Chance Acquaintances and Julie de Carneilhan

by Colette, Patrick Leigh Fermor (Translator)

In Chance Acquaintances Colette visits a health resort accompanied only by her cat. While there, she befriends the handsome Gerard Haume and his invalid wife Antoinette, and is unwittingly caught up in the mysterious and disturbing events which befall them.

Set in pre-war Paris, Julie de Carneilhan tells of the complex relationship between proud but impoverished Julie and her former husband, the Comte d'Espivant, who has remarried a wealthy widow. Julie de Carneilhan was the last full-length novel Colette was to write and was 'as close a reckoning with the elements of her second marriage as she ever allowed herself.'. In Chance Acquaintances Colette visits a health resort, accompanied only by her cat. While there, she befriends the handsome Gerard Haume and his invalid wife Antoinette, and is unwittingly caught up in the mysterious and disturbing events which befall them. Varying widely in mood and treatment, these two short novels demonstrate the versatility and sensitivity of Colette's writing.

Genres: Fiction, France, Classics, Short Stories

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

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

[Nicole Entin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long overdue, delightful read, perfect for a wintry afternoon. There’s something Austen-esque about Colette’s writing, especially in Chance Acquaintances, where you feel as if she’s taken you by the hand in a Parisian café, telling you about the complex and tormented people she has known, lowering her voice at the scandalous parts. Perhaps it’s that sense of the author as witty, observant confidante that rings true in her writing.

A particularly apt observation: “It is only since I first encountered human barnacles that molluscs equipped with contractile nerve-cords have filled me with horror.”

[au · Rating 3 out of 5]

slice of life stories with that witty colette flair; chance acquaintances of a couple's endless hypocrisy and julie de carneilhan of turmoils of the heart. in both love is perplex, a kind of intangible web that circles through life, out, and in again to acknowledgement or hopeless surrender

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two novellas by Colette:

Julie de Carneilhan ⭐⭐⭐
Chance Aquaintances ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Cori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started Chance Acquaintances in late 2018 as research for my role in a production of The Babylon Line. I shelved the book for a while during the run and eagerly returned to it once we closed. It was lovely. Not plot-driven but descriptive and "atmospheric".

I admit I chose Chance Acquaintances as my first Colette because of the cat. The bits involving the cat were sweet.

I'm somewhat curious to read another translator's Chance Acquaintances. I did not read Julie de Carneilhan but, having enjoyed Chance so much, perhaps I will one day.

[Mattea Gernentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

"'Why is it all so sad, Julie?' She surveyed him with what remained of her benevolence, still humming softly to avoid having to say: 'It's so sad, because you're the wrong person to be here with me. And nothing here is really meant for you. You're not made for drinking or dining with a woman who doesn't love you, somebody who comes from far away and remains there even when you hold her to your heart'" (116).

Chance Acquaintances > Julie de Carneilhan

[Malcolm Frawley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy Collette's tales of the bourgeoisie but am not entirely sure why. A working class kid myself her entitled characters usually possess enough of a fortune to do very little in terms of contributing to society. Or even needing to get a job. But she captures a world & allows me to glimpse in from outside.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

All jolly good stuff. Enjoyable easy reading.

[Imlac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julie de Carneilhan ***** 27 Jul 21

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I prefer Chance Acquaintances of the two. Julie de Carneilhan gave me Lily Bart vibes from Edith Wharton's House of Mirth, a novel I'm still haunted by. I half expected Julie to go the same way, tbh.

[Tirza Terlouw · Rating 2 out of 5]

First story was good. The second story bored me (not my type of book i think).

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such French stories that both hooked me.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a companion is Colette!!Especially Colette!!
Especially when she puts herself into one of her stories, as she does with "Chance Acquaintances".

I've just read it for the fifth time in about 30 years and all I have ever been able to recall of each prior reading is "the pleasure of her company." The plot, the characters, the setting...all gone from my memory, as I just realised Colette suggests with "obliterated" in the last sentence in this slice of "hotel holiday life".

Of course the plot and the characters are wonderful!!!!But its the little asides and the descriptions I relish.
eg.describing her friend's huge square-cut diamonds and lozenge-shaped brilliants:"regular paving stones of jewellery".
Cursing her lack of backbone:"I was honest enough not to confuse it with a spirit of adventure. Who on earth put it into my head that I possess adventurous instincts? The very most of which I was capable was a hasty 'Yes' in the hopes of getting a bit of peace."
And:"to exaggerate the sorrows of love is tantamount to an indiscretion: that it reveals the lack of that precious faculty, a sense of the ridiculous."
"Adventures happen to people who......deserve them."
"Idleness cures all ills." What a treasure trove of wisdoms!!

Now "Gigi". I missed Colette. But her wit and wisdom were there behind the scenes. A little gem that you may read so quickly you don't even notice its punch, its turning topsy-turvey sexual traditions of Belle-Epoque Paris.A charmer!

And "Julie de Carneilhan".Mmmmm! Has never grabbbed me. But this time, if I have matured with the passing years,the scales may drop from my eyes.Have read past Chapter One and no increase in maturity in sight ...yet!
RETURN FOR THE EXCITING CONCLUSION....WAYNE!!

