Cheri and The Last of Cheri

Hmmm, I don't know that these multiple choice questions fit every work of fiction, but I did my best. Colette's sympathetic portrayal of her two main characters, Lea and Cheri, does not keep her from examining their faults and frailties. Both are rich, spoiled, and self-absorbed. But both are lonely, despairing, unfulfilled persons. She does not let her characters find joy in a society that forbids their liaison. They are allowed only an affair, not a life-long love, which is what they both wanted. The reason: age-difference, older woman, younger man. Deep in the subtext is Colette's condemnation of a society that elevates the importance of money, no matter how achieved; that demands that couples abide by rules of proper pairing; that rewards and condemns vice at the same time.The reader is faced with a dilemna: are Lea and Cheri unlovable to us because of their selfishness and stubborness, or are they tragic figures caught in a world, sadly, of their own making, a world that eventually destroys both. Is Lea at fault for ruining Cheri for a real world? Did she sacrifice herself by letting him go? Was she wrong in doing so after molding him into a useless toy. Is Cheri's mother the villain for allowing her son to be corrupted from puberty on by her friend? Possibly not, in Colette's world. Colette was sympathetic to the plight of women and celebrated those who gained some control over their lives--as Lea and Charlotte did. Is the destruction of Cheri Lea's and Charlotte's fault, or is he so spoiled and rigid that he insists on his own unhappiness if he cannot have what (Lea) he wants. In spite of his many faults, I sympathize with Cheri, rather than Lea. He is the victim, petted, protected, indulged, spoiled, until he knows only one way to view himself, as a toy, nothing but a toy. Without Lea he could possibly carry on, but he has a mother and a wife who alienate him and lead their own lives, ignoring his isolation and desperation. In fact, desperation is a word that describes both Lea and Cheri. One wonders what might have been if. . . .

Bottom Line firstColette's Cheri and the Last of Cheri delve into a world of people who exist on their surface qualities and measure life in terms of what wealth can buy. While focusing all of your attentions on what people are on the outside, you are subtly directed to appreciate the existence of deeper human needs. I am new to Colette, and I wonder why she is so much ignored in mandatory reading lists and in lists of modern writers. Whatever the quality of the translation what comes through is mostly primary colors and hard talking people, who may not be what they project. This is literature and deserves more prominence.}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{{Cheri is a neglected, spoiled over indulged son of a professional "kept woman" Another of her generation and profession Lea had originally acted as a parent to Cheri, the boy and by default they become lovers. Book one ends with Mme. Peloux, Cheri's mother arranging a marriage for her boy to an equally wealthy and more respectable daughter of society.In the second Novella, Cheri is a veteran of the just ended WWI. He now lives as an observer. His wife and circle of friends give themselves to what may be noble or greedy post war causes while he begins to react to his shallow and emotionless life.From the beginning we see Cheri (real name Fred Peloux) as more like an animal than a human. He is fascinated by comforting objects. The real pearl necklace of his lover Lea has always worn will become something of a running theme and telltale for judging other characters. Lea's Shoulder<?> is for him a symbol of safety and warmth.Certain themes will exist throughout the first book. Lea is always seen as in the last stages of her exceptional beauty but both the objects around her and her circle of friends will always be described as decayed, worn and having lost their looks and command of style. Everyone has money and money buys security but no protection from time. Cheri is mostly described as an animal. He is cunning; possessed of the survival skills he learned from the hired help. He has enough looks and money to be arrogant and hard to please. Never are we witness to his capacity for any of the nobler human traits. He can wound but he is the one who get mollified.In the second novella, Cheri dominates the narrative. He continues to prowl Paris and reacts to the surfaces, smells and physical traits of a world that is becoming too small. His wife could have become a love match for him, but she is absorbed in a world past him. She may have a lover, but she is still open to the possibility of marital sex in what has become a sexless marriage.The dedicated sensualist that was Cheri in book one has come to the end of his interest in things sensual. What he lacks is a vocabulary or an ability to understand anything beyond surfaces. His struggle with this problem is the conflict that will bring us to the end of these books.Colette is a master writer. That she chose to write about naughty people and without judging them as naughty may make her work unacceptable for middle or high school reading lists. In these two novellas sex is never graphic and language is never raw. My recommendation is that Colette deserves a higher place in western literature. I will read more of her books.

