Read it online at https://americanliterature.com/author/kate-chopin/short-story/the-storm

A quick read, and pretty good for a change of pace. ( )

This story, the second I’ve read by Kate Chopin, is about the unfaithfulness of Calixta, with an old flame, Alcée, when he unexpectedly drops in for shelter during a storm.

Calixta’s husband, Bobinôt, is away from home with their four year-old son, Bibi.

Alcée’s wife, Clarisse, and their babies are also away from home, and Alcée writes to Clarisse that they need not hurry back; though he misses them, he can “bear the separation a while longer”. Ha, ha!

This seems somewhat hypocritical. He is getting on nicely with his wonderful freedom, which enables him to have sexual relations with a former love. (Of course he doesn’t write the latter.)

Clarisse, who is revelling in “the pleasant liberty of her maiden days” is more than willing to “forego her intimate conjugal life for a while”.

Is she too having a bit on the side?

In my view, Kate Chopin is hinting that in married relationships we often seem to be loving and solicitous, but it is not genuine, insincere, rather. ( )