Full Description
A collection of Colette's best writings that have never before appeared in English.
The French writer Colette (1873-1954) is best known in the United States for such classic novels as Gigi and Cheri, which were made into popular movies, but she was a prolific author. This meticulously translated collection offers some of her best fiction, personal essays, articles, and talks, all appearing in English for the first time. The pieces showcase Colette's gifts as a writer: her deep wisdom about every age of human life, her skill as a storyteller, her wry humor, her persuasive powers, and her foresight as a social critic of issues such as gender roles.
The translators combed through journals and past editions of Colette's work to cull these gems, which cover an enormous array of topics-from French wines and perfumes to her friendships with Marcel Proust and Maurice Chevalier to uncanny insight into the curious habits of cats and dogs. Selections from an advice column that Colette wrote for the French women's magazine Marie Claire are also included, and her savvy suggestions for the lovelorn stand the test of time. Moving articles written during the two world wars, along with her memories of being an actor and playwright, reveal facets of her writing that are less often celebrated. The first new work by Colette to appear in English in half a century, it will delight devoted fans and new readers alike.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Stories Imagined and Real
Conversation in the Metro
Divine
The Woman Who Sings
Jealousy
By the Bay of Somme
Makeup
The Dancer's Song
Loves
The Mirror
Gone Fishin'
Masked Ball on the Riviera: Cyclamen and Buttercup, or the Costume Ball of Feet
Shipwrecked on a Traffic Island
Colette's Advice Column
From Denise in Despair
From a Tormented Heart
From Minerva
"I love a young man..."
Colette on Love
Colette on Women Growing Older
You
Memoirs of Friends
Portrait of Marcel Proust
Remembering Maurice Chevalier
Portrait of the Poet Léon-Paul Fargue
Cats, Dogs, and Nature
The Cat
A Dream
Toby-Dog and Music
The Bees of Castel-Novel
Bees
Morning
The Summer Beauty
Snowdrop
War and Peace
Their Letters
In the Home for Blind Soldiers
The Eyes of the Dragonfly
Colette Speaks to Americans
Parisians Go on Vacation—To Paris
The Writing Life
Ways of Writing
Letter to My Daughter
The Young Poet
Fashions
Why I've Never Written a Children's Book
Children's Books
Scribes of the Palais-Royal
On Growing Older
Colette's Journalism
Tinkerers
The Discovery
Poverty Exists Everywhere
Neighbors
The Fake Pearl
Gold
Laziness
With Love
The Silence of Small Children
Colette on Her Life
Magic
"Just a little bit farther..."
Movies, Theater, and Vaudeville
Why I Love Bette Davis
From Both Sides of the Curtain
A Distinguished Connoisseur
French Wine, Perfume, and Dolls
The Wines of France
Fragrances
Dolls
