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Title: Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Judith Thurman ISBN: 0-345-37103-8 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 31 October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.3 (23 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: I got lost in this book
Comment: Reading this book I found myself lost among the outrageous, glamorous and exotic characters Colette lived among, including, of course herself. It was such a different world! For that alone I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a 'meaty read'. ie it's not for someone who wants to just skim the pages lightly, you've got to commit. I found it highly readable and it lead me on, page by page, quite effortlessly right through to the end.
For a fan of Colette's work I thought the book did an admirable job of setting her works in the context of her life without taking any of their magic away - as so many author biographers are wont to do.
I found it a bit predictable that her life could be plotted so closely against her novels - this is always a biographers dream - but perhaps in Colette's case it's true.....
Rating: 5
Summary: A feast for those who can't get enough of Colette
Comment: Colette is one of those authors whose life is as fascinating as her writing, and this book ably describes the former, also containing many wonderful photos. Colette's uniquely sensitive yet unsentimental way of experiencing life has been a source of inspiration to me since I first discovered her as a preteen. One moment she can be devastated by the suffering of an animal, or write with exquisite insightfulness about the insecurities of her unconventional friends; the next she can swear off a failed marriage or friendship without a hint of pity (or self-pity). This book was very satisfying from the standpoint of her personal and family history, and contained extensive information about her long-standing affair with her teenaged stepson, which, while perhaps her most problematic moral transgression, certainly made for interesting reading. While the book was far less occupied with conveying the brilliance of Colette's writing, for that one need only go to the source. There is so much to learn from Colette's life; despite facing considerable hardships, she managed to thrive and celebrate all that she found beautiful and fascinating in nature, the theater, humanity -- really any topic to which she turned her magnificent vision. Betrayal was a major theme in her relationships, and the way that she survived and even exploited repeated psychic wounds, ultimately finding peace with a kind and compatible partner, is instructive and inspiring. She will always have a very special place in my heart, and I thank Ms. Thurman for making her more accessible.
Rating: 4
Summary: Insightful, Enjoyable Study of A Wonderful Person
Comment: I say "wonderful," though I don't mean in the chaste, good person sort of way, but in a fiery, accomplished one. This biography, amazingly in depth (though at times almost too chronological, and not enough insight into Colette's persona) reveals all that Colette did and was, the good, the bad and the ugly, though despite her flaws she contributed an oceanful of herself--her books, her plays, her child, her love, and her histrionic talents to the world. She lived without being afraid to be herself in a time, as Thurman truthfully puts it, when contempt for both women and homosexuals (of which she was both) ran rampant.
Thurman has definitely done her research, and switches back and forth between a sort of fictitious, dreamy scape and a very forward, matter of fact report, which can get a little austere. I went back and forth to being completely absorbed to just reading it to get past this or that part, but thankfully, there was much more to praise than to criticize. I found Willy's "character" particularly amusing. The pictures are a nice gesture, my favorites being the one where Colette is holding a cigarette, dressed in drag, and the one where she's in a dance costume, kneeling and watching Willy. They both sum up that Moulin Rouge, anything goes, youthful era, which Colette basically incarnates. I hope we can all be sort of like her, in one way or another.
On the whole, this is one piece of nonfiction I indefinitely enjoyed, and Thurman, though not perfect, is a dedicated and effective author. Recommended highly.
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Title: Collected Stories of Colette by Robert G. Phelps, Matthew Ward, Antonia White ISBN: 0374518653 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Pub. Date: 01 September, 1984 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Complete Claudine: Claudine at School/Claudine in Paris/Claudine Married/Claudine and Annie by Colette, Antonia White, Judith Thurman ISBN: 0374528039 Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Pure and the Impure (New York Review Books Classics) by Colette, Judith Thurman, Herma Briffault ISBN: 094032248X Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Ch¿ri and The Last of Ch¿ri by Colette, Roger Senhouse, Colette Fin De Cheri ISBN: 0374528012 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Vagabond by Enid McLeod ISBN: 0374528047 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Pub. Date: 05 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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