Désirée’s Baby

Désirée’s Baby, short story by Kate Chopin, first published in Vogue magazine in 1893 and then reprinted in her collection Bayou Folk in 1894. A widely acclaimed, frequently anthologized story, “Désirée’s Baby” is set in antebellum Louisiana and deals with slavery, the Southern social system, Creole culture, and the ambiguity of racial identity. Désirée and her husband, Armand, live on a plantation at a time before the American Civil War. They are happily married—so much...