Written with grace, delicate humor and a keen understanding of the female psyche are 9 portraits of black and white inhabitants of Louisiana's bayou and urban. Around the time she worked on the Atlantic essay, Chopin also wrote “A Pair of Silk Stockings,” one of the “subversive” selections that would end up in Vogue and still one of her most well-known stories.
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A short story by Kate Chopin. The story takes place in an unnamed city--a city large enough to have a department store, a fashionable restaurant, a theatre, and a cable car--probably in the early 1890s.
Published February 26th 2015 by Penguin Classics (first published 1897)
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What happens if a white supremacist finds himself in the situation to discover he is not white?
What happens if a woman, who suffers from the fact that matrimony is an eternal state of reciprocal ownership, finds herself free for an hour, until freedom is revoked again by the clarification of a misunderstanding?
What happens if a self-righteous Christian woman discovers she is a product of the sin she loves to point out to others?
What happens to 15 dollars if there is the temptation of perfect si...more
What happens if a woman, who suffers from the fact that matrimony is an eternal state of reciprocal ownership, finds herself free for an hour, until freedom is revoked again by the clarification of a misunderstanding?
What happens if a self-righteous Christian woman discovers she is a product of the sin she loves to point out to others?
What happens to 15 dollars if there is the temptation of perfect si...more
Jun 19, 2015Sean Barrs the Bookdragon rated it really liked it
We’ve all had a day they we didn’t want to end: we’ve all had a day that was so good we wanted it to exist forever. I think if anything, that is the feeling this remarkable short story captures. Mrs Sommers has fifteen dollars, which to her is great deal of money. She treats herself to a lovely pair of silk stockings and, then later, some gloves. She goes to the theatre, and when the play ends she feels like she has woken up form a dream. Evening approaches so she gets a cable car home, except s...more
Oct 15, 2017Ahmed Ejaz rated it really liked it
For me this is a very simple and plain story. But I have read some reviews which says completely the opposite. :(
OVERVIEW
One day Mrs Sommers finds fifteen dollers. Her first thought is to spend them on her children. But when she goes to the store, she ends up spending them on herself by buying a pair of stockings, boots, going to restaurant and watching a movie. In the end, she doesn't want to go back home; to her responsibilities.
Overall, I don't know I liked it or not. But I would recomme...more
OVERVIEW
One day Mrs Sommers finds fifteen dollers. Her first thought is to spend them on her children. But when she goes to the store, she ends up spending them on herself by buying a pair of stockings, boots, going to restaurant and watching a movie. In the end, she doesn't want to go back home; to her responsibilities.
Overall, I don't know I liked it or not. But I would recomme...more
Jan 31, 2016Carol rated it liked it · review of another edition
The purchase of A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS begins a 'rare' and fun little shopping spree that a mother wishes would go on forever.Not my favorite Kate Chopin, but ok.
Oct 31, 2016Trish rated it liked it
Short but sweet story by Kate Chopin, though I still think 'The Story of an Hour' is her best short fiction.
Nov 15, 2014Renee M rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Deceptively simple. A perfect little story about the choices most women have made through the centuries. Family First. Often to the detriment of self.
The heroine has one luxurious day to herself, not taking anything away from loved ones, but merely spending a bit of unaccounted money on herself, a bit of time to her own needs. There's a longing here with which we can all identify. It is a powerful story even in our times. I cannot imagine how it must have resonated in hers.
The heroine has one luxurious day to herself, not taking anything away from loved ones, but merely spending a bit of unaccounted money on herself, a bit of time to her own needs. There's a longing here with which we can all identify. It is a powerful story even in our times. I cannot imagine how it must have resonated in hers.
This book was read for the #readwomen month.
Stories about women, and what they often give up for their family, and a socially acceptable life at the time as well as the role of race at the time.
