The Essential Colette

[MsAmerica]

The New York Times did a two-page spread on this. Here's some of it.

The Essential Colette
The author, considered by some to be the greatest French writer of her time, played with words and convention. Here’s where to start with her work.
By Sadie Stein

Colette was not merely the most famous writer of her day, but one of the most famous people, period. A demimondaine with a shocking reputation, by the time of her death, in 1954, Colette was an institution, the first French woman of letters ever honored with a state funeral.

Most famous book:
Gigi

Picaresque feminism:
The Vagabond

Short stories:
The Other Woman

Family dynamics and one of the greatest love letters ever written to a mother:
My Mother's House

Women aging:
Julie de Carneilhan

Cats:
The Cat

For the whole article:

https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-colette-books.html?searchResultPosition=1

Thanks for those, @MsAmerica. There was another really interesting article about Colette in the LRB recently. She was a character for sure. I remember discovering her Claudine books when I was a teen and just inhaling them.

I remember discovering her Claudine books when I was a teen and just inhaling them

God, me too! Wonderful books.

There was a good biography of her a few years back, she was quite a gal!

I loved the Claudine books and remember longing for lemon verbena soap for years after!