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¿ A new edition, with clear readable text¿ A new Life & Works written for this edition¿ Includes a new Glossary of Gothic, Victorian and Literary terms¿ Part of our Essential Gothic, SF & Dark Fantasy series
About the author
Kate Chopin, born Katherine O’Flaherty (1851–1904) was an American novelist and short-story writer and an advocate of New Orleans life and culture. After her husband died in 1882, she began to write about the people of the South. Her first novel was At Fault (1890), but she wrote over 100 short stories, including 'Désirée’s Baby' and 'Madame Celestin’s Divorce'. Her preoccupation with the freedom of women laid the foundations for feminist literature of later generations.
Deirdre Osborne PhD, FRSA is a Reader in English Literature and Drama at Goldsmiths, University of London. Co-founder of the MA Black British Literature, her research spans late-Victorian literature to contemporary culture in Landmark Poetics, mixedness, and adoption aesthetics with a special focus upon women writers. Her latest book is This is the Canon: Decolonise Your Bookshelf in Fifty Books (2021).
Summary
A rare novel written in the late Victorian era featuring a young woman who flings aside the norms of society and rejects her role as wife and mother. With interracial marriage and passages of overt sexuality, it caused an outcry on publication in 1899. Today it is seen as a portent of the future and admired for its direct and naturalistic style.
Foreword
Now recognised as a pioneering exploration of gender freedom, from an era when female agency was rare and shocking.
