Book description
Chéri, first published in 1920, is considered Colette's finest
novel. Exquisitely handsome, spoilt and sardonic, Chéri is the only
son of a wealthy courtesan, a contemporary of Léa, the magnificent
and talented woman who for six years has devoted herself to his
amorous education.
When a rich marriage is arranged for Chéri, Léa reluctantly
decides their relationship must end. Chéri, despite his apparent
detachment, is haunted by memories of Léa; alienated from his wife,
his family and his surroundings, he retreats into a fantasy world made
up of dreams and the past, a world from which there is only one route
of escape.
In her portrait of the fated love affair between a very young man
and a middle-aged woman, Colette achieved a peak in her earthy,
sensuous and utterly individual art. Chéri caused considerable
controversy both in its choice of setting - the fabulous demi-monde of
the Parisian courtesans - and in its portrayal of Chéri.
Colette, the creator of Claudine, Chéri and Gigi, and one of
France's outstanding writers, had a long, varied and active life. Born
in Burgundy on 1873 she moved to Paris at the age of twenty with her
husband the writer and critic Henry Gauthiers-Viller (Willy). Forcing
Colette to write Willy published her novels in his name and the Claudine
series became an instant success. In 1935 she married for the third time
and lived with husband Maurice Goudeket until her death in 1954. Her
writing runs to fifteen volumes, novels, portraits, essays, chroniques
and a large body of autobiographical prose. She was the first woman
President of the Academie Goncourt, and when she died she was given a
state funeral and buried in Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
