The Awakening

Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1850, to an affluent family in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1870, she moved with her husband to his native New Orleans. Chopin began her literary career at the age of thirty-six, as a recently widowed mother of six. From 1890 to 1897, Chopin published her first novel, At Fault, and nearly one hundred short stories, collected in Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie. Chopin’s stories were widely read, appearing in leading magazines of the day. Her most famous novel, The Awakening, faced wide condemnation upon its release in 1899 for its morally ambivalent subject matter. It has since become recognized as an essential work of early feminist fiction. Kate Chopin died on August 22, 1904. Margo Culley is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the editor of American Women’s Autobiography: Fea(s)ts of Memory and A Day at a Time: Diary Literature of American Women, and co-editor of Women’s Personal Narratives: Essays in Criticism and Pedagogy and Gendered Subjects: The Dynamics of Feminist Teaching. She teaches courses in American studies, women’s studies, and ethnic studies.