Lettres à Missy — letters by Colette

“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 she mentions in each letter. This must have taken a lot of patience, dedication and detective work, so much credit is due to Bordji and Maget.

Colette’s first letter in the collection was sent from Le Grand Hôtel in Nice, and has an estimated date of February 1908. Colette has just arrived from Monte-Carlo, and gossips to Missy about the friends she saw there, and who won or lost in the casinos. Colette’s tone is friendly when she mentions Willy and Meg (her ex-husband and his girlfriend) — the famously tempestuous relationship between the literary ex-couple can’t have deteriorated yet.

Colette is on tour, miming in the play La Chair (Flesh). In wild Monte-Carlo, she ripped her dress completely as part of the play, and showed off one of her beautiful breasts, and most of a thigh. In conservative Nice, however, she was allowed only to unbutton the top of her dress. Colette describes to Missy how well the audience reacted to the play, and how pleased she is that the audience in Nice loved her, despite the lack of naked flesh in play with such a promising, titillating title.