WELL...HERE IT IS!!!!...Months later!!
I have taken up Chapter One of "Julie de Carneilhan" a few times and thought about taking it up MANY times in the several months since I wrote the above.
NOW!!! I have only TWO chapters to go and am champing at the bit, frothing at the mouth in my eagerness to relish this little classic.
AND this ALL happened in the last week!!!

What a bittersweet but totally UN-selfindulgent story this is.
Someone who can be so realistic about Love as Colette, yet can still suffer at its hands, flaunt the scars and declare her Emancipation is indeed an Ideal to follow.
Julie de C is in the throes of Emancipating herself from a charming Rat of a divorced second husband ,Comte Herbert d'Espivant.She is living an impecunious life in a studio and putting on a brave face.
We meet her friends and her brother Leon and his horses.That's it!!!whoops...AND finally the new wife of Herbert.
In between: one liners about Parisian weather. And Colette's (or Julie's) observations:
eg,She followed him out with her eye."There's white pack thread showing in his moustache and his nose is getting bigger.That's how the end starts , even with Carneilhans."(Having a meal in her studio with her brother, Leon.)
eg.The deep mauvish night closing over Paris warned her of Summer's end...(during the same meal)
eg.love seldom finds expression in gaiety.
eg. She called to mind those little festivities of the flesh, swiftly conducted and swiftly forgotten...
eg.Three, four years of improvised meals on a card-table(reflecting on her poverty without self-pity.)
eg.The storm, lightened by the shower, had drifted by without a downpour and now it was sailing up and away, opening its lips of fire across a pale yellow sunset.
Her encounters with her second ex, Herbert the Comte, are delicious, especially the last where the male vanity and hypocrisy are
also ...delicious. And her 28 year old admirer Coco Vatard is a sideline tale in itself.
Yes, I am a humble convert, admitting the errors of my ways, that I ever could have doubted "my Colette", again offering incense and being rewarded with that longing to return to Paris where I always end up at the wonderful Palais-Royal,several times, where Colette lived out her final years.
Amen!!!

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I bought while we were away in Hay-on-Wye. It's two nice novella's of Collettes. Of the two I prefered Chance Acquaintances, it was a nice funny and quite strange story about Collette (and her fantastic cat) ending up in a hotel for the summer outside of Paris. The story was quite simplistic with little plot but full of odd characters and I enjoyed it a great deal. Julie I found I didn't enjoy quite so much. It wasn't written in the first person and was less humourous. The main character was quite sad in many ways. She was in her 40s hanging out with people in their 20s, with no money and no goals besides getting more money to get more things. It really was the downside of decadence. Julie and her friends struck me as the people you always wanted to avoid at parties/clubs as they thought they were more interesting or intellectual than they were. In many ways she reminded me of Emma Boveray, failing without direction in her life. While this novella had more of a plot it wasn't really one that I liked as much. Even though there were more hints of bisexuality ;) Still I did enjoy both of these translations and I will definitely read more Collette. I hope one day my French is good enough to read her in the original!

[Babs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about an independent woman - presumably Colette herself - who has a cat and becomes an unwilling witness in a husband's infidelity. Lots of lovely details like buying chilled cream from a milk stall in a French park at the crack of dawn to give to her also highly independent and cool cat that goes strolling in the 'jardins' with her. Interestingly we find out very little about Colette herself - although she is the first person narrator she is utterly detached an notably mute. It isinteresting to view acute and perceptive detail through the eyes (or rather brain and language) of someone who gives you nothing about herself.

[Joel Van Valin · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Colette's less satisfying later novellas, Chance Acquaintances interweaves a seemingly autobiographical account of Colette's stay at a spa, a couple she meets by chance there, and the rather sordid story of a beautiful denizen of the Parisian demimonde (an acquaintance of Colette's). Philandering men are weak, and the women who have the patience to live with them are saints. Colette here writes with the voice of disappointed experience, and the story as a whole is rather dismal and tattered, a bit like a high-class, Parisian "Days of Our Lives" episode.

I have yet to read Julie de Carneilhan.

[Richelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first foray into the writings of Colette. I enjoyed both short stories, but preferred Julie de Carneilhan. What I enjoyed most about these stories were Colette's descriptions of Parisian life and her creation of the characters around the city. Her observances on fashion were also interesting to me. "A woman wager to confirm to prevailing fashion must always resemble any number of other women." The book certainly kindled a greater curiosity in French literature for me.

[Rob Sheppard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeing the few other reviews on here, it seems like other readers were fixated uncritically on the details on Parisian life. in fact, I think the whole point of he book is to see beyond/through those details. In Julie de Carneilhan, its a sort of empty malaise that lies beyond Julie's quotidian rituals. In Chance Acquaintances, there's something more akin to horror that transpire while Colette gets mixed up in the petty affairs of a couple at X les Bains.

[Greta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost abandoned this book half way through the first novella, Julie de Carneilhan. There wasn't much going on there that was enjoyable. And, to be honest, I can't even recall what it was about, now that I've finished the book. The second story, however, was a bit more descriptive and the first person narration added more personality to an otherwise dull story.

[Phoebe Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! Julie de Carneilhan is a great character study - I love how real the characters are - they all have their flaws and they don't behave logically, especially in love.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful cafe companion. Can't wait to read more!