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"In 1900, a provincial beauty best known as the child bride of a famous Parisian rake captivated the Belle Epoque by writing a story that invented the modern teenage girl. It was the first in a series of wildly popular but also critically acclaimed novels that, combined with a flamboyant career on the stage, made this former country girl the first authentic superstar of the century."--BOOK JACKET.
"But for all her celebrity as one of France's greatest and most notorious novelists and personalities, Sidonic-Gabrielle Colette was a profoundly reticent and self-suspicious creature who fiercely resists being known."--BOOK JACKET.
"Having spent her village childhood in the shadow of a queenly, possessive mother who taught her the value of resilience, Colette would go on to embody the image of the modern woman. At twenty, she marries the canny but unscrupulous Willy, who not only takes the credit - and the royalties - for her best-selling Claudine novels, but also keeps her enthralled in more primal ways. In 1908, she divorces her Pygmalion and pursues the most public of her many affairs with women.
At forty, she gives birth to her only and much-neglected child. Her second marriage, to her daughter's father - a brilliant, predatory, patrician journalist and politician - falters, then fails. At forty-seven, she seduces her adolescent stepson. At menopause, she rediscovers her mother. At fifty-two, she embarks upon a torrid adventure with a much younger man that blooms - against all expectations - into the serene and enduring mutual devotion she has yearned for but has never known.
This third husband, Maurice Goudeket, also becomes the source of her worst anguish when he is arrested by the Gestapo during the Occupation."--BOOK JACKET.
"As Colette redefines the conventions of loving and aging, she continues to live and write with Olympian vitality. Her principal subject is the bonds of love; her one true faith the consoling power of sensual pleasure. She opens a beauty institute and does makeovers in a lab coat; she produces a body of incisive journalism; she writes enchanting gems like Gigi and Sido, and provocative masterpieces like Cheri, Break of Day, The Ripening Seed, and The Pure and the Impure.
Her wartime work remains the most controversial part of her legacy, and Thurman addresses the troubling questions it raises."--BOOK JACKET.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Authors, French, French Authors, Biography, French Women authors, New York Times reviewed, Colette, 1873-1954People
Colette (1873-1954)Times
20th centuryShowing 5 featured editions. View all 5 editions?
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1
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
October 31, 2000, Ballantine Books
Paperback
in English
0345371038 9780345371034
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2
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette
August 2000, Bloomsbury Pub Ltd
Paperback
in English
- New Ed edition
0747548439 9780747548430
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 563-567) and index.
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First Sentence
"IN THE MIDDLE of the last century, the village of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye was rustic backwater despite its proximity to Paris, three hours by train to the nearest station followed by a rough cart ride."
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History
- Created April 1, 2008
- 13 revisions
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July 17, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
December 4, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
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November 30, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from Scriblio MARC record |