-Désirée's Baby: Now my rating of five stars is mostly because of this story, which is my favourite of all her short stories after I read it at school right before we were made to read her novel The Awakening. This tiny story deals with miscegenation in Louisiana during the antebellum period, and how th...more
Mar 28, 2015Duane rated it really liked it · review of another editionStories about women, and what they often give up for their family, and a socially acceptable life at the time as well as the role of race at the time.
-Désirée's Baby: Now my rating of five stars is mostly because of this story, which is my favourite of all her short stories after I read it at school right before we were made to read her novel The Awakening. This tiny story deals with miscegenation in Louisiana during the antebellum period, and how th...more
Shelves: rated-books, reviewed-books, short-stories, 2015-book-challenge
A smile provoking short story from Kate Chopin. It's universal and timeless. Mrs. Sommers, frugal and conscientious Mrs. Sommers, suddenly finds herself with a few extra dollars, and she must decide how to spend it. Of course she knows that she should spend it on her children and she thinks through the items that they need. But out shopping, she inadvertently lays her hand on a pair of silk stockings, and they are on sale so she buys them. Well, one thing leads to another and Mrs. Sommers has sp...more
I enjoyed each of these stories. I chose this collection because I had read somewhere that Kate Chopin was a master at the short story. She certainly was. Each story has a climax finale that is more than a zing and not always a sting. The first story, Desiree's Baby, had that curl in the tail end that I did not expect and yet spoke volumes about the characters up to that point.
The naming piece, A Pair of Silk Stockings, by contrast, did not have a zing or a sting in the end but a summation that...more
The naming piece, A Pair of Silk Stockings, by contrast, did not have a zing or a sting in the end but a summation that...more
Jan 04, 2011Petra X rated it really liked it · review of another edition
This is a kind of prototype to What Not To Wear: self-esteem increases when the poor, badly-dressed person is transformed into yet another secretary-clone. Or in this case 'fitting in with the quality'. Excellent story, if you are a woman you will identify with this. Do men?
Nov 18, 2018Chi rated it really liked it Shelves: short-stories, classics, anthology, feminist, family, racism
A couple of these stories were okay. Not having had a good understanding of the settings and the characters' circumstances, it was hard for me to get an appreciation of the stories.
Having said that, I'm just going to note my observations, and they will contain spoilers, so read at your own discretion.
Désirée's Baby
How awful. The ending was a bit of a punch in the guts, but the main body of the story already had some hints as to the true nature of Désirée's husband, Armand. It was just painful to...more
Sep 28, 2015Rachel rated it liked itHaving said that, I'm just going to note my observations, and they will contain spoilers, so read at your own discretion.
Désirée's Baby
How awful. The ending was a bit of a punch in the guts, but the main body of the story already had some hints as to the true nature of Désirée's husband, Armand. It was just painful to...more
Shelves: classics, female-pov, adult-fiction, 2015-books
3 STARS FOR 'A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS' BY KATE CHOPIN
A wonderful short story by Kate Chopin featuring a woman stuck between the restraints of poverty and asserting her own sense of freedom and agency.
Aug 04, 2018Paloma rated it it was amazingA wonderful short story by Kate Chopin featuring a woman stuck between the restraints of poverty and asserting her own sense of freedom and agency.
Shelves: reviewed-reseñados, all-time-favorites, classics-clásicos, owned, cuentos-short-stories, literatura-estadounidense, made-me-cry, reading-challenge-2018
Excepcional ❤
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Review in English | Reseña en Español
Simplicity at its best. I was mesmerized by the stories that make up this Penguin Little Black Classic. Chopin was an incredible author, ahead of her time in terms of the issues she addressed (the role of women, their sexuality, their oppression in marriage) and a very talented writer. This edition includes five short stories: Désirée’s Baby, Miss McEnders, The Story of an Hour, Nég Créole, and A Pair of Silk Stockings. All stories, except f...more
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Review in English | Reseña en Español
Simplicity at its best. I was mesmerized by the stories that make up this Penguin Little Black Classic. Chopin was an incredible author, ahead of her time in terms of the issues she addressed (the role of women, their sexuality, their oppression in marriage) and a very talented writer. This edition includes five short stories: Désirée’s Baby, Miss McEnders, The Story of an Hour, Nég Créole, and A Pair of Silk Stockings. All stories, except f...more
Sep 12, 2011Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it really liked it · review of another edition
I may be going a bit overboard as far as rating this whole collection is concerned, but I was won over by Azélie, A Respectable Woman, Désirée's Baby, and The Dream of an Hour, as they are perfect depictions of the more callous sides of ourselves that we suppress and disguise, and the heart's tendency to do what it must in order to know that it is still beating, regardless of how it will affect ourselves and those people and things that we care about. Short, ugly, and all-too-accurate, these sto...more
Nov 11, 2015Ailsa rated it really liked it
'... a poignant wish, a powerful longing that the cable car would never stop anywhere but go on with her forever.'
