Read by Gabrielle De Cuir

An exquisite new translation of Colette's tragicomic masterpiece, a pair of novels exploring the relationship between an aging courtesan and a much younger man Chéri and its sequel, The End of Chéri, mark Colette's finest achievements in their brilliant, subtle, and frank investigations of love and power. Set in the Parisian demimonde in the last days of the Belle Époque, Chéri tells the story of Léa, a courtesan at the end of a successful career, and her lover, the beautiful but emotionally opaque Chéri. Chéri will soon enter into an arranged marriage, ending their six-year affair, which-they will each realize too late-has been the one real love of their lives. The End of Chéri picks up their story in the aftermath of the First World War; as a psychically wounded Chéri begins an inexorable descent, he finds he cannot return to the Léa he left.With a preface by the acclaimed Lydia Davis, Rachel Careau's lean, attentive translation restores to these classic novels their taut, remarkably modern style-the essence of Colette's genius. "This heartbreaking, astute pair of novels…are among the best of her vast impressive canon." "Careau's meticulous and agile translation of this pair of novels brings to Anglophone readers some of Colette's finest writing, rich in the sensuality for which she is widely known-but also in the sharpness of her social observations…and she does so in a way that feels at once faithful to the author's era and utterly timeless." "I was left with a new sense of Colette's self-possession as a writer." "An admirably accurate new translation…{that} sensitively renders the unique tone and philosophy of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers." "Capture{s} the bone-on-bone feeling of Colette's prose…Anglophone readers will finally be able to appreciate why Colette is one of the twentieth century's major writers." "In this new translation of Colette's two most celebrated novels we seem to be reading her in English for the first time-her prose lean, limpid, and knowingly askew."

Mode of access: World Wide Web