La retraite sentimentale

Claudine #5

by Colette

Très jeune... non, je ne suis plus très jeune. J'ai gardé ma taille, ma liberté de mouvements ; j'ai toujours mon vêtement de chair étroite qui m'habille sans un pli... j'ai changé tout de même. Je me connais si bien ! Mes cheveux couleur de châtaigne étoffent toujours, noMbreux, pressés en boucles rondes, l'angle un peu trop aigu d'un menton qu'on s'accorde à trouver spirituel. La bouche a perdu de sa gaîté et, au-dessous de l'orbite plus voluptueuse mais aussi plus creusée, la joue s'effile, longue, moins veloutée, moins remplie : le jour frisant y indique déjà le sillon - fossette encore, ou ride déjà ? - qu'y modèle patiemment le sourire...

Genres: Fiction, France, Classics, Literature, French Literature, Roman, Contemporary

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

Colette was the pen name of the French novelist and actress Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. She is best known, at least in the English-speaking world, for her novella Gigi, which provided the plot for a famous Lerner & Loewe musical film and stage musical. She started her writing career penning the influential Claudine novels of books. The novel Chéri is often cited as her masterpiece.

Reviews

[Jennie Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't understand why this isn't in the Complete Claudine other than Colette wrote this alone. It's a thoughtful & great completion to the Claudine series. A mature exploration on ageing & seasoned love. So essential !

Maybe the best Claudine, it's between this & Claudine Married for me.

[Theresa Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this darling, delightful and wonderful little novel years ago, as a young woman in my early 20s. "The Final novel in the Famous Claudine Series." It was published in 1907 when Collette willy was 34-years-old. In the book she has written that "For reasons which have nothing to do with literature, I have ceased to collaborate with Willy." Willy was of course her first husband at the time, Henry Gauthier Villars, and a man who had exploited her writing and had used the money she earned from her writing. When she wrote Retreat From Love, the title as much as anything else expressed her growing sense of self and desire to distance herself from Villars, who used the pen name of Willy.

And I think I've read this book three times. There is something so special about books translated from other languages. And of course there is something so alluring and gripping about French women writers. My favorites are of course Collette, Simone De Beauvoir, and my personal favorite Marguerite Duras, who is the best of the trio and always will be. But Collette was spectacular too, and this classic book is no exception. Its the only one of the series that I've read and I really should read the others, but I still just love this book. I love the slow pace of life in the farmhouse and how the women rely on each other, how they go to each other for support and how they handle the various dynamics such as the husband's infidelity and their own desires for stimulation other than from the world of men. Passages that I recall, for their descriptive beauty are... "His slight illness had left him with two little valleys of mauve mother-of-pearl beneath his eyes, too poetic and voluptuous." I love the ways that Collette describes things that others might see as unattractive and she makes them seem lovely.

Then there is the sensuality that Collette uses to describe animals and the characters reactions to them that I just love. "As light as an elf, a little squirrel flies along in front of us from branch to branch. Its russet tail fans out like smoke, its fleecy front moving up and down as he leaps along. He's plumper, better upholstered and richer than an angora rabbit and leans down to look at me, his forelegs wide apart, his fingernails holding on in human fashion. His beautiful black eyes quiver with a timid effrontery, and I yearn to catch hold of him, to feel his tiny little body beneath the soft fleece; its so pleasurable to imagine that it makes me clench my teeth slightly." I love this kind of attention to detail and the natural world, the slow contemplative pace and the way the characters quietly observe each other, and how the women provide support for each other.

This is a lovely little book and a pleasure to read for its old fashioned quality and knowing that this is the shared perspective of a time that existed over 100-years-ago. Recommended as a charming book of light reading.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colette’s writing voice is always filled with witty spunk and mischievous energy. This book is certainly no exception. The fifth novel in the Claudine series, we once again return to the point of view of Colette’s vain and often dramatic heroine, Claudine (the previous book in the series was told from the perspective of another character, Annie). Overall this was very well written, and I especially appreciated Colette’s shift to nature and animal themes for this fifth installment, in which the setting is far more rural than the previous books. I imagine this is a sign of things to come, as I have heard that several of her other books have a similar focus on the natural world.

[Dvora Treisman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't describe the story as does the synopsis given by Goodreads. This is a lovely book, the last in the Claudine series and one Colette wrote after her separation from Willy. Her love of the country and wonderful descriptions of nature and the animals that surround her there is what makes this book special.