Perfect little read for the train ride to and from work. My favourite story was the first Desiree's Baby, after reading it I had to check what year it was written in. It must of been absolutely sensational at the time. I must remember to read more of this author.
Jan 09, 2017Rikke rated it liked itPerfect little read for the train ride to and from work. My favourite story was the first Desiree's Baby, after reading it I had to check what year it was written in. It must of been absolutely sensational at the time. I must remember to read more of this author.
Shelves: owned-books, classics, penguin-black-classics
This is a collection of short stories, and I think I liked the title story best. The simple, and yet rich, descriptions of an elderly lady being seduced by her own fantasies and imaginary life, reminded me of 'Miss Brill' by Katherine Manson. As it is one of my favorite short stories, I can't think of any higher praise.
The rest of the stories were less remarkable. However, I did enjoy 'Désirée’s Baby' which is a powerful tale of heritage, identity, prejudice – and racism.
Jan 03, 2016Laura marked it as to-read The rest of the stories were less remarkable. However, I did enjoy 'Désirée’s Baby' which is a powerful tale of heritage, identity, prejudice – and racism.
Shelves: fiction-19th-century, short-stories, e-books, american-fiction, gutenberg
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories
With an Introduction by Marilynne Robinson
CONTENTS
THE AWAKENING
BEYOND THE BAYOU
MA'AME PELAGIE
DESIREE'S BABY
A RESPECTABLE WOMAN
THE KISS
A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS
THE LOCKET
A REFLECTION
Jun 27, 2015Joey Woolfardis rated it liked itThe Awakening, and Selected Short Stories
With an Introduction by Marilynne Robinson
CONTENTS
THE AWAKENING
BEYOND THE BAYOU
MA'AME PELAGIE
DESIREE'S BABY
A RESPECTABLE WOMAN
THE KISS
A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS
THE LOCKET
A REFLECTION
Shelves: 2015, feminine, bookshelf, ce19, septic, ahreet
![Stockings Stockings](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126246628/575799286.jpg)
Five short stories set in Louisiana. I enjoyed these more than I imagined. The first I did not like until the end, and I was glad none of them contained any kind of hidden meaning or subtle parable, except that which was plain to see. Occasionally boredom came in to it, but it was always short-lived. Decently written, though nothing truly stood out.
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Jul 31, 2015Tamsien West (Babbling Books) rated it really liked it
A beautiful little collection of short stories. The subject matter is varied, but all focus on women in different stations of society and times of life. Chopin has a real mastery of the short-story format, and each tale feels fully formed and vivid - though some are only 3 or 4 tiny pages long.
The whole 'book' is 56 pages long, the perfect size to read while I was waiting at the hairdresser. These little black Penguins are going to be a permanent fixture in my handbag.
The whole 'book' is 56 pages long, the perfect size to read while I was waiting at the hairdresser. These little black Penguins are going to be a permanent fixture in my handbag.
Oct 27, 2016Peter rated it really liked it
Having approached this with my mind fixed on the fact this would be terrible, it was nice to be proved wrong.
This is a fine selection of stories, each one has a thougtful ending. The title story of this gem is wonderful, we've all gone out with some extra cash with the best of intentions and well...
