Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

At Fault
At Fault
At Fault
Ebook263 pages3 hours

At Fault

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

In her own time, the works of Kate Chopin (1851–1904) shocked readers and critics with their challenge to contemporary mores. Her stories and novels reveal unsparing truths about the interior lives of women, some of whom experienced profound disillusionment with the rigid yoke of marriage, combined with an unfulfilled longing for self-realization. Celebrated today as a precursor of twentieth-century feminism, Chopin's fiction is considered to be among the masterpieces of American literature.
True to the writer's intrepid explorations of taboo subjects and resonating with autobiographical elements, At Fault masterfully portrays a complex love triangle amid the tensions of the rural post-Reconstruction South. Thérèse Lafirme is a young Creole widow in love with a divorced St. Louis businessman, David Hosmer. The moral and religious constraints thrust upon Thérèse prevent her acceptance of Hosmer's wedding proposal, setting the two on a treacherous path that involves Hosmer's former wife, Fanny. Originally published in 1890, the novel is marked by the same fearless examination of society and sexuality that distinguish Chopin's later works.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 19, 2013
ISBN9780486113838
At Fault
Author

Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty (1850-1904), was an American writer of short stories and novels based in Louisiana. Chopin is best known for her novel The Awakening, and for her short story collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Of French and Irish descent, her work depicted the various ethnic groups of Louisiana, especially of Creoles, with sensitivity and wit, and featured vivid descriptions of the natural environment there. After her husband died in 1882 and left her $42,000 in debt, Chopin took up writing to support her family of six children. Though popular, her serious literary qualities were overlooked in her day, and she is now seen as an important early American feminist writer.

Read more from Kate Chopin

Related to At Fault

Related ebooks

Classics For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for At Fault

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5

2 ratings2 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    On one level an engaging love story against a Louisianan backdrop, and on another e look at the conflict between love and honor, and the problem of interfering in the lives of others.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    From the back cover:“Widowed at thirty-two, beautiful, resourceful Therese Lafirme is left alone to run her Louisiana plantation. When Therese 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 troubled former wife, Fanny.”This was Chopin’s first novel, written eight years after she herself was widowed at 32 on a Louisiana plantation (though unlike Therese, Chopin had six kids at the time). Chopin then had a romance with a married man before abruptly moving back to St. Louis a couple of years later.The idea of divorce in the 19th century was highly distasteful, and particularly so to conservative, Catholic, southern communities. In her personal life as well as in her writing, Chopin thus wrestles with the question of an individual’s happiness in light of social pressures and the ethics of the times, like Edith Wharton would shortly afterwards. The conclusions she draws are clear: to subvert one’s happiness for the sake of an arbitrary code of righteousness is a mistake.As for the writing itself, ‘At Fault’ is rough around the edges; dramatic events seem a little forced and the ending is too clean. The treatment of African-American characters is also tough to take, not because of outright violence, but because of the casual racism evident in how they’re depicted, which is lazy and unintelligent – and this isn’t just from the characters in the novel; Chopin herself apparently had these prejudices. However, I took this as one of the truths of the novel, in effectively transporting me back to a bayou plantation and St. Louis in the 1880’s. Chopin’s characters are interesting, from the Creoles to the society ladies who she satirizes. A recurring theme is the difficulty of carrying on through change or after loss, which I suppose has a bigger implication in the Reconstruction South, but it’s highly personalized here. This is a first novel and must be forgiven a few sins, and if you want the more polished Chopin head directly her classic, ‘The Awakening’, but I found ‘At Fault’ interesting and enjoyable.Just this quote, on decisions in life:“She tried to convince herself that a very insistent sting of remorse which she felt, came from selfishness – from the pain that her own heart suffered in the knowledge of Hosmer’s unhappiness. She was not callous enough to quiet her soul with the balm of having intended the best. She continued to ask herself only ‘was I right?’ and it was by the answer to that question that she would abide, whether in the stony content of accomplished righteousness, or in an enduring remorse that pointed to a goal in whose labyrinthine possibilities her soul lost itself and fainted away.”

