Colette and Anaïs Nin on Facebook, and Polaire’s corset

I finally leapt into the twenty-first century last week, when I joined Facebook. As a joke I thought: wouldn’t it be funny if Colette and Anaïs Nin are on here, so I searched for them — and they are! I joined the group of Colette and Anaïs’s “fans” — I look forward to many intense, detailled web-conversations about these wonderful writers!

One of the pictures of Colette on the site actually isn’t her at all, but Polaire — they did look alike, so it’s a common mistake. Polaire became famous when Colette’s first book “Claudine à l’école” (Claudine at school) (then published under the name Willy, Colette’s husband) was adapted as a play. Polaire first played the naughty, sapphic schoolgirl on stage in Paris in 1902. Colette later played Claudine as well, but even Colette, Claudine’s creator, maintained that Polaire was the original and best Claudine.

Polaire cut her hair to ressemble Colette’s daring, curly bobbed mop, and Willy liked to dress them alike so he could parade his “twins” to scandalise fashionable society. Colette’s memoirs describe her feeling of utter shame as the trio enter a restaurant and there is a sudden hush as all eyes are on them — she is horribly aware of the “ugly thoughts” that Willy’s “twin wives” inspire in the shocked spectators.

You can also tell Polaire and Colette apart by Polaire’s beautiful large, dark eyes (she was Algerian), and tiny waist. If you choose to believe the rumours, she could tighten the laces on her corset until her waist measured only 14 inches (35 cm). That’s half the circumference of the average woman’s waist in today’s loose, corset-less society!

On confond souvent les photographies de Colette avec ceux de Polaire — en fait, c’est assez facile de les separer: Polaire avait de beaux yeaux sombres (elle était Algerienne) et une jolie taille toute petite.