Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Chéri
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love short, precise novels about desire, money and time, and anyone curious about Paris before 1914.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Chéri is a short novel by the French writer Colette, published in 1920. It is set in Paris in the years before the First World War, among rich men and the women who have lived off their favor. Colette knew this world well. She had been a music hall performer and a journalist, and she wrote about love and money without moralizing and without flinching.
The story follows Léa de Lonval, a courtesan of forty-nine, and Fred Peloux, a spoiled young man of twenty-five whom she calls Chéri, the French word for darling. They have been lovers for six years. Neither calls it love. Then Chéri's mother arranges a marriage for him, and the quiet arrangement starts to break. In this summary you will meet the main people, follow the story up to its last turn, and see how Colette builds so much feeling from so few scenes. Let us begin with the pair and the house where they live their comfortable, private life.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A six-year affair that feels like habitFree
- 2Two old rivals plan a young man's future
- 3The marriage ends the arrangement
- 4Absence shows what each had really lost
- 5Desire, age and power between two people
- 6How Colette tells it: objects, rooms and restraint
Punkt 1 von 6
A six-year affair that feels like habit
The novel opens in Léa's bedroom in Paris. It is a room of pale silks, scent and soft light, and Chéri lies in it as if it were his own home. He is twenty-five, very handsome, and used to being looked after. Léa is forty-nine, rich from her years as one of the city's best-known courtesans, and she keeps her beauty with care and discipline.
Their affair began when Chéri was still a boy of about nineteen. Léa knew his mother and had known him as a child. What began as a favor to a friend became a long and comfortable arrangement. Chéri comes and goes as he likes. He sulks, teases and demands. Léa scolds him in a half-joking, motherly way and gives him pleasure, pearls and peace.
Colette shows at once that this is not a simple tale of an old woman and a boy. Chéri is not poor, and Léa is not helpless. He has money from his family, and she has her own fortune. What they trade is something harder to name. She gives him warmth and attention, and he gives her proof that she is still desired. Both are proud, and both keep up a light, mocking tone so that neither has to say anything serious.
You can already feel what is at risk. Habit has stood in for love, and neither of them has tested it. The reader senses that a change in the outside world could expose what lies beneath. That change is about to arrive through Chéri's mother.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Chéri
What is Chéri by Colette about?
It is about the long affair between Léa de Lonval, an aging courtesan, and a young man she calls Chéri. When his mother arranges his marriage, the pair must face what the relationship has meant.
What does the title Chéri mean?
Chéri is French for darling, in the masculine form. It is the pet name Léa uses for Fred Peloux, and it becomes the name by which almost everyone in the book knows him.
When was Chéri written and is it a true story?
Colette published it in 1920. It is fiction, but it draws on the Paris world she knew well, including courtesans, music halls and the social customs of the years before the First World War.
Is Chéri hard to read?
No. It is a short novel with clear scenes and quick dialogue. The feeling lies under the surface. The language and plot are easy to follow.
Is there a sequel to Chéri?
Yes. Colette wrote The Last of Chéri in 1926, which takes up the same characters some years later. Chéri itself is complete and can be read on its own.