Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was born in St Louis and later moved to Louisiana where she wrote many short stories and two novels. Her novel The Awakening was widely condemned on publication and led to the cancellation of further publishing contracts but was rediscovered in the 1960s and remains her best known work.

Th&eacuter&egravese Lafirme, a beautiful and resourceful Creole woman, is widowed at age thirty-two and left alone to run her Louisiana plantation. When Th&eacuter&egravese 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.