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of their desire. In “A Respectable Woman,” Mrs. Baroda is attracted, against her will, to her husband’s close friend, Gouvernail. By the story’s end, without ceasing to love her husband, she has come to terms with her desires and plans to consummate the affair upon her next meeting with Gouvernail. This theme is carried one step further in “The Storm,” a sequel to “At the ’Cadian Ball,” an earlier story in which the dashing Alcée Laballière gives up Calxita, the woman he desires, in exchange for a respectable marriage. Years later, when the former lovers are thrown together by bad weather, the violence of the natural world is echoed in their illicit passion. The description emphasizes the deep, irrational needs that drive them against their good intentions: “The generous abundance of her passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and found response in depths of his own sensuous nature that had never yet been reached” (p. 220). When the sun comes out, so do prudence and social responsibility; they each return, satisfied, to their respective familial obligations. A somewhat different take on the pleasures of escaping one’s commitments is found in “A Pair of Silk Stockings,” where a middle-aged widow, who has persistently denied her own material needs in order to provide for others, uses a windfall to indulge in a few hours of shopping, eating, and entertainment. Overcome with the sensual feel of expensive department store clothing, the taste of fine food and wine, and the luxuriant pleasures of a matinee, she briefly allows desire to prevail over her reason or sense of responsibility.

From plantation elites to slaves and humble laborers, Chopin’s characters cross the spectrum of economic class and social standing. In some cases, her focus on middle- or upper-class white women relegates others to the background. For example, many have observed that Edna Pontellier’s freedom of mobility is enabled by numerous servants, nannies, cooks, and workmen who lurk at the periphery of The Awakening without ever being given full realization. Chopin’s characteristic understatement makes it difficult to determine whether this is her own perception of an underclass or a criticism of her protagonist’s insensitivity. Stories such as “Désirée’s Baby,”“Athénaïse,” and “A Respectable Woman” concern the problems of economically privileged characters. But at times she deals more explicitly with interactions among members of different classes. Set on a farm, “A Shameful Affair” is about a young woman visiting from the city whose lust is inflamed after she is kissed by a particularly handsome field hand. Consumed by desirous but condescending thoughts, she is deeply ashamed to learn that he is a man of her own social status who is masquerading as a laborer for the sake of adventure. Although her desire has not transgressed the lines of class, as it initially appeared, the story suggests that proximity to the land and the rugged bodies that work it is an ideal setting for a woman to discover her own sexuality. “A Gentleman of Bayou Têche” is about an artist from the city who learns a hard lesson about the need to respect rural dwellers. When Mr. Sublet visits a plantation, he persuades Evariste, a humble Acadian fisherman, to pose for a portrait in his work clothes, despite the man’s desire to be pictured in his finest. Having compromised Evariste’s dignity, Sublet must reevaluate his behavior when Evariste saves his son from drowning. In this story, the lowly Acadians are endowed with more courage and self-respect than the refined urban tourists.

It is equally difficult to pin Chopin down on matters of race, since her fiction often appears to express contradictory views. Whereas some have argued that her advocacy of women’s autonomy is compromised by formulaic and sometimes condescending representations of nonwhite characters, others point to stories in which African Americans play important and sympathetic roles. Black characters are entirely marginal in The Awakening, seemingly existing only to do the work of cooking,