Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Herbert S. Stone and Co., Chicago, in 1899.

Introduction by Jane Smiley

The Awakening
Selected Stories

    Wiser Than a God
    A Point at Issue!
    A Shameful Affair
    Miss McEnders
    At the ’Cadian Ball
    Désirée’s Baby
    At Chênière Caminada
    The Story of an Hour
    Lilacs
    The Kiss
    Athénaïse
    A Pair of Silk Stockings

KATE CHOPIN (1851-1904) brought out her first novel, At Fault, at her own expense in 1890. It was followed by two well-reviewed collections of her short stories: Bayou Folk in 1894 and A Night in Acadie in 1897. The Awakening appeared in 1899 to an explosion of disapproving reviews and the cancellation of her next book contract. However, within a decade of her early death at the age of fifty-four, her literary genius began to be widely recognized.
ABOUT THE INTRODUCER:  JANE SMILEY is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. Her most recent novels are Perestroika in Paris and A Dangerous Business. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature.