Claudine in Paris by Colette

Claudine in Paris is the first book I’ve read by Colette. Since reading this I’ve also read Claudine Married, the next book in the series of four, but have not yet reviewed this. By rights, I should have started with Claudine at School, but have not yet found a copy of this book.

I might have liked Claudine better had I started at the beginning of the series, but I found her character to be cruel and contradictory. She was frank, but well-aware of the effect she produced at all times, which made the occasions when she demonstrated naivety to seem false. Her conversation and behaviour was often salacious and sensationalist, and sometimes nasty, just for effect.

The story began with seventeen-year old Claudine recovering from an illness that had left her thin and tired. She was mourning her long hair that had fallen in ringlets to her waist, as it had been cut off during her illness, leaving her with a boyish crop of curls.

When Claudine’s father suddenly decided to move to Paris, Claudine was devastated at leaving her beloved home and village school at Montigny, which seemed to have been be a hotbed of lesbian affairs, including one between the headmistress and a teacher. Claudine happily left Luce behind, a fellow schoolgirl who she had teased, taunted and abused for years.

In Paris, the self-obsessed Claudine met her effeminate cousin Marcel and manipulated him into sharing the details of his love affair with another boy. When Claudine met Marcel’s father, her much older and widowed Uncle Renaud, she fell in love with him and he with her and her boyish crop of curls, or was it just lust? I don’t know and don’t care, these two deserved each other.

Eventually Luce also came to Paris and became the mistress of an elderly, unattractive man who she called ‘uncle’. I can’t imagine why this shocked Claudine, yet it did.

I also disliked Claudine’s maid Melie, who felt sorry for Claudine’s cat Fanchette when she went on heat and provided the cat with a ‘husband’. Claudine arranged for the resulting kittens to be put down.

Although I disliked Claudine’s character and the predatory sexual behaviour in the story, she had a distinct voice and I liked that she pushed boundaries. I also liked the writing, especially when Claudine talked about her beloved Montigny.

I preferred Claudine Married even though the story was more scandalous still, because it seemed to me that in Claudine Married, Claudine ‘owned’ her bad behaviour instead of faking wide-eyed ingenuity. Review of this to follow.

Claudine in Paris was book nine of my second Classics Club challenge to read 50 classics before my challenge end date of September 08, 2028.