Kate Chopin

The Awakening and Selected Short Stories Kate Chopin

Publisher Marketing: A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!" He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence. Mr. Pontellier, unable to read his newspaper with any degree of comfort, arose with an expression and an exclamation of disgust. He walked down the gallery and across the narrow "bridges" which connected the Lebrun cottages one with the other. He had been seated before the door of the main house. The parrot and the mockingbird were the property of Madame Lebrun, and they had the right to make all the noise they wished. Mr. Pontellier had the privilege of quitting their society when they ceased to be entertaining. He stopped before the door of his own cottage, which was the fourth one from the main building and next to the last. Seating himself in a wicker rocker which was there, he once more applied himself to the task of reading the newspaper. The day was Sunday; the paper was a day old. The Sunday papers had not yet reached Grand Isle. He was already acquainted with the market reports, and he glanced restlessly over the editorials and bits of news which he had not had time to read before quitting New Orleans the day before. Mr. Pontellier wore eye-glasses. He was a man of forty, of medium height and rather slender build; he stooped a little. His hair was brown and straight, parted on one side. His beard was neatly and closely trimmed. Contributor Bio:  Chopin, Kate Kate Chopin was an American author whose works include two novels and nearly one hundred short stories. Chopin's close relationships with her female relatives--her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother--provided inspiration for her strong female characters. Although some of her works were controversial at the time of publication, Chopin is now considered to have been ahead of her time and a precursor to the wave of feminist writing in the twentieth century. Chopin's most notable works include The Awakening, At Fault, and the short story "Desiree's Baby," which explores race relations in antebellum Louisiana. Chopin died in 1904.