30 Poor dear (Fr.).
31 Either a parish near Baton Rouge at the border between Louisiana and Mississippi, or a village with the same name.
32 So Madame Ratignolle is jealous! (Fr.).
33 Joker (Fr.).
34 For heaven’s sake! (Fr.).
35 Good-bye, until later (Fr.).
36 A hot drink consisting of liquor (such as rum), water, sugar, and spices.
37 A rum-based liquor from Trinidad.
38 High-quality French porcelain.
39 A nice fellow (Fr.).
40 The reference is to a book by the French brothers and literary collaborators Edmond (1822-1896) and Jules (1830-1870) Goncourt, who wrote social histories, art criticism, and novels in the style of literary naturalism.
41 An impulsive character (Fr.).
42 A dress made from rich fabric with a high neckline and waist beginning just below the bosom.
43 An island adjacent to Grand Isle.
44 Located near Grand Isle, a small settlement for shrimping and fishing constructed on platforms raised above the water by stilts.
45 Canoe; widely used for fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.
46 A descendant of French Canadians whom the British, in the 18th century, drove from the captured French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia and adjacent areas) and who settled in the bayou lands of southern Louisiana.
47 A type of fish.
48 Rice powder; for dusting the face and chest (Fr.).
49 Jean Lafitte and his brother Pierre, who between 1810 and 1814 organized a colony of pirates and smugglers around the coast of Barataria Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico. The name Barataria is derived from the Spanish word meaning “to deceive.”
50 If only you could know! (Fr.).
51 Stewed fish (Fr.).
52 A broad, tree-lined avenue that parallels Canal Street on the downriver side of the French Quarter; a prestigious location, the street was lined by large, affluent homes and gardens belonging to the Creole elite.
53 A firm, lustrous fabric used for drapes, napkins, and tablecloths.
54 Proprieties; social conventions (Fr.).
55 Jasmine; a fragrant flower.
56 A covered porch to shelter passengers as they enter and exit a carriage (Fr.).
57 An evening of music (Fr.).
58 Weariness and dissatisfaction.
59 As a good housewife (Fr.).
60 An artist’s studio.
61 Located across the French Quarter from the Pontellier home, a street that ended in a waterfront wharf.
62 Furnished rooms (Fr.).
63 A street at the center of the French Quarter.
64 An architectural style belonging to the period when New Orleans was under Spanish rule (1762-1803).
65 Sparkling, brimming enthusiastically.
66 A foot or leg covering made from heavy woolen fabric.
67 The beautiful woman (Fr.).
68 Indeed! (Fr.).
69 A wide street in New Orleans that formed a dividing line between the French and American districts.
70 My goodness! (Fr.).
71 A disparaging reference to women’s clubs popular during the late 19th century.
72 As a friend (Fr.).
73 Until Thursday (Fr.).
74 Middle class, common.
75 Grosbeak, a species of bird.
76 Rare.
77 A French confection made from whole chestnuts preserved in sugar solution.
78 A horse-drawn vehicle.
79 The Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), whose music is noted for a refined lyrical sense.
80 A firm cheese from France or Switzerland.
81 Scar (Fr.).
82 Great spirit (Fr.).
83 My queen; my love (Fr.).
84 A cylindrical seat or stool without arms or back.
85 A sudden and unexpected overthrow of power (Fr.).
86 If his necktie was straight.
87 In the late stages of pregnancy (Fr.).
88 A dim-witted person.
89 A pair of eyeglasses with a handle.
90 Pseudonym; pen name (Fr.).
91 Main courses and side dishes (Fr.).
92 Pompano, a fish from Florida or the West Indies. In New Orleans it is typically cooked in parchment.
93 A street in the American Quarter running parallel to Canal Street; according to legend, it was once lost in a cypress swamp, and was thus named for the Spanish word meaning “lost.”
94 Awaiting delivery; ill (Fr.).
95 Good night, my love; be good (Fr.).
96 Good Lord! (Fr.).
97 The lines are from “A Cameo,” a sonnet about insatiable desire and the inevitability of death, by the English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909).