Would definately recommend.
This is a fine selection of stories, each one has a thougtful ending. The title story of this gem is wonderful, we've all gone out with some extra cash with the best of intentions and well...
Would definately recommend.
Dec 08, 2018Aneeza Rafiq rated it it was amazing
A delightful short story. Highly Recommended.
I thought I'd never read anything by Kate Chopin, and her most famous novel, 'The Awakening', has been on my to-read list since forever. So I figured reading this little black classic would be a good start to get to know this author.
Then I found out I'd actually read one of the stories in this booklet already, supposedly for one of my early literature courses at uni, just like 'The Yellow Wallpaper'. 'Desiree's Baby' is a strong, shocking story on racism; the indirectness of the matter, not pert...more
Then I found out I'd actually read one of the stories in this booklet already, supposedly for one of my early literature courses at uni, just like 'The Yellow Wallpaper'. 'Desiree's Baby' is a strong, shocking story on racism; the indirectness of the matter, not pert...more
Mar 01, 2015Yara (The Narratologist) rated it liked it
Mini Review:
I have been meaning to read The Awakening for years and for some reason never got around to it, so when I saw this Little Black Classic, I figured that it would be a good temporary compromise. I was intrigued by the four stories in this collection, each with an engaging premise, but I am mostly even more interested to see what Chopin can do with a full-length novel.
I have been meaning to read The Awakening for years and for some reason never got around to it, so when I saw this Little Black Classic, I figured that it would be a good temporary compromise. I was intrigued by the four stories in this collection, each with an engaging premise, but I am mostly even more interested to see what Chopin can do with a full-length novel.
Jun 07, 2018JK rated it really liked it
Another reminder, after a few colossal misses, how important the Little Black Classics range is in introducing me to authors I’d never heard of.
This is a collection of short stories from Chopin, with A Pair of Silk Stocking reserved for the finale. I enjoyed each in equal measure, excepting the penultimate tale, Nég Créol, which didn’t rouse me in quite the same ways.
Chopin is a delight, though. Her stories are daring in fulfilling characters’ karma, and of describing the ways of life in ninetee...more
This is a collection of short stories from Chopin, with A Pair of Silk Stocking reserved for the finale. I enjoyed each in equal measure, excepting the penultimate tale, Nég Créol, which didn’t rouse me in quite the same ways.
Chopin is a delight, though. Her stories are daring in fulfilling characters’ karma, and of describing the ways of life in ninetee...more
A number of short stories all about tough social topics that are trying to provoke sympathy and make you relate to one of the characters.
As for me, some of the stories (particularly the most famous ones) are really nice, like 'A Story of An Hour' and 'A Pair of Silk Stockings', but the rest (IMHO) are just mediocre. Kate Chopin was especially good at describing what someone might feel and focuses more on emotions than the plot itself. So if you are into one-time pleasure reading, I would defini...more
As for me, some of the stories (particularly the most famous ones) are really nice, like 'A Story of An Hour' and 'A Pair of Silk Stockings', but the rest (IMHO) are just mediocre. Kate Chopin was especially good at describing what someone might feel and focuses more on emotions than the plot itself. So if you are into one-time pleasure reading, I would defini...more
A nice little piece of nostalgia ! It's a small story for the daydreamers ,the poets ... the ones who are blissfully lost in their own world !
These short stories were pretty good, and Chopin’s writing really reflects her background in America’s Deep South. There was enough to whet my appetite, and I’d be interested in reading more.
My favorite of the short stories is Désirée’s Baby. It is the first story that appears in this collection.
May 06, 2018Debbie Kinsey rated it really liked it · review of another edition
I normally don’t like these very mini Penguin Classics because they’re just not long enough for me to get properly into them, but I really liked this. In particular, the title story (which comes at the end), is something I normally wouldn’t like but I loved. It’s basically just a kind of quiet joy in spending a day just for you, for what you want. It ends before she goes home, and so you never see the guilt that will probably come, or the questions about where that money went. It’s just joyful,...more
Sep 17, 2018John Gillespie rated it it was amazing
After reading The Awakening, I dug this little compendium of short stories out of my collection. Every bit as good as the novel. Chopin is genius.
