies.” Edna thinks she wants to be a painter, but is she that courageous? Mr. P consults his doctor, who advises him to humor her - “the mood will pass.” As she turns 29, she makes the radical statement of moving out to a small house (with only one servant!) to claim her freedom and independence (though first she’s throwing a huge birthday party at the mansion - still a little conflicted). Mr P swoops in to tell everyone the house is being renovated so that his business dealings aren’t impacted by the scandal. On her side, “she had abandoned herself to Fate, and awaited the consequences with indifference” - this is foreshadowing that she doesn’t really think it’s going to work out but it’s all she can bring herself to do.

Short stories where dark humor and racism abound:
The Story of an Hour - Mrs. Mallard with heart trouble learns of her husband's death. My comment: "Got'em."
Desiree's Baby - Desiree is blamed for her baby's skin color. Armand learns his mother kept a secret. My comment: "Got'em."
At the 'Cadian Ball - Bobinot, Calixta, Clarisse and Alcee pair up at the Cajun/Cadian ball ("Anyone who is white may go to a 'Cadian ball, but he must pay for his lemonade, his coffee and chicken gumbo. And he must behave himself like a 'Cadian.")
The Storm - Five years later, Bobinot (with their son) and Calixta get separated during a hurricane. Alcee shows up and the inevitable happens. Clarissa also benefits. "So the storm passed and everyone was happy."

[J. Guapster]

153 pages in paperback edition. You can easily read this in one or two days.

One sentence summary: a married woman with two children in a well-to-do southern household realizes that her materially comfortable marriage is unfulfilling and she contemplates (but does not consummate) adultery.

The Awakening, first published in 1899, treats all of the same major themes found in Madame Bovary (1856) and Anna Karenina (1877): the subordination of women in marriage, marriage as bondage, tension between desire for motherhood and desire for freedom, hazards of adultery, inability of women to find fulfillment apart from family life. Both Chopin and Tolstoy juxtapose the protagonist's unhappy marriage with the marriage of a very happy couple. But due to brevity, this antithesis is only alluded to and never satisfactorily developed in The Awakening.

The plots of all three novels overlap to a considerable extent. All three novels end with the suicide of the female protagonist: Edna intentionally drowns herself in the Gulf of Mexico, Emma Bovary swallows arsenic, and Anna Karenina throws herself in front of a train.

The Awakening is the shortest of the three, but the reader pays for brevity in that no character other than the protagonist is well-developed. Many characters are nothing more than distant shadows. The protagonist turns to painting and drawing as her only escape from an otherwise meaningless existence. Chopin's choppy descriptive technique reminds me of Impressionism, and at times even Pointillism, a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Pointilism was a technique employed by Impressionist painters Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in the 1880's.

The beginning of the novel is difficult to follow because so many hazily described characters are presented very quickly, and first and last names are intermixed without much warning to the reader. The novel did not become interesting for me until midway. Had it not been so short, I would have put it down.

The end of the novel was equally disappointing. No sooner does Edna reunite with her love interest than Edna decides to drown herself. Why couldn't an ardent feminist think of a more liberating denouement and, instead, feel compelled to copy Flaubert and Tolstoy?

The Awakening differs from Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina in its portrayal of bourgeois/Creole society in the deep South around the turn of the century. However, the reader's empathy for Edna is undermined by numerous descriptions of free blacks being exploited as little more than indentured servants working as nannies, maids, and cooks. Rather than being sent to school, a young black boy is relegated to answering the door and holding a calling card tray. Edna is blind to her own role in this societal hierarchy and focuses maniacally on her own lack of opportunity.

Chopin is also much more reticent than Flaubert and Tolstoy in the realistic description of human sensuality. Chopin is no D.H. Lawrence. A passionate kiss on the lips is as far as sensuality goes in The Awakening." Perhaps a better title would have been "The Daydream," or "Wishful Thinking."

If I could only read one of the three: Bovary, Karenina or The Awakening, I would choose Anna Karenina.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a maximal helping of Kate Chopin, this is the book for you. Everything she ever published, and a bunch of short stories which she did not, are between these covers. It's over 1000 pages all told, and much of it is quite good.