98 See chap. 14, p. 48.
99 What your eyes are saying to me now (Fr.).
100 Garden; flower-bed (Fr.).
101 Household (Fr.).
102 Cozy room.
103 Twenty-one (Fr.), or blackjack, a card game.
104 A scarf used to tie back the hair (Fr.).
105 Regional dialect; here specifically, an Acadian dialect combining archaic French with English, Spanish, German, and Native American words.
106 A smooth, level white road paved with shells leading to Lake Pontchartrain.
107 A mulatto woman (Fr.); that is, one of mixed black and white heritage.
108 The offspring of a black man and a mulatto woman.
109 Small pieces of lumber used for house framing.
110 The reference is to Lucius Licinus Lucullus, a Roman general of the first century A.D. who was famous for his banquets.
111 Venus, the Roman goddess of love and fertility, known for her romantic intrigues and affairs with both gods and mortals. The daughter of Jupiter and Dione, she is said to have emerged full-grown from the ocean foam.
112 Voluptuously beautiful virgins.
113 A river feeding into the Mississippi.
114 The reference to Browning and Ibsen distinguishes Mildred as a woman with sophisticated literary tastes from the farmhands who surround her. Robert Browning (1812-1889) was a major English poet noted for his mastery of dramatic monologue and psychological portraiture ; Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian playwright perhaps best known for his socially realistic plays that addressed and defied the conventions of established 19th-century society.
115 A town in southern Rhode Island.
116 “Boor” in this context means peasant.
117 Capricious, unpredictable; an allusion to the novel Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), about an idealist who traveled the countryside in pursuit of romantic adventures.
118 Leo Tolstoi (1828-1910), great Russian author of realist fiction.
119 A parish in southeastern Louisiana.
120 That’s the Spanish (Fr.). The old men attribute Calixta’s wayward behavior to her Spanish blood.
121 A good dog shows its breeding (Fr.), a version of a French proverb, “Children take after their parents.”
122 An insult: “Hey, bitch! You lioness, take that and that!” (Fr.).
123 Pastor (Fr.).
124 A billowing robe; Creole term for a loosely hanging garment.
125 Honesfly! (Fr.).
126 Roman Catholic rituals to request divine protection.
127 Pronounced “Nack-e-tosh”; a parish in northwest Louisiana, birthplace of Oscar Chopin (husband of Kate) and home to the Chopin family during the 1880s.
128 Godmother (Fr.).
129 Holy Virgin! Give me patience! Brute, get away! (Fr.).
130 A bitter medicine used as an anesthetic and muscle relaxant.
131 Large quantity, an amount suitable for a horse.
132 Children’s room (Fr.), a traditional feature of Acadian balls.
133 These damn people from the railroad (Fr.).
134 Good man (Fr.).
135 Fashionable, how fashionable (Fr.).
136 Dash
or flamboyance of style (Fr.).
137 General Georges Boulanger (1837-1891), a charismatic French politician who died romantically by committing suicide when he was charged with treason.
138 But what’s the matter? (Fr.).
139 Planted there (Fr.).
140 Eh? (Fr.).
141 Oh, is it you, Calixta? How are you doing, my child? (Fr.).
142 I’m well; and you, miss? (Fr.).
143 Good God! (Fr.).
144 Good heavens! (Fr.).
145 Oh God knows! (Fr.).
146 The ball is over (Fr.).
147 Wedding presents from the groom to his bride (Fr.).
148 Piglet (Fr.); a term of endearment.
149 But of course (Fr.).
150 A marshy body of water; Désirée’s death by drowning anticipates the fate of Edna Pontellier in The Awakening.
151 A set of infant clothing and blankets (Fr.).
152 Carancro means “black vulture” in Acadian.
153 Calico.
154 Like that (Fr.).
155 Intimate conversation (Fr.).
156 A covered walkway at the entrance of a building.
157 Ornately decorated columns in the Classical Revival style, c. 1835-1850, favored by wealthy American planters.
158 Land by the river (Fr.).
159 Light grooming.
160 The lines are from Song of Myself (1855) by Walt Whitman (1819-1892), whom Chopin admired for his celebration of sexual freedom.