Book preview

At Fault - Kate Chopin

b1^book_preview_excerpt.html\ɖƕx'Y&)ClN,2 dr^tzПK"Tm/l@ 7@kwٻŻųo^/moq񟟽~nx'޼uw^x^/o}S{|yVx,o6uv;Cu7x\Ǖt>iwWa]*Cqhm޽? blݦWzJn[ {_ bI7qw={+Y>|kZ];[e7xVE YVc9twx`6]ŷx.z˰V)@=xWw8nY A>w ~?nzPlXouSaOLgEٜ~a}Y+||xwpWzV|PvH8Xy(Y 'j}.}ҝ}+ѼJ~yy<ߟ?t#un]CYp[Gl]ol!xǯx*AS+gej?Iٓ?|ud_ Wgrï˿ru0fɿULc+SH Yf_ᬸB,Zx E_/O^_{am{^;5nő>-N:t+4 xn\"4Mʴ8qj_rxS^<1T Hh E7$ ($Gw.oi|o@EY\̛ y ZUw΀߻F»~ qQ[9%i:Ǯ8Qhz$s.m']p BRr+iq}ӛX a$i(N:Dlz{x<%|ś2_eJFE=$7TҍSW[h\\<Մ>[(< > ]_L-@ 'wWƸ @2Zzُq?*9[O8@7 rV v?.D +äw򲽌NAyL?.t#pz ouIu|.CGH6jC=^Z9Au`\CR!^H4c)1 x-M=&65U,`ح#{ٛxc0E- W~>7~sC[OŴqA8t%󲓴zUAW)9pQEzЙ% &C,i(VƋ}߮5>X, GL|';h]"r%{}ɶ+(@ m)T=#x {qb$$` Q0'é+ d݉AǻM=]%1 P3å J&0.Z&MwLP'/OpD1f E!0A{µ xK>qϑF‰xr Xޓ[zz^+'6N 2 #xEg61t|Gߞ_o늁 =%?`e>!-G7I<o썾1 `e܇@~sfbRk&|R(V'\1iA*[>(*!8-fh8f'GE늑T$l!'R^-v]O,Ru l s8n~`_pbaxřidl00KO񌮧fcW؞.*]=& AV'Qמwd[_ujJp @D9~ȗjf⍜/&mǘNG8!5Z"q%Ijlz1{)N֯w~>8&o8菡 KHM~ 4bҕjzwopAh+;9q)'75-Ikw3֑ݕgX xV ڈCY Q nxb*0D KcS $2n:Oj?Nˍ-M'|FkAf)Wr_m 1GiH^IC+BϜ&ʱ1>*çT0XՄ-R+p9B,G8vJ*s4]yh^8:';jbIAJ1 _>p xH1aḱA`E>l>|)kEROo7U(p&jp<>\R>_;<~{ ze,yHW z˘w]ߊ-I|E }Bᆗ߆ۍwv=/+ |ߏ۾_,;z@ ).]}uu;^:.ݽ2Ӛ63R@yYW$zx[z܉[3;$_[ΔM ^k{V~#K++oq#.Yݸk_iR-ojw, ,)5 nGL|5+f ^v6·/P+w,?Ry{!]K8u;&p*=-{?|_(P\oF|[ 1zg;0y$p5wЗxU.N{6xu_/+l^jeà6MG+,Mq較nܰLWSGb KFDi؎,a ~it1}utF:¬[I$cFC HFFq+f`m",J[ݺle[E8$ _o1tEQVhmY [+g8-4QKҜpP-Ol="D\w;A E)9PY)Y.V5R~䳚rmn!&Roԓ,ik+`oV$LtK|dŔ4Mb^,yUS\Vj&Fv=Y܏ÊފFu2'SGVV{lU`Y]o`w*s;*Y2$A@-z$xz-w#؎]rARS؃wLsNo ]d;;x˲s{ rC3Ƙ(q@4L`eg*.