Gigi and The Cat

A girl is taught how to become desirable. A young wife discovers that marriage may not make her beloved.

Colette’s paired novellas ask what happens when love refuses to follow the rules.

The famous tale by the trailblazing subject of major film Colette.

GIGI TRANSLATED BY ROGER SENHOUSE, THE CAT TRANSLATED BY ANTONIA WHITE

In turn-of-the-century Paris, Gigi is being educated for the life of a future courtesan. Her days are filled with cigars, lobster, lace and superstitions, but she remains bored by what she is taught and unconvinced by the destiny planned for her. When the wealthy Gaston begins to see her differently, Gigi surprises everyone with her own approach to love.

This edition also includes The Cat, a sharply observed novella about a young marriage undone by jealousy, possessiveness and a husband’s attachment to his beloved cat.

Together, Gigi and The Cat show Colette’s brilliance as a writer of intimacy, social performance and self-possession. These classic French novellas are elegant, sensuous and psychologically acute, ideal for readers of women’s classics and literary fiction about love, marriage and independence.