You'll find on this site pages devoted to Chopin's two novels and a dozen or so of her more popular short stories. The pages offer guidance about trustworthy texts of the works as well as information about when each work was written and published and basic facts about setting and characters. We close each page with an up-to-date list of articles and books about the work. And we explain on our Themes page what in general critics have been saying over the years about Chopin's choice of subjects and themes.

Citing the Site

If you're suggesting that your students refer to this site, you might want to call their attention to our help for citing information on it. And you may want to suggest that they check our policy about questions that we can answer. We would like to be as helpful as possible, but we do not want to position ourselves between you and your students.

Biography

If you want your students to know something about Kate Chopin's life, our Biography page offers a short summary of what scholars have learned. The internet contains a good deal of speculative misinformation about Chopin. We seek to be careful about what we post, to draw upon the most accurate information scholars have uncovered.

The Awakening

If you're working with The Awakening, you may find useful some of the questions and answers on our page for the novel--questions about the possible banning of the book, about the French expressions in it, about how to pronounce the names of characters, and about other matters.

"Désirée's Baby"

If you're teaching "Désirée's Baby," you'll see that visitors to this site have posed some important questions about the story.

A Podcast

If you would like your students to listen to a podcast about Kate Chopin's importance today, you can check out this two-part interview growing out of a new book by a group of scholars who helped nourish the Kate Chopin revival. Part 2 is probably the better choice. The podcast sometimes loads slowly, so you'll need to be a little patient.

Visual Information

If you're looking for visual information about Kate Chopin, you may want to check our popular culture page and other pages on this site where you'll find links to announcements about films, dance and theatre productions, operas, a graphic short story, a screenplay, television connections, etc. Several announcements in particular may be of interest:

A graphic (comic-book) short story based on "The Story of an Hour"
A short film based on "Her Letters"
A short film based on "The Storm"

Two films based on The Awakening
Reading of a new screenplay based on The Awakening
St. Paul Theatre Company's production of The Awakening
A novel about a production company making a film of The Awakening
An episode of Treme with references to The Awakening

For Second-Language Students

If some of your students are not yet fluent in English, you might want to guide them to a version of Chopin's "A Pair of Silk Stockings" read in "Special English," used by the Voice of America to "communicate by radio in clear and simple English with people whose native language is not English." You can point them also to a version of Chopin's "Athénaïse" read in "Special English."

If you have comments about the site or suggestions for improving it, would you please contact us?

Cartoonist Gabrielle Bell's newest book is called Cecil and Jordan in New York (Drawn and Quarterly, 2009). It's a collection of short works.

Here is the first page of a story called "One Afternoon":

The New York Times says Cecil and Jordan in New York "is narrated by a young woman who's just moved to the city with her filmmaker boyfriend; it's a clear-cut tale of impecunious 20-something artists until halfway through, when the narrator abruptly transforms herself into a chair, gets taken home by someone who finds her on the sidewalk and decides that her old life won’t miss her. The engine of these mercilessly observed stories is squirminess: emotional awkwardness so intense that it can erupt into magic or just knot itself into scars."

In 1991, Mary Lambert directed the made-for-cable version of The Awakening, called Grand Isle, with Kelly McGillis playing Edna Pontellier. The film is available on VHS, but not, apparently, on DVD:

Also, earlier, in 1982, director Bob Graham did a feature-length version of the novel called The End of August. It's apparently no longer easily available, but you may be able to find a VHS copy:

There is, in addition, what many critics consider a fine novel by Robert Stone called Children of Light, about a production company making a film of The Awakening using a performer struggling with some of the same issues that Edna struggles with.

About this website

(If you've visited this site before November, 2011, you may have noticed that we've made changes. If you remember seeing an item somewhere but cannot find it, use the search box at the top of any page.)

KateChopin.org is sponsored by the Kate Chopin International Society.

The site is revised regularly. Its posting date appears in the blue banner at the top of each page.

The site editor is Bernard Koloski. Information on the site that is not credited to an author was written by the editor.

Decisions about what to post are made by the editor, in consultation with the officers and the web advisory committee of the Kate Chopin International Society.

This is an informational site. We do not post commercial messages.

Information on the site is copyrighted. You may quote from it under fair use guidelines.

You may not copy large pieces of this site for proprietary or for-profit uses.

About questions

We are happy to answer questions about Kate Chopin and her work that are not dealt with on this site.

But if you're a student, please understand that as a group of teachers, scholars, and other professionals, we do not want to position ourselves between you and your instructor. So we cannot help you with questions or assignments designed to teach you to think independently about what you're reading.

If you're a scholar: We seek to make our listings of Chopin scholarship accurate and up to date. If you find a mistake, an omission, or a misplacement, would you tell us? If a listed article is available on the web, would you send us the link? If you have an announcement of an event or a publication about Kate Chopin, would you please contact us?

How to cite the information on this website.

We're pleased that you find our information useful and that you plan to refer to it. But if you're writing an academic essay, we ask that you cite your references accurately.

You can cite information using the MLA format or other formats for electronic citations.

Assuming you're using the MLA format, as described in "Basic Style for Citations of Electronic Sources" (scroll down on the OWL at Purdue), here is a way to proceed:

You'll notice that some information on this website includes an author's name, but some does not.

If the passage you're citing does include an author's name, begin by listing that name. For example, in citing a passage from the "Questions and answers about 'Fedora,'" which includes ideas from several authors, list the author you're using--Barbara Ewell, Peggy Skaggs, Joyce Dyer, Robert Arner, Christina G. Bucher, Karen Day, or Thomas Bonner and Jacqueline Olson Padgett.

If the passage you're citing does not include an author's name, begin by listing the editor's name. For example, in citing most passages from "Questions and answers about 'The Storm,'" list the editor, Bernard Koloski.

(If you're using photographs or other images on the site, check below.)

Then list the title of the article (the title of the page on the site where you found the information) as it appears in color underneath the image at the top of that page (for example, Kate Chopin "The Storm"), followed by the subheading you're referring to: "Kate Chopin 'The Storm': Questions and answers about 'The Storm.'"

List the title of this website as it appears in the blue banner at the top of each page: KateChopin.org.

List the publisher (the sponsor) of the site as the Kate Chopin International Society.

List the posting date on the site as it appears in the blue banner at the top of each page. This site is not indexed or numbered by volume, issue, version, or revision.

List the type of citation this is: a Web citation.

Finally, list the date you accessed this website. Because the site is updated frequently, the posting date and the date you accessed the site may be the same.

Information on this site is copyrighted. Please keep in mind fair use guidelines (see the fair use page on the OWL at Purdue). You may not copy large pieces of this site for proprietary or for-profit uses.

If there's something about this explanation you don't understand, contact us?

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If you're citing photographs or other images on the site, list the person credited beneath the image. Most images on the site that do not have a credit beneath them are in the public domain, so they do not need an attribution. But please note several exceptions: For book covers, check with the publisher. For the photograph of Kate Chopin at the top of the home page and other pages, list the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The constructed designs on the top of pages--like on the top of the home page and on pages devoted to Biography, The Awakening, At Fault and the "Many Kates" design, used at the top of most pages devoted to Chopin's short stories--© 2005, 2011 by Jenny Oyallon-Koloski.

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