Review by Choice Review
Translated, one assumes, by the authors themselves, this English version of the first volume in a two-part biography originally published in French (1997) reads quite smoothly despite some awkwardness, especially in the early pages. Recent years have seen some excellent Colette scholarship, such as Lynne Huffer's Another Colette (CH, Jul'93). The present volume does not contribute a great deal to the study of Colette's writing--despite pertinent comments on her musical knowledge as reflected in her literary style and on her intellectual background (through her mother's commitment to the Fourierist movement)--but it will prove useful to those interested in the historical period, especially as concerns (bi)sexuality ("Paris-Lesbos," for instance, is an important section). Extensively documented (although the accuracy of the research has been questioned), the book combats myths, some constructed by Colette herself, about such things as her coming to writing. However, at times the authors give peripheral information, lapsing into what may best be termed "gossip" about Colette's first husband, their marriage, its breakup, and their subsequent vengeful relationship. Easily accessible to all readers. Recommended particularly for undergraduate and general collections. A. M. Rea; Occidental College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Those who see our age as the ne plus ultra of feminist culture tinged with indigo could have their eyes opened by this first installment of a two-volume biography of the French writer-cum-actress-cum-nude dancer known to the world as Colette. Here the reader finds a demimonde that preceded the current anything-goes era by nearly a century. However, quelle diffe rence! Colette was Madonna with brains, wit, and panache. This volume chronicles the antics of her sensualist crowd, centering around Colette and her first husband, Henri Gauthiers-Villars (known as Willy), and her many lovers of both sexes. Although eccentricity was abundant, Colette's story is shadowed by the irony that her famed Claudine novels had to appear as authored by her husband, since the masses could not allow the female sex the freedom of authorship. Later, the same masses would revel over Colette's most popular tale, Gigi. A well-researched appendix argues that Colette had black roots--an aspect of her ancestry covered up in previous biographies. --Allen Weakland
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
It's unfortunate that novelist, actress and enfant terrible Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) is best known in America through the movie based on her novel Gigi. That saccharine musical rendition makes it difficult to imagine the novelist's hold on Colettolatres (as French devotees are called). This life by biographers of Proust and de Beauvoir takes the sugar out and puts the saltiness back in. Volume I traces Colette's transformation from schoolgirl to literary and theatrical starleaving her shortly before her divorce from her infamously exploitative husband, Henri Gauthier-Villars (Willy)and portrays an androgynous, often crude literary lioness of fin-de-siècle Paris. Indeed, the city is almost as much a part of this volume as Colette and her fictional alter ego, Claudine. And what a city it is, with Marcel Proust, Anatole France, Paul Valéry, Stéphane Mallarmé and other articulate intellectuals etched against a backdrop of sparkling words, falling into a sea of ether, opium, wine and decadent sex. As with previous biographers Herbert Lottman and Joanna Richardson, the tone is determinedly dispassionate; the authors create their picture through the persistent, telegraphic piling on of detail: "Colette and Willy traveled to the Riviera; Colette was booked to dance Le Faune in Monte Carlo. They spent March with Renée Vivien in her Villa Cessoles in the hills above Nice...." The neutral narrative voice combined with the difficulty of identifying what is important in an erratic story are weaknesses, but the wealth of detail gives this the hallmark of a definitive biography. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Spurred by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette's (1873-1954) allusions to her African ancestry and the belief that she cannot be understood without knowing the "ultraradical cultural background of her maternal family," Francis and Gontier, coauthors of biographies of Marcel Proust and Simone de Beauvoir, base this biography on their study of her family background. They dispel misconceptions of Colette as a country girl corrupted by her first husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars ("Willy"), as they explore the influence of Sido, Colette's mother and a follower of Fourierism, in shaping the life of the first French woman writer to be accorded a formal state funeral. Colette "feasted on life," and the biographers vividly chronicle how she did so, at least for her first 40 years. This compelling biography ends abruptly with the observation that "her life was going to take an unexpected turn," reminding the reader that the second volume is yet to come. Recommended for academic libraries.Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Any biography of the celebrated French author of Gigi, Chéri, and the Claudine novels would have to be replete with juicily scandalous detail. This entry, covering the first half of her life, does not disappoint. Colette's novels of the demimonde and Parisian café society were noteworthy for both their high quality and their autobiographical content. Her numerous marriages, and her hetero and lesbian affairs, provided Colette with a subject and a lifestyle that made her one of the notorious fin-de-siècle celebrities. Francis and Gontier (co-authors of Simone de Beauvoir: A Life, A Love Story, 1987, etc.) sift through rumor, legend, and shadowy fact to piece together a life that would cause modern jet-setters to blanch, perhaps. Colette's contention that she had black ancestors has usually been dismissed by her biographers as a literary conceitas yet another example of her self-promotional efforts. Here, though, the authors dig deep to follow her maternal lineage to a black grandfather from Martinique. They also make great strides at dispelling Colette's bitter late-career assertion that she was bullied into writing by her first husband, the publishing scion Henry Gauthier-Villara. Known as Willy, he was a leading literary figure of the day and, in fact, collaborated with his wife on dozens of novels, essays, and plays. He also gave her syphilis. Colette and Willy both conducted numerous affairs, she (notably) with the Marquise de Morny. Known as ``Frances most notorious cross-dresser,'' Missy, as she was called, and Colette staged a pantomime that summoned the police. Colette's oeuvre remains of mild interest. Colette the woman is eternally fascinating. (b&w photos, not seen)
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Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