[Kathy Ahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I personally found this book interesting, but not that great. However, the writing is stunning. Colette is gifted at descriptions that are straightforward and seemingly simple, but are incredibly rich. Her metaphors are imaginative and visceral. My favorite from this book was the pimple popping as a metaphor for resisting temptation (p134). You just try to write something like that yourself and you can see how gifted she is.

I didn't know this when I picked it up, but this book is the last in the series of her "Claudine" books. She wrote the others with her ex-husband and this is the first of the series she wrote alone. Not having read any other Claudine books, I can't compare them but this one does seem to mirror her personal life in some ways -- losing an intense love and realizing that life goes on just as it would any other day.

And maybe as much as you want that kind of all consuming love, perhaps it's not quite what it seems -- that in absence you fantasize, and on reunion you feel betrayed, lost because the person who came back to you isn't the person you remembered. But that's ok because he'll soon be dead and you can be left with your soft, fuzzy memories of your love, and perhaps be a better person for it.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing on my Colette binge, I picked this one because Harold Bloom includes it in his Western Canon. This was actually my least favorite of the the 5 Colette books that I've read in quick succession (the others were Dialogues de bêtes, Cheri & The Last of Cheri, and The Vagabond). Fundamentally, I never believed the central love story between Claudine, the narrator, and the absent Renaud. Perhaps I would of liked the story better if I had read the 4 previous Claudine novels. I quite enjoyed reading about Annie, even without the back story that I would have had from the previous novels. Though Annie was describing salacious events from her life, the modern reader will not find the descriptions overly sexy or embarrassing.

Colette is a master of language and manages to capture emotions, natural beauty, and the antics of her dog and cat perfectly. I'll continue to look for more by this author.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book at a bargain price at my favourite bookshop in Melbourne, Readings, back in September. I've read a couple of other Collette novels. And like the others, the language in this novel, even in translation, is superb. The novel centres on Claudine, her heroine in quite a few novels, and loosely semi-autobiographical. She is awaiting the return of her older husband who is recovering in a Swiss sanatorium at her friends Annie's house in the countryside. While she is awaiting her gay step-son arrives. There is a lot of talk of sexual exploits and walks out in the woods and fields. While the dialogue was considered scandalous when published in 1907, it is rather tame by today's standards. Still the reason to read this book is for the quality of the dialogue and the language used.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je lis la série des Claudine à rebours, en commençant par la fin. Mais je commence aussi sûrement par le plus mature et le plus "Colette" de toute la série : elle est enfin divorcée de Willy, et peut s'émanciper et explorer d'autres territoires (littéraires, mais pas que). Bon en fait ma vision de Colette est encore très parcellaire et j'ai conscience qu'il faudra lire les premiers tomes pour bien comprendre le développement du personnage.
La Claudine mature de La Retraite sentimentale, moi je l'adore : elle a du dédain pour des choses pas si évidentes (la maladie, la maternité), elle aime ses bêtes et les autres l'agacent vite, elle joue gentiment avec Annie et son feu-au-cul, son "beau-fils" Marcel qui l'encombre plus qu'autre chose, et aime le Renaud des beaux jours sans trop s'appesantir sur ses derniers moments. On sent la force et l'indépendance d'esprit de cette femme. J'ai envie de connaître son histoire maintenant.
Tout en étant très ampoulée et donc enpatchoulée dans des artifices de fleuriste, la plume de Colette est grivoise comme on l'attend d'elle : cette retraite sentimentale pour Claudine, c'est, côté face, les confessions pimentées d'Annie, l'amie vagabonde qu'elle accueille dans sa campagne, et qui confesse avoir le diable au corps depuis son divorce. La petite fille modèle déploie timidement des anecdotes osées, et c'est un régal. Claudine reste sage mais personne n'en perd une miette !
Si quelques divagations patchouliennes (oui certaines pages en avaient pour moi presque l'odeur tant c'était emprunté et début de siècle dans l'écriture) m'ont un peu ennuyé, j'ai adoré le final, une belle évocation de la vie amoureuse et de... je n'en dis pas plus, mais quel beau final pour une série que je me dois de commencer correctement maintenant.

