Let us start with Chopin herself. Without going into too much detail Kate Chopin was, for all practical purposes raised by her maternal great-grandmother. She was raised as a Catholic, took daily music lessons and was told somewhat adult stories by her great-grandmother spinning the local gossip regarding the founders of St. Louis that seemed to greatly influence the writings of Kate.

At maturity, at the age 18 Kate married Oscar Chopin who was considered loquacious by most accounts and amicable to all. After a torrential (The Storm") rainstorm destroyed the local cotton industry in New Orleans where our young Oscar was a successful broker, the couple moved and opened up a general store when shortly after, Oscar died. Kate was distraught and was told by a physician that she should take up writing to get her out of the depression that she was in. The good Dr. certainly...