The Innocent Libertine

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born in rural Burgundy in 1873. At twenty, she married Henry Gauthier-Villars, known as “Willy”, a critic, journalist and self-promoting man of letters, fourteen years older than herself. Soon immersed in his Parisian literary world, she wrote for him the sensational and highly successful Claudine series of novels. But the pair separated in 1906 and were divorced in 1910. She subsequently married twice more. Her writing career continued in spite of much turmoil, including spells as a dancer, mime artist and actor. Among her most renowned works are La vagabonde (1910), Chéri (1920), Le blé en herbe (1923), La naissance du jour (1928) and Gigi (1944).

Her literary fame was matched by admiration for her strong-minded, independent and often controversial lifestyle. Although crippled by arthritis in her last decade, she nevertheless remained active throughout the war years in Nazi-occupied Paris, having become by now the grande dame of French literature. She was elected president of the Académie Goncourt in 1949 and appointed Grand Officier in the Légion d’honneur in 1953. On her death in August 1954, she became the first woman in France to be honoured by a state funeral.