Chopin is often cited as a proto-feminist, especially because of her short novel, the Awakening. I had read that one before starting this collection, along with her very short short story The Story of an Hour. These were both part of my undergraduate English education.

The rest of her oeuvre continues with many of the same themes: the difficulty of being a woman in the turn of the 20th century South, the lack of emotional connection, the brutality of economic conditions which force people into their roles. There are also racial themes she explores the interactions between various classes of whites and the almost uniformly poor black people of Louisiana at the time. On occasion the stories can veer into melodrama, but mostly they do an excellent job of straddling the line between stiff-upper-lip and small bursts of emotion.

Nothing in the book matches the highs she reaches in the Awakening, so if you are just looking to sample her work, that's the place to go. I also warn you that you must have a high tolerance for hard-to-read written dialect. However, many of the short stories are in fact extremely short, sometimes just one or two pages. This means that if something doesn't capture you, it's not long and you're on to the next one.

These Library of America volumes are very handsome books and great resources of completists like me who like to have every scrap of material available from certain authors.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished Kate Chopin's "The Awakening". I hesitate to say to much, not wanting to spoil it for anyone. I can say her style of writing is so clear. No superfluous passages to be found. Just a story that will touch you deeply. Considering the position of women in 1900 when this was written it even becomes more poignant. The lack of freedom and the stifling of the true person inside, and the pressures of society to conform.
Yet Edna in "The Awakening" does taste some of the freedom she had been denied or unaware of much of her life. That means the freedom to make choices for good or ill. A lovely novella that I would heartily recommend to anyone.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chopin is a fantastic writer. This volume includes her wonderful novel, The Awakening, which was shocking at the time as it's about a woman who decides to (gasp) dispense with convention and think for herself.

The short stories are marvellous, as they transport you to the Creole world of Louisiana in the mid 1800s. In just a few pages she draws a portrait of the people and character of that era.

[Whitaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great book shows us how everything is great and worth to die for

[Leslie Meadows · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't have this edition, but it is the one I'd buy. The reason I want to write a review is The Awakening. Now every country seemed to have to have a Madame Bovary after that came out. Kate Chopin risked her reputation by writing an American version. I happen to think Kate Chopin also wrote the best version of a woman discovering herself through adultery. The reason is not that hard to find: it is because she is a woman. I think I've lost my edition so I'll eventually add this to my library. She has good short stories too, for instance dealing with interracial marriage. She was the real deal on gutsy women writers and therefore is a necessary read, regardless of your gender. Every writer needs a lesson in guts and nerve anyway. Every reader deserves one.

[Duffy Pratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review here is for the Uncollected Stories at the end of this volume. They range from being absolutely wonderful to simply being OK. Chopin has a great ability to showcase what would otherwise be minor details to bring to life the seemingly commonplace. A number of these stories, like The Story of an Hour, are justly famous. She manages to have her characters behave in ways that are both utterly surprising and seemingly inevitable.

On the down side, a number of these feature dialect writing that can be difficult to decipher and is not fun to read. And quite a few of them seem to be nothing more than sketches. But overall, I think this is a very strong collection.

[Tabitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a re-read for a book club.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fabulous collection, I had read the Awakening in another collection a while ago. This collection is a treasure.

[Frank Duke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many of the short stories remain interesting and a good read. The novels, however, are badly dated and not as entertaining.

[Dottie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serendipity? Coincidence? Perfect timing? All of the above? Yes.
Amazing reading experience -- referring to The Awakening the novel published in 1899 which according to info in thie edition basically ended the writing career of the author and caused her works to fall into disrepute until many years later.

I immediately found a deep connection between this novel and the Kathleen Norris book I am reading -- Acedia and Me. I also drew parallels between The Awakening and the Virginia Woolf book publishe approximately thirty years later -- A Room of One's Own. Little did I know the similarites between the two would wind through to the bitter end. Now I must reread Woolf's book again which is no hardship as I periodically take it up again.

