Colette

Colette (28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954) was a French novelist and woman of letters born Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. She was a mime, actress, and journalist, among other things. She is an outstanding novelist of the first half of the twentieth century whose best novels, largely concerned with the pains and pleasures of love, are notable for their command of sensual description. Colette is best known for her 1944 novella Gigi, which inspired a 1958 film and a 1973 stage version of the same name.

Colette was the annalist of feminine existence, a sensitive and witty realism. She mostly wrote about conventional roles for women, such as wife, abandonment, elderly, or déclassé mistresses. Her preferred genre was the novella, and her writing style was a mix of sophisticated and natural, interwoven with all the delicate cadences of sensual pleasures and intuitive insight.