ԍ+%\4g0ȿ_/fU\Ppo<5<#"]ȴ7'iUv(W?8hP/\k"c$Q(cM}@I*6ŮB9^UkEU얺oퟑRq3% ;y#̹VEcA^ Db"wdzDW5;- Sg::?7VD)ݐ"OoC9+1/ϵ##V8"M*CZuGY LTqFSKHWe)n"U}tU՟;mm̤!A ʒlj+[M5HhR&OM4ۏQe[-WR"z3)FIIzJ<$nׂ:۲qݼ@!iPY% ͊_3f޺VkyvZMahZ{"z)f\TؔsL[$q{OݰO0-0\>BydiBs@_񒼡# h`RXv# -Hh 8I9Se+0"k3Rqxb<@m NʎAŎc ޠUZ zŘ_?sI57"Q(UE88(@:H+j,b#-o2YP0Suj:R{Qm+)z8Ɓ ;)!RAeŒ08(ξqyDMTaP6#GfnֶŹc.u𩠥½>~a6ms%+WXK6-:=v<~;3 z^wd:vdlkEBK f{(YN 3W:\~3ГO#JƟXJ\GW*Vſrn&.7 Q馻BH'NzZقwCvy$L"}u]c{e1~r"ueAqVikQgG~~Z o 뺻O;XNoƭ@}jER)xHoAt:Iy! XA; gI<JcB.o)Xa$$aҪ] xO`Cp*,;a㐛Qj, ΅R4BB٥؍9>"Y/c.jGNnP><vr=.Ov0 n4?ُGx8.I+Q*N%lh>+MlNM<%tt@n1v~o8ؤMvIX%<ɟh/B%cC %$ٷ*ReYS7~jXJ& dt:xPӘ4pvO%=Ґ&>7+T?vb {*0%~Laߕfq3X& }`Q3<8ڕIpq^%gj\)!T~"1JaJM` I{5%0DOb,IS X i ƹkw^O-e^/s{*f .p۩}l`BK*QΗߟ BǎrirŰ7)O1)J^,s 4ICd&4`103Ki'Y)#= bDE` qA5Abam(\BxC%>M3>lOUqT0/aaP#Mi S.i(K܋ ZXǖ&*tDJ^vݕyh|,WqﴉaN\&s]o9?Pc24hUtDdM*ۦNmSo:yjCɾs)i]70|.9.Mɽ<  씅~3lـ2S6R[@ TVkz9cj"aF3X>6x#@8elH"8E)cYδ:mWVvTV25iܖ(f{` u=ΡeStAn8=YR$ t< "lW)>jNs>{}Pj2*H0+Og5JGqV\묌Ʊkňyҕ5leZS"@9zإZEY3M&Y+XN۩ӥn9KD}jV4҆j Oݥ; ]ǣ̥K7-cd`$7UEdijzU>:ja`)J:b^UqY^qђ7l!'MY<{5'zA͖Ubt>MURtT9JР*B22K)?%X88/k,ӛH(LQl=" 0;TL2 c&yP}x^v,?y2*&6,ykӐ'g ++쟬dI \t%5 Y%Gf_{U,/v=URx` h6-'^:_2x>8.t|du9=)@ӕtҸ MU'\yc2hS}qc0iŇ&W裆d1zS̚7J9_eND۵(95hii3[& cI:xA[cF֬kװӪ֣ulؖkVwT(D$PD8=?WknjkLxNTATSYc2֘,S$Ҡq.nƫDm]KvDss5bj,)2Of"Nǵ]bgxkTJY,6罱CR'xv5quZ sƵ7F.fYvN¾Y5ah[ wx1*&4psg̘d_ޜawnhrQJ!ՆzԋKyGznmpCHwȵ( cb=wR+mFe>UF@UXo'5z_L;! i>1ƕT4ol߾Γ@2>b( >X\`^!T*32DŽ>&À?9󑝽ł*Go>_Jy RP>L|Ih!)48K/ /4ʫ bW΃}JqȭS"M,bv8},Wfk(Fm(LF#G3ĶTS. onP/*39$h:0f}G9EjͺӴar?-S7.,ȠWf*m>R<&I'C8wL媩L  > Mrj8ّĩ a3&[8Z˫G1F(ѫ[t4h'?ҟSG0#fQW7MMN/ jHd;' 1FsOsPK.wvh;Khо\SHZ4}jxܰ_۰/O(_b4ר꣮U,tAf"5>oL_Jր}xz"?gn 8ݐNf4ȚR~J3?z$bf'g~y$w ďEqq%)'`L/b{sM/bÀ`i(xU'C1T![WJ31G?)FK
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1