The Ratignolle drug store (The Awakening)
Unnamed or fictional setting in The Awakening; pinned at an inferred location within Esplanade Avenue.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Awakening | Kate Chopin | backdrop | Edna visits Madame Ratignolle at the family’s apartments over Monsieur Ratignolle’s drug store on a side-street corner. |
The Awakening — Kate Chopin (1899)
Source: The Awakening · Readwise highlight
The Ratignolles lived at no great distance from Edna’s home, on the corner of a side street, where Monsieur Ratignolle owned and conducted a drug store which enjoyed a steady and prosperous trade.
- Role: backdrop
- In the book: Edna visits Madame Ratignolle at the family’s apartments over Monsieur Ratignolle’s drug store on a side-street corner. The family entrance is on the side through the porte-cochère, and the large salon hosts a fortnightly musical evening. Edna thinks the household very French.
- Why it matters: The store is placed near Edna on Esplanade Street, so a point on Esplanade Avenue is the best available anchor. The exact corner is not recoverable.
- Where is it?: ⚠️ inferred. Clues in the text: “The Ratignolles lived at no great distance from Edna’s home, on the corner of a side street”; “my house on Esplanade Street”; “commodious apartments over the store, having an entrance on the side within the porte-cochère” What reference works say: No scholarship source found naming a real drug store. The text anchors it by distance to Edna’s home on Esplanade Street, so the Esplanade Avenue corridor is the anchor. Chosen: Esplanade Ridge / Faubourg Marigny area, New Orleans (side-street corner near Esplanade Avenue). Alternatives: Esplanade Ridge uptown end; Bayou St. John end of Esplanade