Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, 1873 – Paris, 1954), an extravagant and enigmatic figure, was one of the best writers of the 20th century. At the age of twenty-seven she began publishing the popular Claudine series of novels (1900-1914), which, however, appeared under the signature of her husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars. After the divorce, she made a living as an actress and dancer, and published a large number of narrative works, among which, in addition to Chéri (Acantilado 2018), La Vagabonde (1910), Sido (1929), La Chatte (1933) stand and Gigi (1944). A member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, she was also the first woman to preside over the prestigious Goncourt Academy.

Colette and Willy separated in 1906, although their divorce was not final until 1910. Colette had no access to the sizable earnings of the Claudine books – the copyright belonged to Willy – and until 1912 she initiated a stage career in music halls across France, sometimes playing Claudine in sketches from her own novels, earning barely enough to survive and often hungry and ill. To make ends meet, she turned more seriously to journalism in the 1910s.[15] Around this time she also became an avid amateur photographer. This period of her life is recalled in La Vagabonde (1910), which deals with women's independence in a male society, a theme to which she would regularly return in future works.

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