Gigi
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First published in 1944, Colette’s Gigi is a witty, finely observed novella set in the fashionable demi-monde of Belle Époque Paris. Gilberte, known as Gigi, is raised by her grandmother and great-aunt Alicia, women who intend to prepare her for a future as a wealthy man’s mistress. When Gaston Lachaille, a prosperous family friend, begins to see Gigi differently, the familiar rules of courtship and social advancement take an unexpected turn.
Beneath its lightness and sparkling dialogue, Gigi explores female independence, the economics of desire, and the uneasy relationship between affection and social convention. Written during the Second World War, it is a distinctive late work by Colette, whose intimate knowledge of Parisian society lends the story both its precision and its quiet irony. Though widely known through its celebrated stage and film adaptations, the novella retains the sharper, more ambiguous charm of Colette’s original prose.
From the book
“I’ve thought it over, and I’d rather be unhappy with you than without you.”
— Colette, Gigi
On Gigi
“‘Gigi’ is unique in her oeuvre precisely for the mellowness that makes it so popular.”
— Judith Thurman, The New Yorker