Desiree's Baby

Book excerpt: Desiree's Baby BY Kate Chopin is about the daughter of Monsieur and Madame Valmond�, who are wealthy French Creoles in antebellum Louisiana. Abandoned as a baby, Desiree was found by Monsieur Valmond� lying in the shadow of a stone pillar near the Valmond� gateway. She is courted by the son of another wealthy, well-known and respected French Creole family, Armand. They marry and have a child. People who see the baby have the sense it is different. Eventually they realize that the baby's skin is the same color as a quadroon (one-quarter African)-the baby has African ancestry. At the time of the story, this would have been considered a problem for a person believed to be white.