Colette

There are moments when one seems to come to life. One looks about and distinguishes a creature whose foot-print closely resembles the ace of spades. The thing says: bow-wow. It is a dog. One looks again. The ace of spades is now an ace of clubs. The thing says: pffffffff-and it is a cat. This is the history of the visible world and in particular, that of my god-children, Toby-Dog and Kiki-the-Demure. They are so natural-I use the word in the sense in which it is applicable to the savages of Oceania-that all their acts conspire to make of life, a very simple proposition. These are animals in the fullest sense of the word-animos-if I may employ the original orthography, capable of exclaiming with those of Faust: "The fool knows it not He knows not the pot, He knows not the kettle." And as such, Madame, you have placed them exactly where they should be: their earthly Paradise is the apartment of Monsieur Willy. In your salon, the probable palm and rubber-plant give the impression of luxuriant Edenic flora, relatively speaking, and illustrate the transmogrification which is to allow M. Gaston Deschamps-critic of a "Temps" plus-que-pass -to announce to the wilderness (where he speaks familiarly of Chateaubriand), and to the Coll ge de France, how well he can admire and understand a true poet. For you are a true poet and I will declare it freely, not concerning myself more with the legends Parisians have the habit of weaving about every celebrity. They admire Gauguin and Verlaine, not so much for their originality, as for their eccentricities. And so it happens that certain persons, unacquainted with the nameless sentiment, the order and purity, the thousand interior virtues which guide you, persist in saying that you wear your hair short and that Willy is bald.

Romanen Chéri utspelar sig i det tidiga 1900-talets Paris, en mytisk tid då konsten blomstrade och den fria kärleken bejakades. I bokens centrum står Léa, en förmögen, medelålders kvinna och hennes vackre, nyckfulle, 24 år yngre älskare Chéri. Med skärpa och sensualism, inkännande och skoningslöst, skildrar Colette det psykologiska spelet mellan de älskande på ett sätt som gör att berättelsen känns helt modern trots att den skrevs för snart ett sekel sedan. Chéri utkom 1920 och samma år skrev Colette även en scenversion av boken. Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, mer känd som Colette, född 1873 i ett litet samhälle i Bourgogne, död i Paris 1954, är en av Frankrikes främsta 1900-talsförfattare. Hon har skrivit en rad böcker, många baserade på hennes eget frigjorda liv. "Det är det samtidigt sakliga och överdådiga i hennes språk och hennes ojämförbara sinne för detaljer som lyser genom decennierna. (...) Hård i sin blick, i sitt språk och i det oavbrutet fängslande." Kulturnytt, SR "Historien är både humoristisk och sorglig, eftersom åldersskillnaden tvingar relationen att ta slut. Jag älskar detaljerna det rosa, spetsgardinerna, pärlorna som skapar stämningen av sensualism, lyx och dekadens." Kommunalarbetaren "Romanen är en genial uppvisning av ståndsmässig ytlighet och underskön fransk syndighet, som skrivs fram med en osentimental språklig élan och precision. Detta i kombination med bokens sinnliga beskrivningar av möblemang, kulörer, material och blommor gör att Colettes prosa (och Björkmans översättning) blir en lustfylld läsning. När hon beskriver sina karaktärers kroppsliga fåfänga, som när Chéri ser sig själv i spegeln som en annan Dorian Gray, är hon intet annat än hänförande." Hufvudstadsbladet

""Cats, Dogs And I: Stories From La Paix Chez Les Betes"" is a collection of short stories written by the French author Colette. The book is a memoir of the author's experiences living in the countryside with her pets, including cats and dogs. In the book, Colette shares her observations of the animals' behavior, their relationships with each other, and their interactions with the human world. The stories are filled with humor, warmth, and a deep appreciation for the natural world. Colette's writing style is poetic and evocative, creating vivid images of the animals and their surroundings. ""Cats, Dogs And I"" is a delightful read for animal lovers and anyone who appreciates the beauty and complexity of the natural world. This is a new release of the original 1924 edition. This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Colette began writing Break of Day in her early fifties, at Saint-Tropez on the C te d'Azur, where she had bought a small house after the breakup of her second marriage. The novel's theme--the renunciation of love and the return to an independent existence supported and enriched by the beauty and peace of nature--grows out of Colette's own period of self-assessment in the middle of her life. A collection of subtle reflections about love and life, it is among her most thoughtful and stylistically bold works.

Set in pre-war Paris, Julie de Carneilhan tells of the complex relationship between proud but impoverished Julie and her former husband, the Comte d'Espivant, who has remarried a wealth widow.

Two volumes of Colette's most beloved works, with a new Introduction by Judith Thurman. Ch ri, together with The Last of Ch ri, is a classic story of a love affair between a very young man and a charming older woman. The amour between Fred Peloux, the beautiful gigolo known as Ch ri, and the courtesan L a de Lonval tenderly depicts the devotion that stems from desire, and is an honest account of the most human preoccupations of youth and middle age. With compassionate insight Colette paints a full-length double portrait using an impressionistic style all her own.

First published in 1920, "Cheri" is considered Colette's finest novel. It did, however, cause considerable controversy at the time, both in its choice of setting - the fabulous demi-monde of the Parisian courtesans - and in its portrayal of the exquisitely handsome, spoilt and sardonic Cheri.

Thirty-three years-old and recently divorced, Ren e N r has begun a new life on her own, supporting herself as a music-hall artist. Maxime, a rich and idle bachelor, intrudes on her independent existence and offers his love and the comforts of marriage. A provincial tour puts distance between them and enables Ren e, in a moving series of leters and meditations, to resolve alone the struggle between her need to be loved and her need to have a life and work of her own.

The stories that inspired the film Colette, directed by Wash Westmoreland and starring Keira Knightley. Colette, prodded by her first husband, Willy, began her writing career with Claudine at School, which catapulted the young author into instant, sensational success. Among the most autobiographical of Colette's works, these four novels are dominated by the child-woman Claudine, whose strength, humor, and zest for living make her seem almost a symbol for the life force. Janet Flanner described these books as "amazing writing on the almost girlish search for the absolute of happiness in physical love . . . recorded by a literary brain always wide awake on the pillow."

Widely considered the author's best work, this story of a love affair between Lea, a still-beautiful 49-year-old, and Cheri, selfish young man 30 years her junior, is a superb study of age and sexuality. While the theme of a young man who deserts his older mistress is a familiar one, Colette makes it her own.

Colette herself considered The Pure and the Impure her best book, "the nearest I shall ever come to writing an autobiography." This guided tour of the erotic netherworld with which Colette was so intimately acquainted begins in the darkness and languor of a fashionable opium den. It continues as a series of unforgettable encounters with men and, especially, women whose lives have been improbably and yet permanently transfigured by the strange power of desire. Lucid and lyrical, The Pure and the Impure stands out as one of modern literature's subtlest reckonings not only with the varieties of sexual experience, but with the always unlikely nature of love.