Colette

The daughter of an officer, born and raised in Burgundy . In 1893 she married the then-popular writer, journalist, and music critic Henri Gautier-Villard ( 1859 - 1931 ), known under the pseudonym "Willy . " He introduced her to the literary and artistic circles of the capital, but he shamelessly used it as a “literary Negro” : since 1896, Colette wrote for him a series of autobiographical novels about Claudine which he published under his pseudonym. Under her own name, pseudonym, Colette began to print only in 1904. Moving away from her husband and looking for her own way, since 1906 she began performing in the music hall , at the Marigny Theater, Moulin Rouge , etc. Then she divorced her husband, survived several novels with women (including the artist, writer and actress Matilda de Morney, the Marquise de Belbeuf, half-known under the name Missy , actress and singer Emily-Marie Bushot, who acted under the pseudonym Poehler ) and men (among them - Gabriele d'Annunzio , a famous boxer and playboy Auguste-Olympus Erio and others. ) Her frank kiss with Matilda de Morny in the pantomime "Egyptian Dream" ( 1907 ) on the stage of Moulin Rouge made a lot of noise in the capital and caused the intervention of the prefect of the police.

In 1912, Colette married a politician and journalist, Baron Henri de Jouvenel, they had a daughter. Started an affair with his seventeen-year-old son, future politician and journalist Bertrand de Jouvenel . In 1923, divorced and with this husband.

During the First World War , she actively helped the wounded. She was friends and collaborated with Maurice Ravel , wrote the libretto for his opera-ballet “ Child and Magic ” (premiered in 1925 ). She was friends with the wife of Albert I , Queen of Belgium Elizabeth, actress Margarita Moreno (their correspondence was published in 1959 ), writer Natalie Barney , quarreled with Liana de Puzhi .

In 1935 she married Maurice Gudeke (after the death of the writer, he wrote a biographical book about her). During World War II, she moved to a village in the Correz department , leaving a diary of the war years “The Evening Star” ( 1946 ). After the war, she settled in the Palais Royal , among her neighbors was Jean Cocteau , with whom she became close in the 1920s.

Since 1922, she led the jury of the French , founded in 1921 by Henry Lapauze, including laureates Pierre Mac-Orlan (1922), Paul Moran, and Andre Bayon (1923). She was friends with then still beginner Georges Simenon .

In 1950, she chaired the Grand Prize for the best novels of half a century .

In the last years of her life she suffered from severe arthrosis and did not leave the bed, which she called the "raft bed".

The fame of the writer by that time was already very great. After her death, the French Republic arranged a formal funeral for Colette (the Catholic Church refused to perform a funeral rite over the deceased as divorced). Her remains lie in the Pere Lachaise cemetery .

The postwar years - the time of national recognition Colette. In 1948-1950, a collection of her works in 15 volumes was published; in total, she published about 50 books. Colette was elected a member of the Goncourt Academy ( 1945 ), in 1949 she became its president. Member of the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium . Cavalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor ( 1953 ). In 1966, the square in Paris in front of the Comedy-Frances was named after her.

Colette is currently a classic of French literature. However, she is not only a large, to this day popular writer, but also a striking symbolic figure of a woman of modern times. Julia Kristeva dedicated to her one of the three volumes of the monograph on outstanding women of the 20th century.

Many novels of the writer, starting in 1913 , were filmed. Among the directors who turned to her books are Marc Allegre , Max Ophuls , Marcel L'Erbier , Roberto Rossellini , Edouard Molinaro , Claude Otan-Lara , Jacques Demi , . The play based on the novel "Gigi" (1951, in the title role - Audrey Hepburn ) was a long success on Broadway , as well as the same- directed musical film by Vincente Minelli with Maurice Chevalier , Louis Jourdan and Leslie Caron (1958, received nine Oscars ). The next film adaptation of her novel "Sheri" with Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend was created by Stephen Frears (2009).

About Colette made several films:

• 1950 - the documentary Yannick Bellon ;
• 1991 - feature film directed by Danny Houston (in the role of Colette - Matilda May , in the role of Willy - Klaus Maria Brandauer );
• 2003 - a television film directed by Nadine Trentignan (in the role of Colette - Marie Trentinyan ; Mari died during the filming).
• 2018 - feature film " Colette " directed by Wash Westmolenda. In the role of Colette - Keira Knightley .

Publications in Russian

• Claudine in Paris. Claudine at school M .: Book publishing "Basis", 1908
• The end of Cherie: A novel. M .: Artel of writers "Circle", 1927
• [Stories] // French short story of the XX century, 1900-1939. M .: Fiction, 1973, p. 210-220
• Wanderer. Early shoots. The birth of the day. Zakutok: Novels. M .: Fiction, 1987
• Favorites. M .: Fiction, 1992
• The inside of the music hall: Selected Works. Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk book publishing house, 1993
• Clean and Wicked: Novels, Novels, Essays. M .: AST; Orlov and son, 1994
• My angel: Novels. M .: AST; Orlov and son, 1994
• My angel. The birth of the day. The second one. Duet: Novels. M .: Terra — Book Club, 2004
• Collected works in 7 volumes. M .: Terra, 2008

Biographical and critical literature

• Bonmariage S. Willy, Colette et moi. Paris: C. Frémanger, 1954 (reprint 2004)
• Goudeket M. Près de Colette. Paris: Flammarion, 1956 (reprinted 1966)
• Marks E. Colette. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1960
• Crosland M. Colette — the difficulty of loving: a biography. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973
• Mitchell Y. Colette: a taste for life. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975
• Pichois Cl., Pichois V., Brunet A. Album Colette: iconographie. Paris: Gallimard, 1984
• Richardson J. Colette. New York: F. Watts, 1984
• Benstock Sh. Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1986
• Lottman HR Colette: a life. London: Secker & Warburg, 1991
• Thurman J. Secrets of the flesh: a life of Colette. New York: Knopf, 1999 (reprint 2000)
• Del Castillo M. Colette, une certaine France. Paris: Stock, 1999
• Francis Cl., Gontier F. Creating Colette. Vol.1-2. South Royalton: Steerforth Press, 1999-2000
• Kristeva J. Colette. Paris: Fayard, 2002
• Bonal G., Rémy-Bieth M. Colette intime. Paris: Phébus, 2004
• Lucey M. Never say I: sexuality and the first person in Colette, Gide, and Proust. Durham: Duke UP, 2006
• Literarische Gendertheorie, Eros und Gesellschaft bei Proust und Colette / Ursula Link-Heer, Ursula Hennigfeld, Fernand Hörner (Hrsg.). Bielefeld: Transcript, 2006
• Manguel A. Reading alone with oneself // Manguel A. Reading History. Ekaterinburg: U-Factoria, 2008, p. 177-192
• Michineau S., L'autofiction dans l'oeuvre de Colette, Paris: Publibook, 2008

• www.aflaurent.com/index.php3?theme=3&soustheme=23&rubrique=170&langue=fr (fr.)
• pagesperso-orange.fr/serge.passions/colette.htm (fr.)
• barjaweb.free.fr/SITE/ecrits/colette/colette.html (fr.)
• Biography, bibliography
• Colette Society of Friends (fr.)
• Colette Creative Research Site (Fr.)
• Colette at the cinema (Fr.)
• Photograph by Irwin Penn, 1951
• Telecast about Colette, 1984 (Fr.)
• Colette on the website www.peoples.ru (Russian)