At Fault

by Kate Chopin

Overview

Thérèse Lafirme, a beautiful and resourceful Creole woman, is widowed at age thirty-two and left alone to run her Louisiana plantation. When Thérèse falls in love with David Hosmer, a divorced businessman, her strong moral and religious convictions make it impossible for her to accept his marriage proposal. Her determined rejection sets the two on a tumultuous path that involves Hosmer's former wife, Fanny. At Fault is both romantic and filled with stark realism-a love story that expands to address the complex problem of balancing personal happiness and social duty-set in the post-Reconstruction South against a backdrop of economic devastation and simmering racial tensions. Written at the beginning of her career, At Fault parallels Chopin's own life and introduces characters and themes that appear in her later works, including The Awakening.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605018225
Publisher:	MobileReference
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Series:	Mobi Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	199 KB

About the Author

Kate Chopin (1850–1904) was born in St. Louis. She moved to Louisiana where she wrote two novels and numerous stories. Because The Awakening was widely condemned, publication of Chopin’s third story collection was cancelled. The Awakening was rediscovered by scholars in the 1960s and 1970s and is her best-known work.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xiii
	Acknowledgments	xv
	Editorial Practices	xvii
	Introduction	xix
Part 1
Chapter I.	The Mistress of Place-Du-Bois	3
Chapter II.	At the Mill	7
Chapter III.	In the Pirogue	11
Chapter IV.	A Small Interruption	16
Chapter V.	In the Pine Woods	19
Chapter VI.	Melicent Talks	24
Chapter VII.	Painful Disclosures	29
Chapter VIII.	Treats of Melicent	35
Chapter IX.	Face to Face	40
Chapter X.	Fanny's Friends	45
Chapter XI.	The Self-Assumed Burden	50
Chapter XII.	Severing Old Ties	53
Part 2
Chapter I.	Fanny's First Night at Place-Du-Bois	63
Chapter II.	"Neva To See You!"	68
Chapter III.	A Talk Under the Cedar Tree	72
Chapter IV.	Therese Crosses the River	76
Chapter V.	One Afternoon	81
Chapter VI.	One Night	89
Chapter VII.	Melicent Leaves Place-Du-Bois	95
Chapter VIII.	With Loose Rein	100
Chapter IX.	The Reason Why	105
Chapter X.	Perplexing Things	110
Chapter XI.	A Social Evening	114
Chapter XII.	Tidings That Sting	121
Chapter XIII.	Melicent Hears the News	125
Chapter XIV.	A Step Too Far	130
Chapter XV.	A Fateful Solution	134
Chapter XVI.	To Him Who Waits	142
Chapter XVII.	Conclusion	146