frostling 's review for:

The Vagabond by Colette

4.0

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I read this novella knowing that it was semi-biographical, and that it covered Colette’s harrowing first marriage, divorce and her subsequent life as a stage artist. All of this is depicted with the author’s usual talent for details. Reading these pages, we can feel the cold and damp atmosphere of the sordid French music halls where pre WWI artists sang and danced for wages that barely kept them alive.

This is the path that Renée Néré (Colette’s alter ego) has chosen. It offers a cruel solitude, but it also allows her to be financially independent. So when Maxime Dufferein-Chautel, a rich idle man, falls in love with her, Renée has a big decision to make. Will she follow him? Will she keep her independence? Will she compromise?

She doesn’t know until the last moment. What would love and a second marriage bring to a 34 year old woman like her? She contemplates, studies, projects herself in the future, getting older and less desirable, and she makes her choice. A choice that preserves her personality, and which is prolonged in ‘L’Entrave’ (1913), a sequel to ‘La Vagabonde’.

I enjoyed this short novel, even if I can’t help thinking that Renée overthought Maxime’s intentions and potential. Having said this, 1910 isn’t 2020, and back then equality between men and women was even more an illusion than it is now.

Anyway hats off to Colette for offering us such a vibrant and timeless female voice :).