The Pure and the Impure

1932, 1967 Farrar, Straus & Giroux edition
Colette
The Pure and the Impure, original title Ces Plaisirs
Original price $2.95, bought used for $1.50
Slightly worn paperback
B-

This is Colette's musings on love and passion, particularly homosexual.  Some of it is personal, like her affair with poet Renée Vivien, but most of it is more general.  My favorite part is the story of the Ladies of Llangollen, a real-life Irish couple who lived blissfully if quietly together for 53 years, till one died in 1829.  Some of Colette's observations about gender and sexuality feel dated, or at least debatable, but it is interesting to get the perspective of someone who lived The Life in the early 20th-century.  By the way, Colette has now passed Jane Austen as the author who covers the greatest span in my collection, 32 years and counting.  (We've still got that Gigi etc. collection to finish.)