Genre: Classic- Novellas
Publication Date: 1953
Page Count: 156
Rating: 4/5
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This is my first experience with Colette, who I have been wanting to read for quite some time. This edition contains two short novellas, both of which are translated from French. I have never seen the movie Gigi, so I was unfamiliar with the both stories in this edition.
I really enjoyed both of these stories, but I think I enjoyed The Cat a bit more. Both stories take an interesting look at women's rolse in love and marriage, and I really enjoyed the writing. I'm interested to see the movie Gigi now, and I'm definitely searching out more of Collette's works. I would also love to read more about her as a person, as what I know so far is pretty interesting. A lot of her works seem to deal with women, love, and sexuality in interesting ways.
Gigi is the story of a young women being groomed to be a courtesan by her grandmother and mother. I found this story to be pretty enjoyable and I read it in one sitting. Of course, because it is only sixty pages I felt like it could have been more fleshed out and the characters more developed, but I really enjoyed it for what it was. I know the movie is pretty watered down and contains a lot of singing so I would love to compare the two.
The Cat is about a young and newly married man's love for his pet cat and his reluctance to give up the cat once he is married. This story was a bit odd, but really interesting. The young couple were both fully developed characters, as well as the cat. I thought the themes and ideas in this one were pretty interesting and the way it looked at marriage was interesting as well. I know Colette had a bad marriage in her lifetime, which could be why her ideas on love and sexuality are so interesting for her time.
I think these two stories are a really good introduction to Colette and I'm really glad I put them on my Classics Club Women's Literature list!
You can see all the posts I've done in the series so far here.
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