Cheri SidonieGabrielle Colette 9780099422761 Books
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Cheri SidonieGabrielle Colette 9780099422761 Books
Having had no more of an awareness of Colette than her name in the history of literature, I decided it was time to delve into a few of the noted French novelists of the late 19th and early 20th century. "Cheri" was my first. I was not disappointed, but rather swept up in the sentiment and literary style of those times. The dialog is laced with innuendo, often metaphorical and subtly insulting, as Colette captures the individual motivation behind each character's thoughts and words. In that I am also in a relationship with a man 24 years younger, of course I was drawn to the seeming parallel with the book's theme: an aging but beautiful courtesan's six-year dalliance with Cheri, a boy/man 24 years younger than she. And, beneath the surface of Cheri's pampered self-centeredness and Lea's hedonistic vanity the author reveals the predominant fear that exists in many of us: abandonment. The ending is poignant yet redemptive in the harsh light of a striking final revelation of the motives of both characters. If there was anything I did not care for about this book, it was the rather crude translation into English. But then, French is so much more romantic, sensual and suggestive than English. You just have to put yourself in a "French state of mind." NALTags : Cheri [Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.,Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette,Cheri,Random House of Canada, Limited,009942276X,Fiction,General,Modern fiction
Cheri SidonieGabrielle Colette 9780099422761 Books Reviews
Ich!
Translated into a nickel romance, Ballenberger has freed the book from all cadence. Tedious structure, laden with adjectives, replace Colette's playful wordplay.
I could not bear to read it
Bottom Line first
Colette's Cheri and the Last of Cheri delve into a world of people who exist on their surface qualities and measure life in terms of what wealth can buy. While focusing all of your attentions on what people are on the outside, you are subtly directed to appreciate the existence of deeper human needs. I am new to Colette, and I wonder why she is so much ignored in mandatory reading lists and in lists of modern writers. Whatever the quality of the translation what comes through is mostly primary colors and hard talking people, who may not be what they project. This is literature and deserves more prominence.
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Cheri is a neglected, spoiled over indulged son of a professional "kept woman" Another of her generation and profession Lea had originally acted as a parent to Cheri, the boy and by default they become lovers. Book one ends with Mme. Peloux, Cheri's mother arranging a marriage for her boy to an equally wealthy and more respectable daughter of society.
In the second Novella, Cheri is a veteran of the just ended WWI. He now lives as an observer. His wife and circle of friends give themselves to what may be noble or greedy post war causes while he begins to react to his shallow and emotionless life.
From the beginning we see Cheri (real name Fred Peloux) as more like an animal than a human. He is fascinated by comforting objects. The real pearl necklace of his lover Lea has always worn will become something of a running theme and telltale for judging other characters. Lea's Shoulder<?> is for him a symbol of safety and warmth.
Certain themes will exist throughout the first book. Lea is always seen as in the last stages of her exceptional beauty but both the objects around her and her circle of friends will always be described as decayed, worn and having lost their looks and command of style. Everyone has money and money buys security but no protection from time. Cheri is mostly described as an animal. He is cunning; possessed of the survival skills he learned from the hired help. He has enough looks and money to be arrogant and hard to please. Never are we witness to his capacity for any of the nobler human traits. He can wound but he is the one who get mollified.
In the second novella, Cheri dominates the narrative. He continues to prowl Paris and reacts to the surfaces, smells and physical traits of a world that is becoming too small. His wife could have become a love match for him, but she is absorbed in a world past him. She may have a lover, but she is still open to the possibility of marital sex in what has become a sexless marriage.
The dedicated sensualist that was Cheri in book one has come to the end of his interest in things sensual. What he lacks is a vocabulary or an ability to understand anything beyond surfaces. His struggle with this problem is the conflict that will bring us to the end of these books.
Colette is a master writer. That she chose to write about naughty people and without judging them as naughty may make her work unacceptable for middle or high school reading lists. In these two novellas sex is never graphic and language is never raw. My recommendation is that Colette deserves a higher place in western literature. I will read more of her books.
This translation is abominable.The translator has no feel for the French or even English language.It's as if a high school student were using a dictionary and plugging in the first definition of a word listed with no appreciation for the multiple nuances which need to be appreciated in using the correct translated word.I cannot believe thtis translation travesty was even published.
Hmmm, I don't know that these multiple choice questions fit every work of fiction, but I did my best. Colette's sympathetic portrayal of her two main characters, Lea and Cheri, does not keep her from examining their faults and frailties. Both are rich, spoiled, and self-absorbed. But both are lonely, despairing, unfulfilled persons. She does not let her characters find joy in a society that forbids their liaison. They are allowed only an affair, not a life-long love, which is what they both wanted. The reason age-difference, older woman, younger man. Deep in the subtext is Colette's condemnation of a society that elevates the importance of money, no matter how achieved; that demands that couples abide by rules of proper pairing; that rewards and condemns vice at the same time.
The reader is faced with a dilemna are Lea and Cheri unlovable to us because of their selfishness and stubborness, or are they tragic figures caught in a world, sadly, of their own making, a world that eventually destroys both. Is Lea at fault for ruining Cheri for a real world? Did she sacrifice herself by letting him go? Was she wrong in doing so after molding him into a useless toy. Is Cheri's mother the villain for allowing her son to be corrupted from puberty on by her friend? Possibly not, in Colette's world. Colette was sympathetic to the plight of women and celebrated those who gained some control over their lives--as Lea and Charlotte did. Is the destruction of Cheri Lea's and Charlotte's fault, or is he so spoiled and rigid that he insists on his own unhappiness if he cannot have what (Lea) he wants. In spite of his many faults, I sympathize with Cheri, rather than Lea. He is the victim, petted, protected, indulged, spoiled, until he knows only one way to view himself, as a toy, nothing but a toy. Without Lea he could possibly carry on, but he has a mother and a wife who alienate him and lead their own lives, ignoring his isolation and desperation. In fact, desperation is a word that describes both Lea and Cheri. One wonders what might have been if. . . .
Having had no more of an awareness of Colette than her name in the history of literature, I decided it was time to delve into a few of the noted French novelists of the late 19th and early 20th century. "Cheri" was my first. I was not disappointed, but rather swept up in the sentiment and literary style of those times. The dialog is laced with innuendo, often metaphorical and subtly insulting, as Colette captures the individual motivation behind each character's thoughts and words. In that I am also in a relationship with a man 24 years younger, of course I was drawn to the seeming parallel with the book's theme an aging but beautiful courtesan's six-year dalliance with Cheri, a boy/man 24 years younger than she. And, beneath the surface of Cheri's pampered self-centeredness and Lea's hedonistic vanity the author reveals the predominant fear that exists in many of us abandonment. The ending is poignant yet redemptive in the harsh light of a striking final revelation of the motives of both characters. If there was anything I did not care for about this book, it was the rather crude translation into English. But then, French is so much more romantic, sensual and suggestive than English. You just have to put yourself in a "French state of mind." NAL
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