In Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short Fiction, Bernard Koloski, who has explored the works of Kate Chopin for more than 25 years, argues that the writer's biculturalism, bilingualism, and life among intelligent, questioning people are the sources of her extraordinary vision, originality, and compassion as a short story writer.

The first full-length treatment devoted exclusively to Chopin's stories, and the first since the 1930s to look at the stories outside - though not at all in opposition to - their place of honor among the works about women, the volume provides fresh insights into the writer's fiction. In a seamless, graceful presentation Koloski establishes the biographical, literary, historical, and cultural contexts for the appreciation of Chopin's stories and offers sensitive readings of selected works.

Subsequent sections provide a sampling of Chopin's literary criticism, including essays on Emile Zola's Lourdes and Hamlin Garland's Crumbling Idols, and explore a quarter century of scholarly criticism, excerpting the writings of, among others, Peggy Skaggs on "Stories about Children" and Emily Toth on A Vocation and a Voice. The study, which is suitable for students at high school, college, and graduate levels, includes a preface, selected bibliography, chronology, and index.