Colette (28/1/1873 – 3/8/1954)
Συγγραφέας, Γαλλία
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Her original name was Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.
She has sometimes been known as Colette Willy.
Her mother was Adele-Eugenie-Sidonie, but called Sido. Her father, Jules Colette, was an army captain who fought in the Crimea and lost a leg in the Italian campaign. He then became a tax collector.
In 1893, aged 20, Colette went to Paris to marry Henri Gauthier-Villars. Colette's early novels, in the Claudine series, were published by, Henri Gauthier-Villars, under his pen name 'Willy'. In Claudine à l'École, (1900), (Claudine At School), Claudine, a tomboyish girl of 15, develops an intense crush on a pretty assistant mistress, Aimée. This is the first time in modern literature in which a girl looks at another woman and describes her as an object of pleasure. Colette's collaboration with Henri Gauthier-Villars ended in 1904, and from then until 1916 she wrote under the name Colette Willy. They divorced in 1906.
She then began to work in music halls, performing in dance and mime. She liked to shock by baring her breasts. Her music hall experiences provided material for L'Envers du music-hall, (1913), (Music Hall Sidelights, 1957).
She had numerous affairs with women. One of them was the youngest daughter of the Duc de Morny, Mathilde, known as Missy, with whom Colette lived in a château. After a brief marriage Missy had become the Marquise de Belboeuf, but she became well known in Paris lesbian circles as Monsieur Belboeuf. Colette and Missy caused a scandal with a mime piece at the Moulin Rouge in which Colette was an Egyptian mummy who unwrapped her bandages and kissed Missy as the cross-dressed archaeologist. The 15-minute item was banned by the Paris police commissioner.
Colette also became a great love of the US-born writer Natalie Barney (1876-1972) who appears as 'Flossie' in the Claudine series of novels.
In The Pure and The Impure, (1941), Colette includes sketches of Parisian lesbians including Missy as 'La Chevaliere'.
Colette wrote to Una Troubridge, the lover of Radclyffe Hall, to explain that she disagreed with the view expressed in 'The Well of Loneliness' of lesbian love as abnormal.
Colette had a column as drama critic in the newspaper Le Matin, and there was a further scandal when she eloped with Henry de Jouvenal, the editor-in-chief of the paper. With Henry de Jouvenal she accidentally conceived her only child, a daughter, Colette Renée de Jouvenal, out of wedlock. Her mother gave her the provencal nickname, Bel-Gazou, that her own father had given her. Colette and Henry de Jouvenal then married in 1912.
In World War I Colette was sent as a reporter to the Italian front.
In 1920 Claire Boas, the previous wife of Henry de Jouvenal, introduced their 16-year-old son, Bertrand de Jouvenel, to Collete. During the holidays on the Breton coast that summer Bertrand lost his virginity to the 47-year-old Colette. The events paralleled Colette's novel Chéri, which was being serialised at the time in La Vie Parisienne, and is about an older woman's affair with a younger man. Colette's second marriage came to an end when her husband heard of the affair, and they divorced in 1923.
Colette's third husband was the pearl dealer Maurice Goudeket, who was 16 years younger, and whom she married in 1935 at the age of 63. They settled permanently at the Palais-Royal in Paris.
Among her literary friends were Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais.
In 1928 Colette became a member of the Legion of Honour, and 1936 she was made a commander. She later became a grand officer.
In 1936 she was elected to the Royal Academy of Language and Literature of Belgium.
In 1945 she was the first woman to be elected to the Académie Goncourt, and in 1949 she was made its president. The National Institute of Arts and Letters in the USA awarded her its diploma.
In 1951 her novel Gigi, (1944), was produced as a Broadway show starring Audrey Hepburn. A US film was made in 1958.
When she died Colette became the first woman to be honoured with a French state funeral.
(Αναδημοσίευση από το site The knitting circle)
Her original name was Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.
She has sometimes been known as Colette Willy.
Her mother was Adele-Eugenie-Sidonie, but called Sido. Her father, Jules Colette, was an army captain who fought in the Crimea and lost a leg in the Italian campaign. He then became a tax collector.
In 1893, aged 20, Colette went to Paris to marry Henri Gauthier-Villars. Colette's early novels, in the Claudine series, were published by, Henri Gauthier-Villars, under his pen name 'Willy'. In Claudine à l'École, (1900), (Claudine At School), Claudine, a tomboyish girl of 15, develops an intense crush on a pretty assistant mistress, Aimée. This is the first time in modern literature in which a girl looks at another woman and describes her as an object of pleasure. Colette's collaboration with Henri Gauthier-Villars ended in 1904, and from then until 1916 she wrote under the name Colette Willy. They divorced in 1906.
She then began to work in music halls, performing in dance and mime. She liked to shock by baring her breasts. Her music hall experiences provided material for L'Envers du music-hall, (1913), (Music Hall Sidelights, 1957).
She had numerous affairs with women. One of them was the youngest daughter of the Duc de Morny, Mathilde, known as Missy, with whom Colette lived in a château. After a brief marriage Missy had become the Marquise de Belboeuf, but she became well known in Paris lesbian circles as Monsieur Belboeuf. Colette and Missy caused a scandal with a mime piece at the Moulin Rouge in which Colette was an Egyptian mummy who unwrapped her bandages and kissed Missy as the cross-dressed archaeologist. The 15-minute item was banned by the Paris police commissioner.
Colette also became a great love of the US-born writer Natalie Barney (1876-1972) who appears as 'Flossie' in the Claudine series of novels.
In The Pure and The Impure, (1941), Colette includes sketches of Parisian lesbians including Missy as 'La Chevaliere'.
Colette wrote to Una Troubridge, the lover of Radclyffe Hall, to explain that she disagreed with the view expressed in 'The Well of Loneliness' of lesbian love as abnormal.
Colette had a column as drama critic in the newspaper Le Matin, and there was a further scandal when she eloped with Henry de Jouvenal, the editor-in-chief of the paper. With Henry de Jouvenal she accidentally conceived her only child, a daughter, Colette Renée de Jouvenal, out of wedlock. Her mother gave her the provencal nickname, Bel-Gazou, that her own father had given her. Colette and Henry de Jouvenal then married in 1912.
In World War I Colette was sent as a reporter to the Italian front.
In 1920 Claire Boas, the previous wife of Henry de Jouvenal, introduced their 16-year-old son, Bertrand de Jouvenel, to Collete. During the holidays on the Breton coast that summer Bertrand lost his virginity to the 47-year-old Colette. The events paralleled Colette's novel Chéri, which was being serialised at the time in La Vie Parisienne, and is about an older woman's affair with a younger man. Colette's second marriage came to an end when her husband heard of the affair, and they divorced in 1923.
Colette's third husband was the pearl dealer Maurice Goudeket, who was 16 years younger, and whom she married in 1935 at the age of 63. They settled permanently at the Palais-Royal in Paris.
Among her literary friends were Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais.
In 1928 Colette became a member of the Legion of Honour, and 1936 she was made a commander. She later became a grand officer.
In 1936 she was elected to the Royal Academy of Language and Literature of Belgium.
In 1945 she was the first woman to be elected to the Académie Goncourt, and in 1949 she was made its president. The National Institute of Arts and Letters in the USA awarded her its diploma.
In 1951 her novel Gigi, (1944), was produced as a Broadway show starring Audrey Hepburn. A US film was made in 1958.
When she died Colette became the first woman to be honoured with a French state funeral.
(Αναδημοσίευση από το site The knitting circle)
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