Much critical work on Kate Chopin has focused on the historical, geographical and personal contexts to her writings, illuminating her work by reference to social practices in Louisiana, the world of the Creoles, the myths of the Bayou and her own upbringing and adult experiences. Of particular interest to critics has been the issue of literary influence, with much attention being paid to French writers. Contemporary reviewers compared her unfavourably with such minor French writers as Paul Bourget, and Willa Cather's labelling of The Awakening as 'a Creole Bovary' continues to dominate much critical thinking, even though Edna Pontellier has little in common with Emma Bovary and Chopin's use of descriptive language and of direct and indirect speech is very different from that of Flaubert. More recently, Per Seyersted asserts that Chopin was influenced by 'the 'feminism of Madame de Staël and George Sand and by the realism of Flaubert and Maupassant' (32), and Eliane Jasenas emphasises the importance of Flaubert and Maupassant and asserts Baudelaire as an important influence. Chopin herself includes references to French writers, with the result that suppositions are made about their influence on her. However, the fact that, for instance, she refers in The Awakening to a novel by Daudet (890) is in itself not directly meaningful, since it could be either one of his charming stories of southern France, a Zolaesque novel such as Fromont Jeune et Risler aîné, or Sapho, which anatomises bohemian French society.