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zini del Louvre. Heriot la corteggiava,
invitandola nei migliori ristoranti di Parigi
e colmandola di regali. Il giovane
amante sperava con il generoso invito in
Italia di conquistarla definitivamente.
Erano appena arrivati in Italia, verso la
metà di luglio, che Colette fu raggiunta
dalla notizia della sentenza di divorzio.
Finalmente, dopo anni di immeritato
oblio, era libera di rivelarsi non solo come
autrice della serie di “Claudine”, ma
di firmare con il proprio nome Le Vagabonde,
il romanzo che sarà pubblicato a
puntate sulla rivista La Vie Parisienne.
La sosta romana la annoia. La città
sembra deserta e troppo silenziosa. Dedica
interi pomeriggi a portare a passeggio
i suoi cani a Villa Borghese o sui declivi
deserti del Palatino. La città le ap-
MADAME COLETTE
by GIUSEPPE MAZZELLA
Captivated by the island’s beauty,
the French writer bought a home
at Anacapri, where she spent long
periods together with her cats
Colette was thirty-seven when she first
visited Italy in 1910. She was still an
unknown writer then, despite the fact
that she had already published a number of
successful books. Fame had eluded her for
years because her works were all published
under the name of her husband and mentor
Henri Gauthier-Villars, known as Willy. But
this did not stop one of the more astute critics
from observing: “The Villars are talented.”
The short trip she took to Rome and Naples,
which lasted just a few weeks, changed her
life, and she went from ghost writer to famous
author, becoming known for her impeccable
style and her amusing, human stories that
enlivened the French literary scene during the
first half of the twentieth century.
Born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye on 28
January 1873, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
inherited from her father Jules-Joseph, a
retired army captain, his
unrealized ambition to become a
writer. He always had his nose
buried in a book from his wellstocked
library, and kept neatly
stacked reams of plain paper on
his desk – which after his death
were discovered to be completely
blank. Perhaps it was Colette’s
deep disappointment that drove
her to be a writer. She inherited a
love of nature and animals,
especially cats, from her mother,
Sido, with whom she and her two
sisters and elder brother spent a
privileged childhood in their home
immersed in the lush green
Burgundy countryside, and she
never lost her “rich and fruity”
accent.
Those happy years came to an
end when she met and Henri
Gauthier-Villars, known as Willy,
when she was twenty. He was a
“Don Juan and a writer, who had a
weakness for foreign liquor and
puns, as well as women,” as he
himself said, but he was also a
clever businessman who
employed ghost writers to pen
books that were published under
his name. When Colette married
him she immediately became part
of the “stable” and created
Claudine, an original character
G.B. BRAMBILLA - NERI
who became very popular with readers and
critics alike. Thus Colette entered the Parisian
beau monde, a little timidly and overshadowed
by her husband at first, although, as Jean
Cocteau later wrote, she was quite capable of
“showing her claws beneath the velvet glove.”
She spent many long, hard years working for
her husband, during which she honed her
skills. Then her relationship with Willy broke
up, not only because he constantly cheated on
her, to which she responded by having her
own, also lesbian, affairs, but also because it
was as if Claudine had become an adult and
felt the need to be independent and create a
new life for herself. In 1905, they decided to
separate and filed for divorce.
Now that she was firmly established in
Parisian high society, Colette set out to make
new friends in her own way, beginning a
relationship with Mathilde de Morny, known as
Missy, Marquise de Belbeuef, who was ten
years older, but with whom she was not
ashamed to be seen in public. Colette’s
wealthy lover gave her a stunning house at
Rozven, near Saint Malo, where she went to
live with her books, her few pieces of furniture
and her many cats. Years later Elisabeth de
Gramont wrote in Souvenir: “Colette is a
homebody: cats, light, warmth and a man.”
And, we might add, a woman, since she had
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