Colette
Born 28 January 1873 · Died 3 August 1954
From Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France · Nationality: France · Writes fiction and nonfiction
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Yonne, in the Burgundy Region of France. In 1893 she married Henri Gauthier-Villars, a famous wit known as "Willy", who was 15 years her senior. Her first books, the Claudine series, were published under the pen name of her husband, "Willy". In 1906 she left her husband and lived for a time with the American writer and salonist Natalie Barney. The two had a short affair, and remained friends until Colette's death. She then started working in the music halls of Paris with Mathilde de Morny, the Marquise de Belbeuf, with whom she became romantically involved. In 1907, they performed together in a pantomime entitled Rêve d'Égypte at the Moulin Rouge. Their onstage kiss nearly caused a riot, which the police were called in to suppress. As a result of this scandal, further performances of Rêve d'Égypte were banned and Colette and de Morny were no longer able to openly live together, though their relationship continued a total of five years. She was also involved with the Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio during this time. In 1912 she married Henri de Jouvenel, the editor of the newspaper Le Matin. She had one daughter. In 1914, she was asked to write a ballet for the Opéra de Paris, but the composer Maurice Ravel convinced her to rework it into an opera, L'Enfant et les sortilèges, which opened after the war in 1925. During World War I she converted her husband's estate into a hospital for the wounded.
Quotes
“There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.”
Freedom 1908 “You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.”
Speech on being elected to the Belgian Academy, as quoted in “Lady of Letters” P “In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.”
Gigi
Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Books by Colette in order
Books by Colette in the order they were published, from Chéri (1900) to Claudine's House (2006).
- 1Chéri
Chéri1900 - 2Gigi
Gigi1900 - 3Claudine in Paris
Claudine in Paris1902 - 4La Vagabonde
La Vagabonde1910 - 5Mitsou
Mitsou1919 - 6Ripening Seed
Ripening Seed1923 - 7The Pure and the Impure
The Pure and the Impure1933 - 8Duo and Le Toutounier
Duo and Le Toutounier1934 - 9My Mother's House
My Mother's House1953 - 10The Vagabond
The Vagabond1954 - 11Claudine's House
Claudine's House2006 - 12Break of Day
Break of Day - 13Cheri and the Last of Cheri
Cheri and the Last of Cheri - 14Cherie and The Last of Cherie
Cherie and The Last of Cherie - 15ClaudineClaudine
- 16Claudine at School
Claudine at School - 17Claudine Married/Claudine and Annie
Claudine Married/Claudine and Annie - 18Colette Complete Claudine
Colette Complete Claudine - 19Earthly Paradise
Earthly Paradise - 20Gigi and the Cat
Gigi and the Cat - 21The Collected Stories of Colette
The Collected Stories of Colette - 22The Complete Claudine
The Complete Claudine - 23The Other Woman
The Other Woman