Talk:Colette

message: http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Naughty-Colette-the-Early-Years-New-2940712.php  Some sources say Colette was part Black, maybe 1/16th.  She is mentioned like a literary role model in the book "Caucasia" by biracial novelist Danzy Senza.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chumley41 (talk • contribs) 19:19, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: which memoir was that? 188.30.43.167 (talk) 18:16, 6 July 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Part Black?

message: What is the point of that? It has to be in English and perhaps in the parenthesis a French original title.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.185.12.37 (talk) 13:41, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  List of her works in French? 

message: I'm brand new, so I don't want to just dive in and start editing the article. I do think it could use some tidying up, though. First of all, near the end of the "Music hall career, affairs with women" section, it says, "Colette's sexuality is not really as confusing as it may appear. She seems to have instinctively preferred men, with her three long marriages and numerous heterosexual affairs." The first sentence seems unnecessary and I would cut it. The second one does not seem neutral to me. I think that unless there is a quote somewhere out there in which Colette comes right out and says, "I prefer men," then it's a bit odd to say of a person who had relationships with multiple women (in the face of serious social and legal repercussions) that she "instinctively preferred men". Mind you, I am not trying to make the case that it should read that "she preferred women, but societal pressures forced her to carry on mostly with men." I simply think that her various marriages and affairs should be listed and left at that, and readers may interpret the data as they please.
On a related note, I think it would feel more organized if her personal life and her career had separate sections. The way it's divided up now "music hall career, affairs with women" followed by "second marriage, affair with stepson" feels muddy to me. Is there no standardized way to organize biographical information? You know, "Important Works", "Early Career", "Family Life", and so on?
Any advice/comments would be lovely. Thank you!
Persnip (talk) 15:26, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: she didn't have 'numerous heterosexual affairs' - she definitely had 3, with August Heriot, Bertrand de Jouvenel and Georges Kessel. Then there is a possible involvement with Sylvain Bonmariage and the tale of her eloping with her music teacher as a teenager, which may or may not be true. Numerically, her heterosexual and lesbian affairs are roughly equal. I cannot speak for which she preferred. 188.30.43.167 (talk) 18:12, 6 July 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Up for Discussion: Sexuality 

message: I think Colette's first husband, Monsieur Willy (Gauthier-villars), would have gotten quite a shock by the
portion of this article which describes him as "bisexual." Willy was one of the most notorious skirt-chasing
philanderers of the Belle Epoque. This is described in numerous biographies of Colette, including Judith Thurman's
Secrets of the Flesh, Genevieve Dormann's and Margaret Crosland's biographies and several others. According to them,
he had a ravenous appetite for many and varied women. But there is no record at all of him having homosexual affairs. 
Younggoldchip (talk) 15:11, 5 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Monsieur Willy 

message: >"During the war, Colette converted her husband's Saint-Malo estate into a hospital for the wounded, and was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1920."
Are these two things related -- she received the award because she turned her house into a hospital?  Rissa, Guild of Copy Editors  (talk) 17:32, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Estate 

message: >"Colette went to work in the music halls of Paris...."
Music halls are defined as a form of British entertainment.  Either the term used here should be changed to something else, or the definition of "music halls" needs to drop the British part. Rissa, Guild of Copy Editors  (talk) 17:38, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dancehalls 

message: >"According to one writer, 'Colette had a poor relationship with her daughter, Bel-Gazou.'[1]
Is it possible to add more information to this, especially in view of Colette's relationship with her other daughter?  This one sentence is a whole paragraph stuck out there on its own.  I think it would be more interesting and informative for our readers if more information was added.  What form did this take, how did it affect them? Rissa, Guild of Copy Editors  (talk) 17:57, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Colette only had one daughter, Bel-Gazou, her only child. 188.30.43.167 (talk) 18:13, 6 July 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Daughter 

message: >"Their relationship and life is vividly depicted in their books."
Which ones? Rissa, Guild of Copy Editors  (talk) 18:29, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Life with Cocteau 

message: >"Her themes can be roughly divided into idyllic natural tales...."
Does this mean pastoral'?  Or something else? Rissa, Guild of Copy Editors  (talk) 18:47, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Idyllic natural tales 

message: I found much of this article difficult to understand.  I made copy-editing changes to it but there are parts that need more detail.  I think the basic layout is okay, it just needs clarification and citations, especially "Legacy" which has no citations at all.
The part after her death that includes the Broadway production of "Gigi" etc, should be moved to "Legacy," and the mention there of her personal life moved to "Continued writings."   The "Gigi" section has too much information about Audrey Hepburn and should be cut.  I can do this later this week but I thought I should give other people a chance to comment.  I can't do anything about the much-needed citations, however. Rissa, Guild of Copy Editors  (talk) 19:07, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Confusing and missing citations 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Is this true? Best remembered for Gigi by who? Americans? Citation needed Shinykatie (talk) 21:31, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd say that Cheri, Break of Day, The Vagabond, and the Claudines are also well known. 188.30.43.167 (talk) 18:15, 6 July 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Green Wheat, The Pure and the Impure, Sido, 92.41.135.214 (talk) 19:43, 15 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Best remembered - anglo-centric? 

message: Caution is needed in assuming that Flanner’s critique of Collette’s work is her own opinion. Flanner wrote for the New Yorker, and editor Harold Ross warned her, ‘I don’t want to know what you think of French politics and culture, I want to know what the French think’.
Flanner was, for example, when free of New Yorker restraint, tart about de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’. A Lesbian, Flanner was nonetheless no doctrinaire feminist. 2001:8003:22CF:AD00:75D9:930:EB61:CDA9 (talk) 06:52, 4 January 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: I think Flanner chose to write about the Pure and the Impure, possibly an intro for it, admiringly, and she was a friend of Colette. 94.197.149.22 (talk) 20:00, 13 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Flanner critique 

message: praised by Anita Brookner, May Sarton (in Miss Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing), helped Alison Bechdel realised her sexuality as detailed in Fun Home, where she speaks admiringly of Colette's writing, Erica Jong praised her, as did Anais Nin, Violette Leduc felt she needed to write more openly an boldly about sex than Colette did. Mauriac felt she ought to have had his Nobel Prize, Proust, Valery, Francis Jammes, Natalie Barney, Anna de Noailles praised her. Strong influence on Beauvoir;s Second Sex, Sartre loved her writing, Beauvoir said she was the only great French woman writer. JK Rowling also a fan 94.197.149.22 (talk) 20:04, 13 March 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: also quoted by first American lesbian mayor when she came out - her article was titled 'of this pure but irregular passion' from Colette's profile of the Ladies of Llangollen in The Pure an the Impure. Viriginia Woolf really admired her too. 94.197.149.22 (talk) 20:06, 13 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  others who praised or were influenced by her