Chéri and its sequel, The End of Chéri, mark Colette's finest
achievements in their brilliant, subtle, and frank investigations of
love and power. Set in the Parisian demimonde in the last days of the
Belle Époque, Chéri tells the story of Léa, a courtesan at the end of
a successful career, and her lover, the beautiful but emotionally opaque
Chéri. Chéri will soon enter into an arranged marriage, ending their
six-year affair, which--they will each realize too late--has been the
one real love of their lives.
The End of Chéri picks up their story in the aftermath of the First
World War. Chéri, now a decorated soldier, has returned from the
trenches to a changed world. Emotionally estranged from his independent
and unfaithful wife, a psychically wounded Chéri begins an inexorable
descent--one that leads him back to a stunning encounter with Léa.
As the acclaimed writer and translator Lydia Davis puts it in an
illuminating foreword, Rachel Careau's "brilliantly ingenious, close new
translation" reveals Chéri and The End of Chéri as "the strangest of
love stories." Colette skillfully portrays her characters' shifting
inner lives and desires amid a clear-eyed depiction of interpersonal
power dynamics. Careau's lean, attentive translation restores to these
classic novels their taut, remarkably modern style--the essence of
Colette's genius.
