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ivostarr's review against another edition
4.0
Colette would disapprove, but this is my in-betweener book. I don't typically tend to be drawn to short stories, but I'll read pretty much anything Colette has written. Whenever I do pick up a story here and there, I'm reminded of just how fabulous she truly is.
perfectly_reasonable's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
blakehalsey's review against another edition
5.0
My first encounter with Colette and it was one well-worth the time. She captures Paris at that time in history perfectly and with such fervor it makes you want to travel back in time. She is a very human writer, depicting humanity with passion, feeling, and sensuality.
cais's review against another edition
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
“Everything you love strips you of part of yourself.”
This was my first time reading Colette & what a wonderful surprise it has been. Reading these stories throughout the summer I was continually struck by how fresh they seem, despite being written between 1908 & 1945. Funny, wise, sympathetic, artfully candid – these stories are not relics from a past age, but mirrors in which we may very well recognize ourselves.
When Colette, a shrewd observer of appearances, describes the ridiculous “rites of fashion,” women literally folding up their breasts to fit into complicated undergarments, rather than seeming outdated it speaks to the slaves-to-fashion of all ages. Social mores are just as skillfully skewered. A young woman, observing her well-to-do friend whose days are filled with worrying over appearances & expectations, thinks to herself, “Silently, I savor my enviable inferiority.”
Colette understands how bittersweet friendship can be, especially between women, that particular kind of love which can become strangely complicated by strong feeling: “We will never understand one another, my friend. And I hope each of us will search, all our lives, for the other, with aggressive, unselfish tenderness.” Bitchy female on female judgment is also on full ridiculous display: “...her fringe like the visor of a helmet, and her bosom like a Spanish balcony.”
And the love affairs! So many of them, born of passion, loneliness, jealousy, that mysterious element of attraction which can quickly become repulsion: “...moments when desire is so fierce that it almost consumes its object, then forgets it.” Colette writes about childhood beautifully & one of the most touching stories was about a very ill little boy whose wild imagination (“He mounted a cloud of fragrance that was passing within reach of his small, pinched, white nostrils and rode swiftly away.”) brings him great pleasure despite feeling so unwell.
Colette, a daringly modern woman in some ways & a morally repugnant one in others, was, as some called her, a monstre sacré. Her personal life strongly influenced her writing & she is all over these pages, though not overpoweringly so. This collection was a delight to read through, writing that is both of its time & timeless
This was my first time reading Colette & what a wonderful surprise it has been. Reading these stories throughout the summer I was continually struck by how fresh they seem, despite being written between 1908 & 1945. Funny, wise, sympathetic, artfully candid – these stories are not relics from a past age, but mirrors in which we may very well recognize ourselves.
When Colette, a shrewd observer of appearances, describes the ridiculous “rites of fashion,” women literally folding up their breasts to fit into complicated undergarments, rather than seeming outdated it speaks to the slaves-to-fashion of all ages. Social mores are just as skillfully skewered. A young woman, observing her well-to-do friend whose days are filled with worrying over appearances & expectations, thinks to herself, “Silently, I savor my enviable inferiority.”
Colette understands how bittersweet friendship can be, especially between women, that particular kind of love which can become strangely complicated by strong feeling: “We will never understand one another, my friend. And I hope each of us will search, all our lives, for the other, with aggressive, unselfish tenderness.” Bitchy female on female judgment is also on full ridiculous display: “...her fringe like the visor of a helmet, and her bosom like a Spanish balcony.”
And the love affairs! So many of them, born of passion, loneliness, jealousy, that mysterious element of attraction which can quickly become repulsion: “...moments when desire is so fierce that it almost consumes its object, then forgets it.” Colette writes about childhood beautifully & one of the most touching stories was about a very ill little boy whose wild imagination (“He mounted a cloud of fragrance that was passing within reach of his small, pinched, white nostrils and rode swiftly away.”) brings him great pleasure despite feeling so unwell.
Colette, a daringly modern woman in some ways & a morally repugnant one in others, was, as some called her, a monstre sacré. Her personal life strongly influenced her writing & she is all over these pages, though not overpoweringly so. This collection was a delight to read through, writing that is both of its time & timeless
claudsd's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jmmeyer's review against another edition
5.0
So much to say! Yet I don't want to spoil anything. READ THIS!
aliceccbg's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
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