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Kate Chopin was an American novelist and short-story writer best known for her startling 1899 novel, The Awakening. Born in St. Louis, she moved to New Orleans after marrying Oscar Chopin in 1870. Less than a decade later Oscar's cotton business fell on hard times and they moved to his family's plantation in the Natchitoches Parish of northwestern Louisiana. Oscar died in 1882 and Kate was suddenl...more
“A Pair of Silk Stockings” is Kate Chopin’s short story about a married woman fallen on hard times who receives an unexpected windfall. It describes how the woman spends the money.
If you’re not yet fluent in English, you can hear a version of this story 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.”
Read the story in a PDF
Characters
Time and place
Themes
When the story was written and published
Questions and answers
Accurate texts
Articles and book chapters about the story
Books that discuss Kate Chopin’s short stories
Reading Kate Chopin’s “A Pair of Silk Stockings” online and in print
You can read the story and download it in our accurate, printable, and searchable PDF file, which is based on The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, edited by Per Seyersted (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969, 2006). If you’re citing a passage from this or other Kate Chopin stories for research purposes, it’s a good idea to check your citation against one of these printed texts.
“A Pair of Silk Stockings” characters
- Mrs. Sommers: “Little Mrs. Sommers,” as Kate Chopin phrases it
- A shop girl
- The “gaudy” woman next to Mrs. Sommers at the theatre
- The man across from Mrs. Sommers on the cable car
“A Pair of Silk Stockings” time and place
The story takes place in an unnamed city–a city large enough to have a department store, a fashionable restaurant, a theatre, and a cable car–probably in the early 1890s.
“A Pair of Silk Stockings” themes
Some readers, as we explain in the questions and answers below, focus on the balance between individual impulse and responsibility in the story. Some see rather a manipulation of women by businesses hoping to create a market for expensive clothing, restaurant food, and entertainment.
You can read about finding themes in Kate Chopin’s stories and novels on the Themes page of this site.
When Kate Chopin’s “A Pair of Silk Stockings” was written and published
The story was written in April, 1896, and published in Vogue on September 16, 1897, one of nineteen Kate Chopin stories that Vogue published.
You can find out when Kate Chopin wrote each of her short stories and when and where each was first published.
Questions and answers about “A Pair of Silk Stockings”
Q: Mrs. Sommers reminds me of people I know, people struggling to pay their bills but tempted by clever marketing to spend the little money they have on things they can’t afford. Was today’s consumer society already in place in Kate Chopin’s time?
A: It was emerging, and it included what Robert Arner in the essay collection Awakenings: The Story of the Kate Chopin Revival calls “the appropriation and manipulation of female desire by an increasingly aggressive and male-managed capitalist culture in an attempt to create and sustain an inexhaustible market for services and goods, especially for luxury goods.” It included also, Arner argues, “a new sense of self based upon lower- and middle-class imitation of the wealthy through the agencies of fashion and taste.”
What happens to Mrs. Sommers, Arner adds, “is exactly what the male managerial system had intended should happen, not particularly to her as an individual but to her as a member of an invented class of people, female shoppers, within the world that May and Macy and Wannamaker [department store owners] were in the process of creating.”
Q: Something about Mrs. Sommers reminds me of Edna Pontellier in The Awakening. But what is it? Edna is certainly not poor. An additional fifteen dollars would not seem like “a very large amount of money” for her as it does for Mrs. Sommers.
A: There may be many resemblances between Mrs. Sommers and Edna Pontellier, but one is especially noticeable. Kate Chopin writes that “impulse” is guiding Mrs. Sommers, and in Chapter XII of The Awakening she describes Edna as “blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she had placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed her soul of responsibility,” a passage that calls to mind the sentences from “A Pair of Silk Stockings” at the top of this page.
