At Fault Background
These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.
Written by Timothy Sexton, Da'Naejah Dupuy
At Fault is Kate Chopin’s first novel which was written between July 1889 and April 1890. Upon completion, she submitted it to Bedford’s Monthly; a literary journal that made room for one novel in each issue. Upon rejection, Chopin decided to publish the novel herself, recognizing it as a breakthrough work in which she had discovered her voice as a regional writer.
Chopin was found to be at fault on several literary levels by critics who received one of the 250 copies she distributed to editors and libraries. While modern day critics can see how much Chopin improved in terms of plotting and dialogue, the primary criticism of the day was toward the subject matter of failing marriages and alcoholism and—oddly—Chopin’s insistence upon dealing with this subject matter in a realistic way rather than romanticizing it. Then, as now, however, At Fault was widely praised for the authentic portrayal of the New Orleans/St. Louis regional dialect and the characters living realistically within.
Of course, the whole point of Chopin impulsively deciding to publish the book herself rather than wade through a potential series of rejections following that from Bedford’s Monthly was exposure. She was approaching middle age and knew immediate exposure was worth far more than any money that might have potentially come from an advance. In this gamble, she was absolutely right. Chopin’s decision to take a chance on herself paid off and quite probably the fact that the novel was published by the author lessened the damage of negative reviews that might have come had a major publishing house been behind her.
Kate Chopin (/ˈʃoʊpæn/,[1][2] also US: /ʃoʊˈpæn, ˈʃoʊpən/;[3] born Katherine O'Flaherty; February 8, 1851 – August 22, 1904)[4] was an American author of short stories and novels based in Louisiana. She is considered by scholars[5] to have been a forerunner of American 20th-century feminist authors of Southern or Catholic background, such as Zelda Fitzgerald, and is one of the most frequently read and recognized writers of Louisiana Creole heritage. She is best known today for her 1899 novel The Awakening.
Of maternal French and paternal Irish descent, Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She married and moved with her husband to New Orleans. They later lived in the country in Cloutierville, Louisiana. From 1892 to 1895, Chopin wrote short stories for both children and adults that were published in such national magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The Century Magazine, and The Youth's Companion. Her stories aroused controversy because of her subjects and her approach; they were condemned as immoral by some critics.
Her major works were two short story collections and two novels. The collections are Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Her important short stories included "Désirée's Baby" (1893), a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana,[6] "The Story of an Hour" (1894),[7] and "The Storm" (1898).[6] "The Storm" is a sequel to "At the Cadian Ball," which appeared in her first collection of short stories, Bayou Folk.[6]
Chopin also wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), which are set in New Orleans and Grand Isle, respectively. The characters in her stories are usually residents of Louisiana, and many are Creoles of various ethnic or racial backgrounds. Many of her works are set in Natchitoches in north-central Louisiana, a region where she lived.
Within a decade of her death, Chopin was widely recognized as one of the leading writers of her time.[8] In 1915, Fred Lewis Pattee wrote, "some of [Chopin's] work is equal to the best that has been produced in France or even in America. [She displayed] what may be described as a native aptitude for narration amounting almost to genius."