Product Description

In these two superb stories of the politics of love, Colette is at her witty, instinctive best. Gigi is being educated in the skills of the Courtesan: to choose cigars, to eat lobster, to enter a world where a woman's chief weapon is her body. However, when it comes to the question of Gaston Lachaille, very rich and very bored, Gigi does not want to obey the rules. In 'The Cat', a wonderful story of burgeoning sexuality and blossoming love, an exquisite strong-minded Russian Blue is struggling for mastery of Alain with his seductive fiancee, Camille.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45297 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-04
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
Colette, the creator of Claudine, Cheri 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.

Customer Reviews

The Cat is The Star
This is the first time I have read a book by Colette, and I came to it expecting 'Gigi' to be the standout, having been a famous film. However, that slight tale of the social advancement of a young girl in Paris didn't offer much beyond some nicely written descriptive passages and a few smiles.

'The Cat' on the other hand, was a brilliant novella-length work about a love triangle between a man, his new wife, and his beloved Russian Blue cat. It is by turns painful, funny, and melancholic. The insights into the start of a married life between the young, rich and slightly bored couple, getting on each other's nerves almost immediatenly, are delicately presented, and the story manages to be very touching despite presumably being intended as a light, comic piece. I would in fact say that 'The Cat' is a mini-masterpiece and well worth an hour or two of anyone's time.

A charming read, elegantly written.
I wanted to read the short story 'Gigi' to compare with the famous musical film, but it stands on its own. Gigi is a charming, disarmingly honest character, and the other characters - her aunt, mother & Gaston - are interesting and sympathetic each in their own way. It's a lovely well-written story, delightful, and deceptively light. 'The Cat' is a longer story, a novella really. I didn't enjoy it as much as 'Gigi' and found it difficult to empathise with any of the characters (including Saha the cat), but it was an interesting depiction of a new marriage going wrong, and gives some uncomfortable insights into relationships at close quarters.

Rent the film instead...
Having seen the film, I thought I knew what to expect when I picked up 'Gigi'. 'Gigi' is really a short story about a girl who is taught, by her grandmother and great-aunt, how she should behave in polite French society with the aim of finding a suitable match. This is a long stream about how eggs should be eaten, how hair can be worn and how her knees must be kept together when she is sitting down!!

Gigi is something of a tomboy and ends up defying all conventions and yet bewitching the infamous Gaston Lachaille.

The story is sweet and Gigi, as a character, bounces off the page but although it is sweet I don't feel that it has dated particularly well.

'The Cat' is really a novella about a young man, Alain, who marries Camille, a young and very passionate woman. Alain is a highly unsympathetic character who displays an unhealthy interest in his cat, Saha. His sexuality is so repressed that the interpretation of the cat's behaviour is highly sexualised and she becomes a real rival for Camille.

The story is interesting, because it explores the lengths that people will go to when they feel jealous and threatened, but as none of the characters are particularly sympathetic.

I won't be rushing to read another!