Q: People seem to assume that Mrs. Sommers is a widow or a single mother. But could she be a woman married to a man who has lost his fortune and fallen on hard times?
A: There’s no evidence in the story to rule out the possibility that Mrs. Sommers’ husband is alive but that the couple is poor.
In many of the stories that Kate Chopin included in her two books of short stories, Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, we can tell a good deal about some characters because they live at a specific place in rural Louisiana, or they appear in several stories, or characters in other stories talk about them. But Mrs. Sommers does not appear in any other Chopin story and nobody in any other story speaks of her. We do not even know what city or state her story takes place in. All we can tell about her is what we have in those words in “A Pair of Silk Stockings.”
Apparently Chopin did not consider Mrs. Sommers’ marital status of importance to the story. She keeps her focus on Mrs. Sommers’ actions in a center city over a period of several hours, and she does not show us this character’s life at home–with or without a husband.
You can read more questions and answers about Kate Chopin and her work, and you can contact us with your questions.
For students and scholars
Accurate texts of “A Pair of Silk Stockings”
The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Edited by Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969, 2006.
Kate Chopin: Complete Novels and Stories. Edited by Sandra Gilbert. New York: Library of America, 2002.
Articles and book chapters about “A Pair of Silk Stockings”
Some of the items listed here may be available on line through university or public libraries.
Arner, Robert D. “On First Looking (and Looking Once Again) into Chopin’s Fiction: Kate and Ernest and ‘A Pair of Silk Stockings.’ “ Awakenings: The Story of the Kate Chopin Revival. Ed. Bernard Koloski. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2009. 112–30.
Giorcelli, Cristina. “Sheer Luxury: Kate Chopin’s ‘A Pair of Silk Stockings’.” Abito e Identità: Ricerche di storia letteraria e culturale, VI. 55-73. Palma, Spain: Ila Palma, 2006.
Stein, Allen. “Kate Chopin’s ‘A Pair of Silk Stockings’: The Marital Burden and the Lure of Consumerism.” Mississippi Quarterly 57 (2004): 357-368.
Books that discuss Chopin’s short stories
Koloski, Bernard, ed. Awakenings: The Story of the Kate Chopin Revival Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2009.
Beer, Janet. The Cambridge Companion to Kate Chopin Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 2008.
Ostman, Heather. Kate Chopin in the Twenty-First Century: New Critical Essays Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars, 2008.
Arima, Hiroko. Beyond and Alone!: The Theme of Isolation in Selected Short Fiction of Kate Chopin, Katherine Anne Porter, and Eudora Welty Lanham, MD: UP of America, 2006.
Beer, Janet. Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Stein, Allen F. Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction New York: Peter Lang, 2005.
Walker, Nancy A. Kate Chopin: A Literary Life Basingstoke, England: Palgrave, 2001.
Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1999.
Koloski, Bernard. Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short Fiction New York: Twayne, 1996.
Petry, Alice Hall (ed.), Critical Essays on Kate Chopin New York: G. K. Hall, 1996.
Boren, Lynda S. and Sara deSaussure Davis (eds.), Kate Chopin Reconsidered: Beyond the Bayou Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1992.
Perspectives on KateChopin: Proceedings from the Kate Chopin International Conference, April 6, 7, 8, 1989 Natchitoches, LA: Northwestern State UP, 1992.
Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton New York: Greenwood, 1990.
Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin. New York: Morrow, 1990.
Elfenbein , Anna Shannon. Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1989.
Taylor, Helen. Gender, Race, and Region in the Writings of Grace King, Ruth McEnery Stuart, and Kate Chopin Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1989.
Bonner, Thomas Jr., The Kate Chopin Companion New York: Greenwood, 1988.
Bloom, Harold (ed.), Kate Chopin New York: Chelsea, 1987.
Ewell, Barbara C. Kate Chopin New York: Ungar, 1986.
Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin Boston: Twayne, 1985.
Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969.
Rankin, Daniel, Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1932.