THE RELEVANT QUEER: Colette, Author, Actor, Journalist Born January 28, 1873

“I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it.”

TRQ: Colette, Born January 28, 1873

Author, actor and journalist, Colette was born on January 28, 1873. One of France’s most prominent fiction writers, she published her first four novels under her husband’s pen name, “Willy.” Colette was a libertine who had affairs with both men and women, and her writing style is humorous, saturated in sensual detail. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, she is most remembered for her novel Gigi (1944), which was adapted to film and stage.

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, France. Her father Jules-Joseph was a war hero. Her mother Adèle Eugénie had a warm relationship with her daughter and encouraged an appreciation of the natural world.

Colette attended public school until age 17. Three years after graduating she married Henri Gauthier Villars, a well-known writer and publisher known as “Willy.” Willy introduced Colette at age 20 to the bohemian fringes of Parisian society, spending time in intellectual and artistic salons and mingling with the demimonde. Colette engaged in lesbian affairs at Willy’s encouragement. After discovering his wife’s talent for writing, Willy isolated his wife for hours at a time, pressuring her to write lesbian novels for which he would take public credit.

Between 1900 and 1903, Colette wrote the four Claudine novels: Claudine à l’école (“Claudine at School”) (1900), Claudine à Paris (“Claudine in Paris”) (1901), Claudine en ménage (“Claudine Married”) (1902), and Claudine s’en va (“Claudine and Annie”) (1903). Semi-autobiographical, the stories follow Claudine from her village in Burgundy to Parisian literary salons. The Claudine books were immensely successful. They bolstered Willy’s reputation and because he owned the copyright, Claudine royalties increased his wealth considerably.

Even though Colette credited Willy with sparking her writing career, she separated from him in 1906. A year later, she published La Retraite sentimentale (“Retreat from Love”) (1907), her first solo novel. Newly independent Colette was penniless, she took to performing on stage, often as Claudine. While the plays adapted from the Claudine novels were popular and successful moneymakers, Colette saw none of the earnings. She scraped by and her health suffered.

From 1906 to 1910 Colette had several lesbian affairs, including one with Marquise de Balbeuf (“Missy”), a sometimes stage performer who was wealthy and adopted masculine dress and mannerisms. After causing a near-riot by sharing an onstage kiss in 1907, Colette and Missy chose to continue their relationship in private. Colette published La Vagabonde which presents the struggles independent women endure in male-dominated society.

In 1912, Colette married Henry de Jouvenel, editor-in-chief of Le Matin, the paper where she wrote short stories and theatre articles. Their daughter, Colette de Jouvenel (nicknamed “Bel-Gazou”) was born a year later. The couple divorced in 1924, however, because of Jouvenel’s rampant infidelity and Colette’s affair with her stepson Bertrand de Jouvenel, who was16 at the time.

During these years, Colette wrote some of her best work. Chéri (1920) and La Fin de Chéri (“The Last of Cheri”) (1926) tell of the relations between a young man and an older woman. La Maison de Claudine (“My Mother’s House”) (1922) and Sido (1930) return to the countryside of her childhood for an exploration of the lives of women.

In the year she joined the Belgian Royal Academy, Colette married the writer Maurice Goudeket in 1935. In 1941, after Nazi Germans occupied France, her husband was arrested by the Gestapo. In addition to two volumed of memoirs, Colette wrote articles for pro-Nazi newspapers and published Julie de Carneilhan (1941) which is riddled with anti- Semitic slurs.

“Look for a long time at what pleases you, and longer still at what pains you …”

— Colette

Colette published her best known work, Gigi, in 1944. The story of the courtesan who marries for love was made into a French film in 1949. Colette chose Audrey Hepburn to play the title role in the stage production two years later. The 1958 Hollywood adaptation won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In 1945 she joined the Académie Goncourt and became its President in 1949. Widely recognised as France’s most important woman writer, Colette became even more famous in years after the war.

Her health had significantly deteriorated, and Goudeket looked after her wellbeing. She continued producing autobiographical works through the 1940s and Claude Farrère nominated her a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.

Spending her last days in her Palais-Royal apartment, Colette died in Paris on August 3, 1954. She was the first French woman of letters to have a state funeral, as the Catholic Church refused to give her a religious funeral. Recognised for her importance as a writer, Colette has received tributes from Truman Capote, Rosanne Cash and Julia Holter. Keira Knightley played the title character in Colette (2018).

About the Authors:

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.

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Sources:

Encyclopedia

LRB

Literary Ladies Guide

Britannica

Queer Portraits