Kate Chopin "Lilacs"

From the short story: "At the very hour when Sister Agathe looked up at the clock, Adrienne, clad in a charming negligé, was reclining indolently in the depths of a luxurious armchair. The bright room was in its accustomed state of picturesque disorder. Musical scores were scattered upon the open piano. Thrown carelessly over the backs of chairs were puzzling and astonishing-looking garments."

When Kate Chopin's "Lilacs" was written and published

The story was written between May 14 and May 16, 1894, and published in the New Orleans Times-Democrat on December 20, 1896.

Kate Chopin's "Lilacs" on line and in print

On line you can read the story here.

In print you can find "Lilacs"in The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, in the Penguin Classics edition of Chopin's A Vocation and a Voice, and in the Library of American Literature Kate Chopin volume, as well as in other paperback and hardcover books. For publication information about these books, see the section "For students and scholars" near the bottom of this page.

"Lilacs" characters

• Adrienne Farival, an actor in Paris
• Sister Agathe, a loving friend from Adrienne's youth in the convent
• Sister Marceline and Sister Marie Anne, also friends from the convent
• the Mother Superior of the convent
• Old Philippe, groundskeeper at the convent
• Sophie, Adrienne's servant in Paris
• Rosalie, a neighbor of Adrienne's in Paris

"Lilacs" time and place

The story takes place at a convent in France and in the chambers of Adrienne Farival in Paris, apparently in the 1880s or early 1890s.

Frequently asked questions about "Lilacs"

Q: It's strange to read a Kate Chopin story set in France, rather than in Louisiana. What prompted Chopin to turn to France and nuns and a performer rather than stay focused on the Creoles and Acadians she usually writes about?

A: Kate Chopin spoke French throughout her life and visited Paris on her honeymoon. She studied with the sisters of the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart when she was a child. Her lifelong friend Kitty Garesché entered the Sacred Heart Convent. And Chopin loved the theatre and opera. Bernard Koloski argues that she had in mind the great French player Sarah Bernhardt as she wrote this story. Bernhardt made many tours of the United States and liked to perform for French-speaking audiences in St. Louis and New Orleans.

Q: I don't understand: Why is Adrienne banned from the convent?

A: There are other elements in the story, but one straightforward explanation is that she is denied entrance to the convent because someone has revealed that Adrienne lives a wild, scandalous life, a life of "picturesque disorder," as a singer and dancer in Paris. She is not the "older and wiser" widowed woman with "household duties" that the nuns had thought she is. It is hinted in the last paragraphs of the story that Adrienne will try to find out who told the nuns this, who is responsible for "this treacherous turn."

Q: Did Kate Chopin not include "Lilacs" in her short story anthology A Night in Acadie, even though she wrote it at about the same time as the stories in that anthology, because it's not set in Louisiana or because it didn't fit thematically with the other stories?

A: Probably because it's not set in Louisiana. Some of the story's themes and motifs are similar to those in Chopin's Louisiana works—a woman being pulled in different directions, yearning for both individual freedom and the comfort of community, feeling tension between living "in the world," as Sister Agathe in the story (and Lucilla Worthington in Chopin's novel At Fault) phrases it, and retreating from the world. Chopin had planned to include "Lilacs" in A Vocation and a Voice, her third anthology of stories, but the publisher cancelled the contract for the book, and it did not appear as a separate volume until 1991, long after Chopin's death.

You can read more questions and answers about Kate Chopin and her work, and you can email us your questions.

For students and scholars

Accurate texts of "Lilacs"

The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Edited by Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969.

A Vocation and a Voice. Edited by Emily Toth. New York: Penguin, 1991.

Kate Chopin: Complete Novels and Short Stories. Edited by Sandra Gilbert. New York: Library of American Literature, 2002.

Recent publications about "Lilacs"

Some of the articles listed here may be available on line through university or public libraries.

Pierse, Mary S. "Paris as 'Other': George Moore, Kate Chopin and French Literary Escape Routes." ABEI Journal: The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies 8 (2006): 79-87.

Crosland, Andrew. "Kate Chopin's 'Lilacs' and the Myth of Persephone." ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 14 (2001): 31-34.

Padgett, Jacqueline Olson. "Kate Chopin and the Literature of the Annunciation, with a Reading of 'Lilacs'." Louisiana Literature 11 (1994): 97-107.

Selected books that discuss Chopin's short stories

Arima, Hiroko. Beyond and Alone!: The Theme of Isolation in Selected Short Fiction of Kate Chopin, Katherine Anne Porter, and Eudora Welty Lanham, MD: UP of America, 2006.

Beer, Janet. Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Stein, Allen F. Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction New York: Peter Lang, 2005..

Walker, Nancy A. Kate Chopin: A Literary Life Basingstoke, England: Palgrave, 2001.

Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1999.

Koloski, Bernard. Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short Fiction New York: Twayne, 1996.

Petry, Alice Hall (ed.), Critical Essays on Kate Chopin New York: G. K. Hall, 1996.

Elfenbein, Anna Shannon. Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1994.

Boren, Lynda S. and Sara deSaussure Davis (eds.), Kate Chopin Reconsidered: Beyond the Bayou Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1992.

Perspectives on KateChopin: Proceedings from the Kate Chopin International Conference, April 6, 7, 8, 1989 Natchitoches, LA: Northwestern State UP, 1992.

Toth, Emily. "Introduction" A Vocation and a Voice New York: Penguin, 1991.

Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton New York: Greenwood, 1990.

Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin. New York: Morrow, 1990.

Elfenbein , Anna Shannon. Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1989.

Taylor, Helen. Gender, Race, and Region in the Writings of Grace King, Ruth McEnery Stuart, and Kate Chopin Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1989.

Bonner, Thomas Jr., The Kate Chopin Companion New York: Greenwood, 1988.

Bloom, Harold (ed.), Kate Chopin New York: Chelsea, 1987.

Ewell, Barbara C. Kate Chopin New York: Ungar, 1986.

Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin Boston: Twayne, 1985.

Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969.

Rankin, Daniel, Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1932.