A scandalously talented stage performer, a practiced seductress
of both men and women, and the flamboyant author of some of the
greatest works of twentieth-century literature, Colette was our
first true superstar. Now, in Judith Thurman''s Secrets of the
Flesh, Colette at last has a biography worthy of her dazzling
reputation.
Having spent her childhood in the shadow of an
overpowering mother, Colette escaped at age twenty into a turbulent
marriage with the sexy, unscrupulous Willy--a literary charlatan
who took credit for her bestselling Claudine novels. Weary of
Willy''s sexual domination, Colette pursued an extremely public
lesbian love affair with a niece of Napoleon''s. At forty, she gave
birth to a daughter who bored her, at forty-seven she seduced her
teenage stepson, and in her seventies she flirted with the Nazi
occupiers of Paris, even though her beloved third husband, a Jew,
had been arrested by the Gestapo. And all the while, this
incomparable woman poured forth a torrent of masterpieces,
including Gigi, Sido, Cheri, and Break of Day.
Judith Thurman, author of the National Book
Award-winning biography of Isak Dinesen, portrays Colette as a
thoroughly modern woman: frank in her desires, fierce in her
passions, forever reinventing herself. Rich with delicious gossip
and intimate revelations, shimmering with grace and intelligence,
Secrets of the Flesh is one of the great biographies of our
time.
目錄:
Introduction
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Notes and Sources
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index