Synopses & Reviews
Thirty-three years-old and recently divorced, Renee Nere has begun a new life on her own, supporting herself as a music-hall artist. Maxime, a rich and idle bachelor, intrudes on her independent existence and offers his love and the comforts of marriage. A provincial tour puts distance between them and enables Renee, in a moving series of leters and meditations, to resolve alone the struggle between her need to be loved and her need to have a life and work of her own.
Born in 1873 in France, Colette was the author of many acclaimed novels noted for their intimate style. Other Colette titles from FSG include Gigi, Julie de Carneilhan, and Chance Acquaintances, The Complete Claudine, Cheri and The Last of Cheri, and The Complete Stories of Colette. She died in 1954.
Thirty-three years-old and recently divorced, Renee Nere has begun a new life on her own, supporting herself as a music-hall artist. Maxime, a rich and idle bachelor, intrudes on her independent existence and offers his love and the comforts of marriage. A provincial tour puts distance between them and enables Renee, in a moving series of letters and meditations, to resolve alone the struggle between her need to be loved and her need to have a life and work of her own.
The paradoxes of great literature are those of human nature, and Colette is nothing if not human . . . Accessible and elusive; greedy and austere; courageous and timid; subversive and complacent; scorchingly honest and sublimely mendacious; an inspired consoler and an existential pessimist--these are the qualities of the artist and the woman. It is time to rediscover them.--Judith Thurman, from the Introduction
The Vagabond, one of the first and best feminist novels ever written, is that rare thing: a great book which is also inspiring.--Erica Jong
Review
"This enchanting, sincere, and beautifully constructed novel....explores, with Colette's infinite patience and precision, the beating heart of woman in an age when love is not passionate romance nor tender dream but an abiding duel." New York Times
Review
"[Colette's] evocation of the atmosphere and characters of the Parisian music-halls is brilliant, her insight into emotion often shrewd, but there is something suspect in her tone of over-sentimental sadness, and also in her undeniable desire to scandalize the public." Times Literary Supplement
Review
"The Vagabond offers the truest portrait ever made of the tangy milieu of French vaudeville, along with the confessions of a complex and captivating woman who hated men but could not resist them." Time
Review
"Wonderfully worth reading. It has all Colette's zest and tang, all her reverence for fruits, animals, seasons, and human beings." New Statesman
Synopsis
Thirty-three years-old and recently divorced, Renée Néré has begun a new life on her own, supporting herself as a music-hall artist. Maxime, a rich and idle bachelor, intrudes on her independent existence and offers his love and the comforts of marriage. A provincial tour puts distance between them and enables Renée, in a moving series of leters and meditations, to resolve alone the struggle between her need to be loved and her need to have a life and work of her own.
Synopsis
Thirty-three years-old and recently divorced, Renée Néré has begun a new life on her own, supporting herself as a music-hall artist. Maxime, a rich and idle bachelor, intrudes on her independent existence and offers his love and the comforts of marriage. A provincial tour puts distance between them and enables Renée, in a moving series of leters and meditations, to resolve alone the struggle between her need to be loved and her need to have a life and work of her own.
About the Author
Born in 1873 in France,
Colette was the author of many acclaimed novels noted for their intimate style. Other Colette titles from FSG include
Gigi, Julie de Carneilhan, and Chance Acquaintances,
The Complete Claudine,
Chéri and The Last of Chéri, and
The Complete Stories of Colette. She died in 1954.