Claudine at School

1900, from 1976 Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition of The Complete Claudine
Colette, translated by Antonia White
Claudine at School
Original price $6.95, purchase price unknown
Tattered paperback
B


I got this Claudine collection from a different aunt, who probably had no idea that I was desperate for bisexual role models.  I was then in my early 20s and monogamously married to a man who completely understood my crushes on female celebrities.  I wouldn't kiss a woman till I was 29, three years after our divorce.  But I liked to believe that there were happy practicing bisexuals out there, somewhere.  Then I read these stories and was bitterly disappointed that, at least in La Belle Époque, women and girls who were attracted to their own sex were sadomasochistic liars.

And yet, Colette and her somewhat autobiographical protagonist are charming.  Claudine is a delightful force of nature.  You can't approve of her, but she's very entertaining.  She's a bit like her cat Fanchette, amoral more than immoral.  This read-through, I found myself most enjoying the actual school bits, things like essays and word problems.  But, if you can accept that this is sort of Villette as written by one of the students, it is fun to spend time with lanky Anais, naive Marie, and the rest.