What's a good book to read by Colette?

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I've never read any of her work before, and I'm wondering what would be good to start with.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 5 February 2003 21:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Cheri and the last of Cheri

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 21:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Mary is OTM - except I'm half-inclined to say don't bother, as I read a few years ago and decided to forget her.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 22:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Ooooh no: she is good! But Jean Rhys is better.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 22:02 (twenty-three years ago)

The Vagabond. The Pure and the Impure. There's a huge collection of her short stories out there which is also excellent.

― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 23:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh yeah I second the Vagabond. Isn't there also some story of her childhod? Read that too. Read everything.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 23:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Who should I listen to? Who should I listen to about who to listen to?

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 6 February 2003 01:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Me :) I think Cheri and the Vagabond are pretty canonical; the last of Cheri is good for the demonized older woman - younger man thing. Start readin'!

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 6 February 2003 01:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I read Claudine At School. Don't bother. Listen to the other posters here. I would. Maybe I should read Cheri.

http://www.eseresi.it/cucina_articoli/colette.jpg>

― erik, Thursday, 6 February 2003 07:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Read Cheri and then read the Last of Cheri. You can find them in the same volume pretty easy.

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 6 February 2003 08:01 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.arrakis.es/~trazeg/colette.jpg

― erik, Thursday, 6 February 2003 11:30 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

This thread is so unenthusiastic!

Anyway, I'm on quite a Colette obsession right now. I've been reading a lot of her work, and now I'm knee deep in a biography of her written by Judith Thurman. Has anyone else read it? It really makes for a great story in and of itself.

I looked online, and the village she was born in doesn't look like it's changed much at all in the past 100 years!

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i want to read some colette! i never knew where to start, i guess this thread is it!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Her short stories are great. I just finished Gigi this morning. But also, they are especially great in conjunction with her biography because there are so many obvious ties. A lot of her characters come straight out of her own life.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i've never read her before... would you suggest the stories as a starting point? i saw gigi the movie last year though!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

the short story of 'gigi' is really fantastic, and way better than the film, i think. i also like the cheri books, although i probably like her short stories better than some of the books.

can't remember which bios i read, but have read a couple, since she's my namesake! very interesting life, crazy all the famous people that she knew...

(xpost times 2)

― colette (a2lette), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

Are Cheri and The Last of Cheri difficult reads? (I'm supposed to finish a novel in three weeks, and I don't have a whole lot of free time)

― Tape Store, Friday, 12 October 2007 03:05 (eighteen years ago)

Neither is very long (part of why they're usually published in one volume). Unless it fails to appeal to you I can't imagine not being able to read at least the first one in that time.

― j.lu, Friday, 12 October 2007 14:34 (eighteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

have been reading break of day, took a break & read the intro to it, by judith thurman..def an interesting life colette led:

Colette's erotic legend now became an embarrassment, though not so great an embarrassment as the affair that she had been conducting with Henry's son by his first marriage. Bertrand de Jouvenel was a bookish virgin of sixteen when his stepmother "made him a man" at her beach house among the dunes of Brittany.

― johnny crunch, Friday, 14 June 2019 20:16 (seven years ago)

read claudine at school a few years back and loved it

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 14 June 2019 20:27 (seven years ago)

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