[Aude · Rating 5 out of 5]

La fin m'a beaucoup touchée, surtout ce passage :
"Une tombe, ce n'est rien qu'un coffre vide. Celui que j'aime tient tout entier dans mon souvenir, dans un mouchoir encore parfumé que je déplie, dans une intonation que je me rappelle soudain et que j'écoute un long instant, la tête penchée... Il est dans un court billet tendre dont l'écriture pâlira, dans un livre usé que flattèrent ses yeux, et sa forme est assise à jamais, pour moi, - mais pour moi seule - sur ce banc d'où il regardait, pensif, bleuir dans le crépuscule la Montagne aux Cailles... À quoi bon parler ?"

[Kate Laws · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ended up enjoying and appreciating this book far more than I thought I would when I first picked it up. It's lovely and well written and I found myself quite drawn into the world. I really loved the end as Claudine was finding herself after her husband passed.

[Ocean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful prose but the story doesn't interest me.
Might read it over again when my head is in a better place, or perhaps, a few years down the line I could appreciate it more.

[Delphine Pernot · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'est tellement bien écrit qu'on oublie que parfois Colette s'égare dans le récit.

[dicle · Rating 2 out of 5]

aman allahım. bir kitap başlığı içeriğe bu kadar uygun olabilirdi. kitap tam olarak bir duygusal sürgün. beni boğdu boğdu kenara attı. bitiremedim bıraktım.
annem evde bulmuş okumaya başlamış, o kadar sıkılmış ki kitap okumayı hepten bıraktı.
teşekkürler colette bizi bitirdin

[Mary Paradise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for the Kansas City Kansas Digestible Classics book club. When the choice was announced, I think a lot of people were perplexed. This is the fifth book in a French series written by Colette Willy in 1907. It was so randomly great!!! The premise surrounds two younger adult women who essentially live in a house in the French countryside. I don't want to go into any detail because I think the main reason I enjoyed this book were the fun surprises along the way! I had no idea what I was getting into, but I am glad that I did!

[Rachael Eyre · Rating 2 out of 5]

What on earth happened?

To put it in perspective: I love Colette, and Claudine at School has been one of my favourite books since, breathless and scandalised, I discovered it aged 14. Although the other books in the series weren't quite as good, they still have plenty to recommend them.

This, however ... It's still beautifully written, even in a sketchy translation; I think Colette was incapable of writing badly. But everything else - the plot (or lack of), Claudine's apparent personality transplant, Annie (who I never liked much) suddenly becoming a nympho ... Worst of all, the way she foists Annie on her gay stepson, Marcel.

Marcel's never been the most sympathetic character. He's like a homophobe's nightmare of a gay man : ultra feminine, promiscuous and a spiteful little exhibitionist. But he's honest in his declaration that he has never found women attractive, has no desire to sleep with women - yet Claudine has the nerve to shove him into Annie's bed, and yells at him when it goes wrong!! Why not take it out on Annie, who is completely aware of his orientation but shallow and vain enough to think he'll make an exception for her? Whatever your opinions on homosexuality (I'm naturally biased, and think it's innate), this scene is insulting beyond belief.

There were a few good set pieces, but the above plot development really rankled. What a shoddy way to end an otherwise great series.

[Réminiscence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le vrai dernier tome des Claudines qui s’ouvre sur une note pernicieuse pour la continuité des Renaud-Claudine car Renaud est malade…
Claudine et sa vagabonde Annie entretiennent la retraite sentimentale dans le domaine provincial de cette dernière, terminée la profusion amoureuse que connaissent Claudine avec son mari et Annie avec sa "chair fraîche".
On retrouve la Claudine grande sœur qui badine avec sa pauvre Annie qui elle "erre et cherche, en mal de ce que, en un jour j’ai trouvé"
Un tome beaucoup introspectif, en proie à la nostalgique réminiscence, avec un cadre arborescent privilégié par la partenaire de la nature qu’est Claudine.
C’est l’occasion pour Claudine de se remémorer son amour pour Renaud que les épreuves du désir n’ont fait qu’entretenir.
La fin du roman marque l’apogée de la vigueur de Claudine entourée de son amant le plus chère; sa maison ceinturée de son jardin.

[Maria Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depuis que le livre « Belles saisons » est tombé dans mes mains et je l’ai feuilleté, en découvrant une merveilleuse plume, j’ai su qu’il fallait lire Colette. Et oh, comme je veux en lire plus. Colette réussit avec une énorme délicatesse de faire transparaître des ambiances, des existences, des dialogues, des paysages… Même quand elle écrit sur des choses délicates ou bien quand Claudine veut donner une réplique un peu ironique la façon dont les mots nous sont dévoilés n’a rien à voir avec la méchanceté. Je ne sais pas, mais la sensibilité avec laquelle elle écrit est immense. Même les petits choses, les petits échanges, ses accompagnons, Tobby chien, Péronnelle ou Prrrou ne peuvent pas s’echaper de sa plume. L’univers de Claudine est un univers qui tremble d’émotivité, il y a un bout de cœur dans tout chose toute petite qui vibrent des parfums et des émotions.

