Beschrijving
Paris, Albin Michel, 1929, 318pp. marbled paper on hardback board binding, some damage to binding, many illustrations, original front and back remain in the binding. Claudine at School (French: Claudine à l'école) is a 1900 novel by the French writer Colette. The narrative recounts the final year of secondary school of 15-year-old Claudine, her brazen confrontations with her headmistress, Mlle Sergent, and her fellow students. It was Colette's first published novel, originally attributed to her first husband, the writer Willy. The work is assumed to be highly autobiographical and includes lyrical descriptions of the Burgundian countryside, where Colette grew up. Claudine at School as well as being a coming of age story is an example of homoerotic fiction in the tradition of Gertrude Stein's Fernhurst (1904), Ivy Compton-Burnett's More Women than Men (1934), Christa Winsloe's The Child Manuela (1933), or Dorothy Bussy's Olivia (1949).Upon its publication in 1900, Colette's novel was heralded by Charles Marras for its ‘maturity of language and style’. It was immediately successful, yet it brought Colette scandal as well.