161 My love (Fr.).
162 Chopin’s father, Thomas O’Flaherty, died in a train accident when the Gasconade Bridge collapsed as he rode across it .
163 A small stream in Natchitoches parish.
164 Hey, that isn’t Christian! (Fr.).
165 A traditional Spanish tune with words by Caroline Norton (1808-1877), an aristocratic English woman who fled her own unhappy marriage and led a campaign to change British laws about divorce.
166 A traditional stew of chicken or shrimp thickened with dried sassafras instead of okra.
167 Pig! ... damn pig! (Fr.).
168 How’s it going? (Fr.).
169 My God! (Fr.).
170 An insoluble problem.
171 See The Awakening, chap. 31, p. 106.
172 Her father’s daughter (Fr.).
173 Now a lake, this body of water was once a beautiful river running through Natchitoches and plantation country.
174 Cursed (Fr.).
175 Hey! You’ll keep them like you used to. I want no more of this business! (Fr.).
176 Go on! (Fr.).
177 A street in the French Quarter named after a branch of the Bourbon family.
178 A back extension of the building, at a right angle to the house, in the shape of the letter L.
179 A passenger boat usually carrying mail or cargo.
180 A major waterway in northern Louisiana, intersected by the Cane River.
181 Play the part of the nobleman (Fr.).
182 Stingy.
183 Lightweight cotton with a small decorative pattern.
184 Appetizers (Fr.).
185 Short for confabulation, a chat.
186 Free spirits (Fr.).
187 Fearless soldier (Fr.).
188 Windows made of adjustable glass louvers that control ventilation.
189 A surly person.
190 A pseudonym for the popular Irish writer Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (?1855-1897), whose novels were considered light reading; in 1893 she published Lady Verner’s Flight, a work about an abused wife.
191 Mrs. Ward was an English writer of serious fiction concerned with social problems.
192 The reference is to Frederick Remington (1861-1909), a popular magazine artist known for his images of the Wild West.
193 A line of bold cliffs overlooking the water.
194 In free indirect discourse, Pousette’s patois is translated into English in the sentences that follow, which give a series of excuses for her neglect of Athénaïse.
195 Poor little dear (Fr.).
196 Wallet (Fr.).
197 Linen or cotton fabrics for making shirts.
198 A type of oyster.
199 A whipped-cream drink (Fr.).
200 A village in southwest Missouri.
201 Suitcase.
202 A loose garment (Fr.).
203 An agricultural tool set with spikes, used primarily for pulverizing and smoothing the soil.
204 God knows (Fr.).
205 Embankments for preventing floods.
206 Goodness! (Fr.).
207 I’m telling you (Fr.).
208 A coastal resort in Mississippi.
209 A college for training teachers.
210 A two-person card game in which each player tries to form various counting combinations of cards.
211 An odd game played to determine the winner of a tie.
212 An ambrotype is a positive picture made of a photographic negative on glass backed by a dark surface.
213 A catalogue of Catholic devotions intended to show that Tante Elodie is a faithful believer—an ironic detail, given her subsequent actions.
214 Virgin of Virgins, pray for us. Mother of God, pray (Fr.).
215 Who’s there? (Fr.).
216 The bottle! (Fr.).
217 A variant of Coushatta, a town on the east bank of the Red River and seat of Red River parish.
218 A minute portion.
219 An infusion made from herbs, believed to have medicinal properties (Fr.).
220 A triangular piece of lace or fine fabric worn around the neck or shoulders (Fr.).
221 A low-growing fan-leaved palm.
222 A gambling game played with two dice.
223 A building for storing corn.
224 A rising agent, such as yeast.
225 Pejorative slang meaning small black children.
226 A flat hat.
227 Wearing a somewhat low-cut dress.
228 Gaudy, brightly colored clothing, an allusion to an African-American tradition in which lavishly dressed couples promenade in competition for a cake.
229 A musical instrument that makes a droning sound, played by turning a handle with one hand while pressing keys with the other.
Kate Chopin, The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction
(Series: # )
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