[Jen Well-Steered · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce que j'ai aimé: Colette est le maître des signalements et de la métaphore. Elle amine les sentiments, le cadre, et les pensées de ses personnages merveilleusement.

Ce que je n'ai pas aimé: L'héroïne est frustrante, car elle se manque des emotions. Elle est completement calme en face d'un avenir incertain.

omnibrowbooks.blogspot.com

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book seems to be missing context - i don't like any of the bored rich characters. The story, for turn of the century seems especially sexually liberated. The point seems to shock. Didn't want to finish it but it is my bookgroup book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une écriture qui me jette à terre par sa justesse, sa finesse, ses images, sa sensibilité. Il y a des passages très intéressants dans ce roman mais j'ai trouvé ça long. Pas mon préféré mais j'étais contente de retrouver cette Annie affranchie.

[Kezia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It could be that because of my own stage in life I enjoyed this more than the preceding ones in the series, just as I'd probably have loved "Claudine at School" if I'd read it at 14. Some lovely reflections on love and on the indelible marks we leave on each other.

[Elossoles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full betimleme okuyacağınız bir kitap. Ne çok beğendim ne de nefret ettim. Ama baş karakter Claudine'da kendimi buldum. Kafalarımız aynı 😅

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I *quite* enjoyed this, mainly for Colette's ability to evoke the natural world around her characters, like an impressionist painter. The scenes in the wood were particular vivid for me. I don't like Claudine but you're not supposed to, are you? She always a dead spider in the cheesecake for my money. I was delighted to meet Annie and Toby the dog again, especially as we find out about Annie's experiences after the previous Claudine novel. I was going to call them "adventures", but I feel Annie seems somewhat scarred by her sally out into the world by herself, our poor girl.

[Célia Agopian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Premier ouvrage de Colette, et je ne suis vraiment pas déçue. Malgré la simplicité de l’histoire, je trouve que l’auteure a su susciter de l’intérêt pour son roman en usant de la nostalgie, de la peine et de l’amour. Ces émotions qui sont familières pour chacun d’entre nous. Nous y découvrons des personnages attachants, qui ont fait la vie de Colette. La description des paysages, des animaux met tous nos sens en éveil, et nous permet une immersion totale. C’est bien écrit, les tournures de phrases nous font rêver d’amour et d’espoir.

[Antonio Fanelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una Claudine adulta, che si confronta con la malattia, gli affetti e il dolore.
Quello scritto meglio degli altri Claudine, naturalmente.
Colette è una scrittice straordinaria ed ogni singola frase e un distillato di meraviglia.
Il personaggio di Annie zoppica un po': andava approfondito maggiormente IMHO.

[sab · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'aime beaucoup le contraste de la scène un peu cocasse et très drôle avec Annie et Marcel et la déception du retour de Renaud puis sa mort. De passer du rire, à la déception puis aux larmes pour que l'histoire se termine au final d'une manière douce amère me rend toute chose. J'aime énormément le style d'écriture fleurie et enivrant de Colette <333

[Axoucoeur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bon, je l'ai lu sans savoir que c'était le cinquième (et dernier) d'une série... J'ai pas tout compris et c'était un peu contemplatif mais j'ai beaucoup aimé l'écriture, certaines réflexions, les personnages queer et le chaton nommé Prrrrrou ! Ça me donne envie de lire d'autres livres de cette autrice

[Myriam Dubois · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ouf. J'aime l'écrivaine en tant que tel et son histoire, sauf que cette lecture était assez...longue. J'avais l'impression qu'il ne se passait pas grand chose, mais il faut beaucoup lire entre les lignes et essayer de comprendre la situation avec le contexte de l'époque.

[Béatrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

C’est comme toujours joliment écrit, mais je préfère Colette dans la description de la nature, plutôt que dans celle des sentiments. C’est quand même un peu désuet comme style.

[belisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

oldum olası sevdiğim bir yazardır, keşke başka kitapları da çevrilse...