“Désirée’s Baby” is an 1893 short story by Kate Chopin. The bold and unconventional American author best know for the classic novella The Awakening explores the hypocrisy, racism, and sexism in upper crust Creole Louisiana. First published in the January 1893 issue of Vogue magazine as “The Father of Désirée’s Baby,” it was included in Bayou Folk, a short story collection by Chopin published the following year. 

In this fairly brief short story, Chopin wove in the themes that would come to define her works, including women’s struggle for equality, suppressed emotion, and the vagaries of identity. Abandoned as a baby, Désirée is the adopted daughter of Monsieur and Madame Valmondé, wealthy French Creoles. When she reaches young womanhood she marries Armand, the son of another wealthy French Creole family. Read More→