The Blue Lantern

by Colette

Immobilized by arthritis in front of her desk, Colette is bound to meditation. In her mind she travels outside Paris: Geneva, Beaujolais, the coast - her encounter with a cat - the meetings of the Académie Goncourt of which he is president - the death of Margarita Moreno, her beloved friend of the early years in Paris - the visit of young girls, serious or futile...

Genres: Fiction, Womens, France

161 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1949

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

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

found this in a used bookstore and it said it'd gone out of print........so obviously i bought it to feel special.

this was written at the end of colette's life, and it shows in 2 ways:
1) uneven quality and
2) occasionally piercingly emotive descriptions of what it is to grow old.

and we'll take it!

bottom line: hidden finds for the win.

3.5

[P.M.F. Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a smooth beautiful voice. My wife and I love Colette's writing. This is the last major work she wrote. She was 75 and very limited in her ability to get out when she wrote this, but she did a great job of showing what she saw in that limited scope. Not the first Colette I'd recommend (Cheri & The Last of Cheri and Gigi maybe are better places to start) but it's like going back to an old familiar friend.

[Di · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cogent observations at the end of a long, well-lead life. Could be read alongside Christopher Hitchens's "Mortality", written after his cancer diagnosis. Both are good preparation for handling one's own ever-approaching aging and illness.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of depressing, as it was written when Colette was bedridden, a few years before her death. Not narrative like her other books.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A set of reminiscences that are at turns tedious and wonderfully poetic. I would recommend that the reader pay close attention to Colette's descriptions of animals for maximum payoff. Here's a widowed chameleon: "It was also good to learn from Mme Margat that the small, lovely creature sometimes climbs to the top of a bottle and there reclines her chin on the cork. That in the evening she returns to her solitary abode among the leaves. That she sometimes installs herself in the fruit basket and puts her arm round a banana. That she licks the moist inside of a pear-peeling." And a boxer: "Her name was Gertrude. She used to sit on her creased haunches, like a naked woman, and dream as she stared into the fire. The life of an excitable dog is passing short."

[Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the basis of zero knowledge I’m thinking this maybe wasn’t the best possible translation, sometimes a bit weirdly complicated in sentence structure. Overall a very non depressing reflection on the end of life/chronic illness

[Lizzy Fogg · Rating 5 out of 5]

She’s just so amazing. There’s no real plot to this book. It reads like an old woman, muttering stories as she falls asleep. And yet, I am entranced by every word. I would read anything Colette writes. Wrote. Whatever.

[SilvieProf S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

El fanal azul, Colette. (Memorias de una de las musas de la literatura francesa del siglo XX.) No me ha apasionado ni enganchado. 

[Izabela · Rating 5 out of 5]

To była u c z t a!