Creating Colette

Colette is one of the most prominent of 20th-century French novelists, famous for turning the raw materials of her life into the captivating--and daringly frank--fiction of the Claudine novels. Literary critics and biographers have made many bold claims on her behalf (and justifiably so); Claude Francis and Fernande Gontier are no exception. "Like Proust, her contemporary," they write in their introduction, "she swept through the psychological liberation of homosexuality and bisexuality. But she did so more daringly than Proust, who treated homosexuality in his works but denied his actual sexual preference.... Colette not only wrote but openly lived according to her beliefs." When she left her first husband for a woman known as "France's most notorious cross-dresser," tongues wagged, but Colette brazenly insisted on the right to live "in the most normal manner I know, which is according to [my] pleasure."

Creating Colette examines the first 40 years of the author's life, from her childhood in the rural village of Saint-Saveur to her rise to stardom among "Tout-Paris" (the "smart set," as it were) as a writer-actress. Along the way, the two biographers shatter the myths surrounding her marriage to Henri Gauthier-Villars (a.k.a. Willy), rediscovering him as critical mentor rather than insensitive exploiter. They also reveal that her libertine sexuality was primarily shaped not by Willy, but by her mother, Sido, whose views on childrearing stemmed from the social-utopia ideals of philosopher Charles Fourier. Creating Colette is a charming biography that offers tantalizing glimpses into turn-of-the-century Paris society, sure to appeal to readers regardless of their previous familiarity with her work. --Ron Hogan