Colette wrote fun and beautiful stories. These two novellas are beautiful and I enjoyed them so much. Her dialogue is perfection! I loved these stories!

After I saw the movie, I wanted to read the book, and even though the movie was visually beautiful, the book draws the characters more carefully and fully. The focus is more on Cherie, and Lea does not remain a raving beauty forever... she gets older and wiser, but never loses her sense of humor. I adore this book!

I've read this book twice and enjoyed it the second time as much as I enjoyed the first, probably more. I liked Cheri and felt sorry for him. Yes, he was spoiled, lacked character and responsibility, because Lea loved him too much and his mother not enough. Both of these women had their own agendas that had nothing to do with Cheri. In the end though, I think Cheri and Lea loved and were in love with each other but that realization came too late for them both. I love the line Lea says to Cheri: "Now that you've had a taste of youth, it never satisfies, but you'll always want to go back for more." What a profound statement, and Lea should know. She and women like her became theives as their own youth and beauty twinkled in the twilight of age. How sad for them both.

The two short volumes included in here tell the story of an aging courtesan and her frivolous young lover, for whom the first World War changes everything. Characters are finely drawn, and descriptions are both lush (in the decadent pre-war years) and disturbing (afterward).

The writing is a bit flowery but because you are already familiar with the story, you will enjoy the book as I did.The book arrived quickly and in good condition. I am happy with it.

Excellent book.

This is a novel (or two novels in one, in this case) about what it means to love, and in particular it is about the love between a middle-aged woman and a young man. The woman, Lea, is a courtesan, which in those days (early twentieth-century) was a more honorable position than the high-class prostitute that it suggests today, and the young man, Cheri, was a member of the idle rich society that Proust wrote about and would have been familiar with (and in fact Proust was a great admirer of Colette's writing).After six-years of what was supposed to be a kind of educational, almost business relationship, neither expects to miss the other too much when Cheri marries a younger girl, as he was always expected to do, but they soon realize that they love each other.As befits the writing of Colette, who was in a sense one of the first truly liberated women, it is Lea who has the strength to finally end their liaison, sending the weaker Cheri back to his poor neglected wife.This is said to be Colette's most popular novel along with 'Gigi', which she wrote 25 years later, so having read the earlier 'Claudine at School' and loved it I expected to enjoy this just as much. I was therefore a little disappointed to find that it lacked the fun and vitality of the Claudine series, though there is humour here, of a subtler kind, along with good writing and real insights into what it means to love. Whereas with Claudine one can easily relate to the adolescent schooldays, it is much harder to empathize with the Parisian upper-class society of Cheri with its demi-monde fringes of almost-respectable courtesans, a world that no longer exists.Another point about this edition of these two novels is that it comes in an unusual format that appears to be scanned from a much earlier printing of the books. The quality of the binding and paper is good but the print itself is rather poor, though not unreadable. Still, this is an interesting and reasonably entertaining work.

I wish it hadn't taken me so long to get into Colette. I can't think of anything more elegant or opulent than 1920s Paris and Colette's writing captures it exquisitely. Her books are beautifully written and incredibly daring for their time. Cheri is the love affair between an aging courtesan and a beautiful young man. It seems amazing that someone could write so thoughtfully and intelligently about an older woman's sexuality at this time, as a well as that of a smouldering, arrogant youth. This takes you right into those glowing salons, with silk dressing gowns and rococo mirrors. The 1920s were exciting - according to Colette they were racier than I had imagined.

Great book. Thanks.

These two stories are masterpieces. I read them over and over.

Absolutely as it was advertised. Would buy from this site again.