Bayou Folk and a Night in Acadie

by Kate Chopin

In one volume, the two short-story collections that established Kate Chopin as one of America's best-loved realist writers.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, American, Literature, Southern, Adult

ebook

First published March 1, 1999

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

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Romantic stories of Louisiana creoles. Some later ones suggest social norms block self-fulfillment.

[Marti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I am always interested novels/stories that hugely popular in their time, yet forgotten today. I was also interested because New Orleans is my favorite city in America. In fact I would say the thing of lasting value in this collection is that the author, a French speaker originally from St. Louis, seems to have really had an ear for the Cajun and other dialects. The stories themselves were enjoyable even if they were too short, because they focused on quirky characters from the same Parish.

While at times it reminded me a little of Uncle Tom's Cabin in that it is a little hokey and dated; it also predates the ultra-realist fiction which is more in my line. In fact, some of the storylines seemed pretty daring for the Reconstruction-era South as they deal with divorce and near-adulterous relationships. Therefore, it would not be a stretch to call these "early feminist" writings.

I also finally learned that the correct pronunciation of the name of the city of Natchitoches is "Nackee-Tosh," which I have been saying wrong my entire life.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my Approaches to Literature and Culture class. Love the variety of stories and the pervasiveness of themes like race, gender, class, and identity. Kate Chopin is the master of writing striking endings!

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

really great short story collection(s)! i loved these, i love this world, its reminiscent of british realism but so deeply southern so deeply creole and louisiana slay; definitely romantic, but not necessarily shying from the realities of the era

[Jim Puskas · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are, first and foremost about a particular place and time and the unique population mix that lived there. In that respect, the stories are suffused with realism. But it’s a setting so far removed from anything that most of us as readers could ever experience that even though it was within North America, it might just as well be taking place on a distant planet. A whole panoply of dialects (Creole French with its West Indies flavor, African-American patois, deep-south English, Acadian French, Native American palaver, even bits of everyday mainstream American English and the lilt of Irish immigrants) serve to bring scenes to life.
By and large, these are seemingly inconsequential sketches of daily life, restrained romanticism in a mode to be found only in the deep south. Prevailing themes are the value of respect, the perils of prejudice or dishonesty, the unpredictability of romantic infatuation, the pervasive power of love in all its forms. Most of the stories are fairly light-hearted, even whimsical, clever vignettes; but also included is a brief tragedy (Desirée’s Baby) that lifts the curtain on America’s pernicious racial divide. There are passages of gentle humor, heartfelt emotion and above all plenty of delightful character sketches — such as that drawn of a denizen of the local fishmarket, one César François Xavier a.k.a. Nég, Chicot or Marigouin,. But one felt privileged to call him almost anything, he was so black, lean, lame and shriveled. He wore a headkerchief and whatever other rags the fishermen and their wives chose to bestow upon him. Throughout one whole winter he wore a woman’s discarded jacket with puffed sleeves …… Nobody knew where Chicot lived. A man — even a nég créole — who lives among the reeds and willows of Bayou St. John, in a deserted chicken-coop constructed chiefly of tarred paper, is not going to boast of his habitation or invite attention to his domestic appointments. When, after market hours, he vanished in the direction of St. Philip street, limping, seemingly bent under the weight of his gunny-bag it was like the disappearance from the stage of some petty actor whom the audience does not follow in imagination beyond the wings, or think of until his return in another scene.
His companion Mamzelle Agliaé is equally picturesque; she is totally immersed in her own litany of complaints and religious fervor. Chicot would have been extremely alarmed if he had ever chanced to find Mamzelle Agliaé in an uncomplaining mood. It never occurred to him that she might be otherwise. Nor did she limit her invective to Chicot and other humans she encountered; She had come to hold St. Peter and St. Paul in such utter detestation that she had cut their pictures out of her prayer-book.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of « local color » flows from one humid tale to the next, creating the impression that one is traveling through Natchitoches Parish and New Orleans meeting different residents. The diversity of characters keeps it interesting and shows that Kate Chopin was ahead of her time (mostly) in her views of race and class. I think of Kate Chopin as a writer who doesn’t moralize, but some of these tales contain a clear lesson, much like a folk fable. If you’re looking for engaging portraits of life in the post-Civil War South, and don’t mind a bit of romance in your literary fiction, this is the book for you.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucky find at a book sale, I needed a book to finish out vacation time on the plane and this group of stories knocked my socks off. Having read The Awakening years ago, I knew I liked Chopin. The stories are nuanced and ring true. The footnotes and French-Acadian dialect take a little getting used to but it's a nice touch by the author. What a gift!

[J.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the 1980s Rita Mae Brown described Kate Chopin as "very much a product of her time." Then, a decade later, Oprah Winfrey chose The Awakening as a selection of her Book Club. Now, Chopin reads like an anticipator of today's multiracial, gender-aware world. The short stories in A Night in Acadie depict all sorts of people and relationships, from slight acquaintance to selfless devotion. The inhabitants of 'Cadian ("Cajun") country in Chopin's Louisiana are black, white, and mixed race; they speak French, English, Creole; they are female and male, children, young and old adults. It is striking how rare such varied storytelling is, even today.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Kate Chopin. I've previously read The Awakening, and I loved these two books just as much as that one. She's got a great voice, and her characters seem to speak to you right off the page. I love the way she develops an entire region with the stories in these books. And I love how she recycles characters throughout the stories in both books in order to do it. The short stories have a way of making you care about everyone in the books. That said, my favorite stories were probably 'Desiree's Baby' from Bayou Folk and ''A Night in Acadie' from the book of the same name.

[Lindsey Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of stories about Louisiana and her people. Chopin vividly sketches Creoles, African-Americans, and Acadians. Some of her characters appear in more than one story, giving some connection and logic to the string of stories that comprise "Bayou Folk." The dialect is spot on and the overall sentiment that the South is just not the same after the Civil War prevails. I cannot comment on "A Night in Acadie," because I did not read these selections.

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book swept me away to this other wonderful world. The setting was brilliantly set. I could totally see it in my mind. But the characters were definitely my favorite part. They are all so colorful, interesting, exciting, and hilarious. The main character is just perfect. The plot moved fast enough that I couldn't stop reading lest I miss something, but the author still took the time to flesh out the details. The details are what really make or break a story.

[jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like her other work more, but overall a good introduction to anyone who wants to learn about Chopin's work.

[Maria Aliferis-Gjerde]

I liked most of the short stories.