The French writer Colette (1873–1954) is best known in the United States for such classic novels asGigi andCheri, which were made into popular movies, but she was a prolific author. This meticulously translated collection offers some of her best fiction, personal essays, articles, and talks, all appearing in English for the first time. The pieces showcase Colette's gifts as a writer: her deep wisdom about every age of human life, her skill as a storyteller, her wry humor, her persuasive powers, and her foresight as a social critic of issues such as gender roles.

The translators combed through journals and past editions of Colette's work to cull these gems, which cover an enormous array of topics—from French wines and perfumes to her friendships with Marcel Proust and Maurice Chevalier to uncanny insight into the curious habits of cats and dogs. Selections from an advice column that Colette wrote for the French women's magazineMarie Claire are also included, and her savvy suggestions for the lovelorn stand the test of time. Moving articles written during the two world wars, along with her memories of being an actor and playwright, reveal facets of her writing that are less often celebrated. The first new work by Colette to appear in English in half a century, it will delight devoted fans and new readers alike.

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Stories Imagined and Real
            Conversation in the Metro
            Divine
            The Woman Who Sings
            Jealousy
            By the Bay of Somme
            Makeup
            The Dancer’s Song
            Loves
            The Mirror
            Gone Fishin’
            Masked Ball on the Riviera: Cyclamen and Buttercup, or the Costume Ball of Feet
            Shipwrecked on a Traffic Island

Colette’s Advice Column
            From Denise in Despair
            From a Tormented Heart
            From Minerva
            “I love a young man…”
            Colette on Love
            Colette on Women Growing Older
            You

Memoirs of Friends
            Portrait of Marcel Proust
            Remembering Maurice Chevalier
            Portrait of the Poet Léon-Paul Fargue

Cats, Dogs, and Nature
            The Cat
            A Dream
            Toby-Dog and Music
            The Bees of Castel-Novel
            Bees
            Morning
            The Summer Beauty
            Snowdrop

War and Peace
            Their Letters
            In the Home for Blind Soldiers
            The Eyes of the Dragonfly
            Colette Speaks to Americans
            Parisians Go on Vacation—To Paris

The Writing Life
            Ways of Writing
            Letter to My Daughter
            The Young Poet
            Fashions
            Why I’ve Never Written a Children’s Book
            Children’s Books
            Scribes of the Palais-Royal
            On Growing Older

Colette’s Journalism
            Tinkerers
            The Discovery
            Poverty Exists Everywhere
            Neighbors
            The Fake Pearl
            Gold
            Laziness
            With Love
            The Silence of Small Children

Colette on Her Life
            Magic
            “Just a little bit farther…”

Movies, Theater, and Vaudeville
            Why I Love Bette Davis
            From Both Sides of the Curtain
            A Distinguished Connoisseur

French Wine, Perfume, and Dolls
            The Wines of France
            Fragrances
            Dolls