Story summary
Streszczenie książki Chéri
- 8 min czytania
- 8 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
Léa, a courtesan of forty-nine, watches her young lover Chéri prepare to marry a girl of eighteen.
3 months free · unlimited eBooks, audiobooks and summaries, and print and large print at cost
Nothing to pay today · Napiszemy do Ciebie e-mail przed pobraniem opłaty · Anuluj online dwoma kliknięciami
Chéri — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 8 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 2 h 40 min2 h 5 min fast, 3 h 10 min slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 38 100
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Łatwy short sentences, plain words
- Pierwsze wydanie
- 1920by Colette
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
Za darmo przez 3 mies.
Uzyskaj za darmo pełne streszczenie książki: Chéri
- 200 000+ klasycznych książek jako e-booki, audiobooki i 15-minutowe streszczenia oraz wydania drukowane i duży druk w cenie kosztów druku
- Do 5 czytelników w twoim domu w jednym planie
Chéri in short
Chéri follows a six-year love between Léa, a courtesan nearing fifty, and Chéri, the beautiful son of her old rival. When he announces his coming marriage, Léa keeps her composure, but his absence leaves her cold, sleepless and sobbing his name. Chéri discovers that his bride, his money and his friends cannot replace the woman he treated as a habit.
What Chéri is about
What does a woman do when the beautiful young man she has loved for six years announces, half as a joke, that he is going to marry? In Chéri, Léa de Lonval, a courtesan of forty-nine, wakes in her great copper bed to the sound of him playing with her pearl necklace. He is handsome, spoiled and bored. She loves him far more than she admits.
Colette published this short novel in Paris in 1920, and it is set in 1912, among retired courtesans, rich widows and idle young men. You get a love story, a comedy of manners and a close portrait of ageing in one compact tale.
Dla kogo. You will love this book if you enjoy French fiction, sharp social comedy, and love stories told with wit and sensual detail. It suits anyone drawn to portraits of ageing, beauty and desire.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A morning game hides a six-year bond
The novel opens in Léa's pink bedroom on Avenue Bugeaud in Paris. Chéri, in white silk pajamas, stands before the mirror wearing her pearl necklace and teases her to give it to him. She answers from the great bed and tells him he is wearing out the thread. It is a small scene, but it holds the whole relationship.
The two circle each other with a mix of cruelty and tenderness. He calls her Nounoune, the name he gave her as a child. She calls him a beautiful scoundrel. They have lived together for six years, and she sometimes calls it an adoption, because she likes to be honest.
Then Chéri drops his news as a joke. He says the pearls would look good in his bridal trousseau. Léa asks whose trousseau, and he answers with comic solemnity that it is his own. He leaps away shouting for his bath.
What matters is how well she hides what she feels. Alone, she looks in a hand mirror and sees a market gardener with a thickening neck. She has started taking off the necklace at night so that he will not notice her skin. Order is her armor.
Léa and Chéri use teasing to hide how much they need each other.
- 2Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Neuilly gathers old rivals around one young man
Léa drives to Neuilly, to Charlotte Peloux's white villa.
- 3Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
A kiss in Neuilly opens a summer in Normandy
One June evening, chance leaves Charlotte, Léa and Chéri alone together at Neuilly.
- 4Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Chéri announces his marriage as a business deal
Back in Paris, Chéri tells Léa in her bedroom that the wedding is settled.
- 5Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
After the wedding, two women suffer in silence
A Sunday in October finds Léa back at Neuilly among the card players.
- 6Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Chéri runs away and Léa comes home
Chéri soon leaves Neuilly for a hotel and a crowd of night companions led by Viscount Desmond, a thin, watchful parasite.
- 7Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Beauty fades and love has no clear price
The first theme of the book is ageing.
- 8Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Colette tells the story through glances and details
Colette keeps the story short and quick.
Read all 8 key ideas now
3 months free, then 0,14 USD a day: unlimited eBooks, audiobooks and summaries, and print and large print at cost.
- Nothing to pay today
- Napiszemy do Ciebie e-mail przed pobraniem opłaty
- Anuluj online dwoma kliknięciami
Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Léa de Lonval A wealthy courtesan of forty-nine, proud of her taste and her body, who loves Chéri and hides how much she needs him.
- Chéri (Fred Peloux) A strikingly handsome, moody young man of twenty-five, raised without discipline, who treats Léa as home and cannot say what he feels.
- Charlotte Peloux Chéri's mother, a former dancer with a trumpet voice, who mixes gossip, money and scheming in her Neuilly villa.
- Edmée A quiet eighteen-year-old, daughter of Marie-Laure, who marries Chéri and slowly learns that he loves another woman.
- Marie-Laure Edmée's beautiful, cold mother, who bargains hard over the marriage contract and holds a dangerous secret about a will.
- Patron A gentle boxer and friend of Léa, who trains Chéri and believes in simple honor, hard work and fidelity.
How it ends (spoiler)
Chéri returns to Léa at midnight, announcing that he is coming back, and they spend the night together. In the morning Léa makes plans to leave Paris with him, but she sees his silence and his fear. She gently tells him that she is too old and that his youth lies elsewhere, and sends him home to Edmée. He leaves breathing deeply, like an escaped prisoner. Léa watches from the window and sees an old woman in the mirror.
The whole book is coming to your plan
The full text of Chéri opens soon. Keep this summary as a file today.
Paperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way. Email me when it is printed
Pytania o Chéri
What is Chéri by Colette about?
It tells of Léa, a courtesan of forty-nine, and her six-year affair with Chéri, a beautiful young man who is about to marry. It follows the pain of the parting and the lives of the women around him.
Who is Chéri and why is he called that?
Chéri, meaning darling in French, is the pet name of Fred Peloux, the spoiled son of Charlotte Peloux. Léa calls him that, and he calls her Nounoune, the name he gave her as a child.
When was Chéri written and is it based on real life?
Colette published it in 1920, and it is set in 1912 Paris. It is fiction, but it draws on the real demi-monde of courtesans and rich admirers that Colette knew well.
Is Chéri easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that it is short, with quick scenes and lively dialogue. The story moves between a few homes in Paris, and its small cast makes each person easy to follow.
What is the main message of Chéri?
It shows how beauty fades and how love can hide behind habit, teasing and money. Colette suggests that both youth and age bring fear, and that real feeling is hardest to say aloud.
Zacytuj to wydanie
Colette. Chéri. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/cheri.
Colette. (2026). Chéri. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/cheri (Original work published 1920)
Colette. Chéri. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/cheri.
@book{colette2026cheri,
author = {Colette},
title = {Chéri},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/cheri},
note = {First published 1920}
}
Crime and Punishment
Wuthering Heights
Pride and Prejudice
The Iliad
Romeo and Juliet
The Picture of Dorian GrayZa darmo przez 3 mies.
Uzyskaj za darmo pełne streszczenie książki: Chéri
- 200 000+ klasycznych książek jako e-booki, audiobooki i 15-minutowe streszczenia oraz wydania drukowane i duży druk w cenie kosztów druku
- Do 5 czytelników w twoim domu w jednym planie