I found the book fascinating for the layer upon layer of contrasts -- the mutitudes of people of various races, stations, etc. Even so I must do some searching before the story will yield to a summation -- so much to consider.

No summation is needed in order to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this at long last!

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reas this book (actually, Kindle collection) after reading "The Awakening" and other short stories of Kate Chopin in another collection. This book has "At Fault", "The Awakening", and a very large number of short stories, maybe even all of Chopin's published short stories. Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was billed as an early feminist novel, but this aspect is not so apparent in the other stories in this volume. "At Fault" is a charming novelette, about a Creole widow and whether she will remarry. The other stories likewise involve antebellum Louisiana . There are a mix of races: white, black, and Indian; all embedded in the the French-American culture. The stories are almost all short vignettes, often only a few pages long. The characters are nearly all rural and unsophisticated; they are treated with honesty, insight and compassion, albeit often with a touch of condescension.

The stories are all rather charming, if a bit dated.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

It did not strike her as in the least grotesque that she should be making of Robert the object of conversation and leading her husband to speak of him. The sentiment which she entertained for Robert in no way resembled that which she felt for her husband, or had ever felt, or ever expected to feel. She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own, and she entertained the conviction that she had a right to them and that they concerned no one but herself. Edna had once told Madame Ritignolle that she would never sacrifice herself for her children, or for any one. Then had followed a rather heated argument; the two women did not appear to understand each other or to be talking the same language.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful book. Kate Chopin was a pioneer in female writers and it's no surprise her stories were considered ahead of their time. I'm thrilled she was rediscovered in the late 1900's and is now in the history books as a feminist writer. Her stories also present a glimpse into the life and culture of the late 1800's. Engaging characters and brilliant, life-like landscapes. This is a must-read for those who like classical literature.

[JL Salty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read the awakening from this collection.

Rating pg for romance / adultery
Recommend hs and up, readers of the classics

Definitely fits right in to that late 1800s feel of cadence and morals, a place for women and not talking a whole lot about sex. But the subject is very much THERE and destroying lives just like it always has. Dissatisfaction and discontent within strict social order ends in the inevitable. Glad I read it, glad I don’t have to read it again.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder if a woman's search for liberation is a dated theme, but The Awakening is so well written! Like Madame Bovary, Enid Pontellier's unhappiness eventually drives her to suicide.
And like Emma Bovary, you understand her completely, thanks to a wonderful writer.
Chopin's short short story The Story of an Hour is also great.

[Ma'lis Wendt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read "The Awakening", "The Hour" and several other short stories from this volume. Chopin captures the atmosphere and emotion of women in late 19th century and early 20th century New Orleans and the Louisiana Bayou country--you feel the heat and the oppressiveness of the weather and the times. I do understand how her writing was scandalous at that time. I found the plots rather weak.

[Lucianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully written book is an inspiration to feminists.
Chopin was an advocate of woman's writes. Her advocacy shines through her eccentric stories but her points are clearly heard and respected. Truly a gem.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's nothing more wonderful than ending my days by curling up in bed with Kate and her intriguing and inspirational, independent and poised characters in the bayous of Louisiana. I love the prevalence of Chopin's voice in all of her stories.

[Terri-Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the closest I could find to the short stories I read; A Family Affair, Ti Demon, and Desiree's Baby. I enjoyed the short stories, and I might add The Awakening to my ever growing to-read list, just to see how Chopin's writing style changes with a different genre.

[Shirley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I selected this book because I read "The Awakening" many years ago and really enjoyed it. I was disappointed in this collection of her works and realize that "The Awakening" is her finest story and recommend that highly.

[Niki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just LOVE her. She's feminist without be a nazi, funny too, and her stories make me long for warm nights in her New Orleans.

[Jennifer White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful, a huge inspiration to me!

[Carl Remi Beauregard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Awakening, always eye opening. The short stories, somehow more satisfying.

[Angelackb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to split my stars here, because while I LOVE Kate Chopin's short stories, the story The Awakening
infuriated me. My fav. short story is Desiree's Baby.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Chopin...especially The Awakening