Missy or Max? Tu or vous?

January 15, 2010 · Leave a Comment

The “tu / vous” distinction is very important in French, as a measure of intimacy between speakers and writers. Traditionally, “tu” was used only by adults to children, between close relatives, intimate friends, and lovers. Nowadays, the rigid distinction is easing, and many young people instantly use “tu” with each other, dispensing with that awkward step in a friendship of progressing from “vous” to “tu”. In the “Claudine” novels, the narrator reveals that, although she scandalizes polite society... [Read more]

Lettres à Missy — letters by Colette

December 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment

“Lettres à Missy” edited by Samia Bordji and Frédéric Maget, published by Flammarion (Paris 2009). Once or twice a year, I give myself the luxury of ordering some books from France. The most recent shipload included “Lettres à Missy”: a collection of letters written by Colette to her lover, Missy (Mathilde de Morny, the Marquise of Belboeuf). Colette never dated her letters, but the editors have given each letter an estimated date by finding out when Colette visited a particular town, or performed a play, that... [Read more]

The Pure and the Impure — Colette in drag

November 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I’m looking at a famous, gorgeous photograph of Colette in drag. She is very debonair with her cropped hair, and wears a black jacket and trousers, and silk tie. She has a finger in the pocket of her striped waistcoat (is she being suggestive, or searching for her pocket-watch?), smokes a cigarette and looks directly, perhaps challengingly, at the camera. The photograph is on the cover of Colette’s memoir-novel, Ces Plaisirs (These Pleasures), later renamed Le Pur et l’Impur (The Pure and the Impure).... [Read more]

Colette — how far would she go to shock the bourgeoisie?

October 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Colette’s lover from 1905 to 1911 was Mathilde de Morny, the Marquise of Belboeuf (often known as Missy). It’s interesting how many of Colette’s numerous biographers list only her liaisons with men, simply ignoring her long-term, live-in relationship with the marquise, or dismiss it as part of Colette’s love of scandalising the bourgeoisie. I concede that a brief affair (or two) with a woman might not mean that Colette had serious feelings for women, but surely a relationship that lasted for six years must... [Read more]

Review of Chéri — the film

October 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Two of my favourite Colette novels, Chéri and La fin de Chéri, have been made into a sumptuous, lavish film. I couldn’t wait to see it! Colette wrote the novels — novellas, really — in the 1920s, but they are set in the dazzling, glorious days of La Belle Époque, circa 1900. Most of the story takes place, it hardly needs saying, in Paris. Léa, a courtesan of “a certain age” takes Chéri as her last lover before retiring from the boudoir. To complicate matters, Chéri is the pampered 19-year-old son of Léa’s... [Read more]

Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin and Colette on YouTube

A couple of friends came over and videoed me reading aloud from my novel, Nights in Paris. One video shows me reading from The Slave of Bracelets, one of my chapters about Anaïs... [Read more]

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