Claudine

Claudine, fictional character, the heroine of a series of novels by Colette, originally published in French as the work of her then husband, Henri Gauthier-Villars (“Willy”). The works include Claudine at School (1900), Claudine in Paris (1901), The Indulgent Husband (1902), and The Innocent Wife (1903). Locked by Willy in a room so that she would write without distractions, the young Colette drew on her own experiences as a girl from the provinces and as a young married woman with a libertine husband to produce scenes from the life of the young ingénue. Although Claudine was not a fresh creation (the type was popular) and the mildly salacious fin-de-siècle titillation that Colette was instructed to include limits modern appreciation of the books, the writing of the Claudine books served as an apprenticeship for Colette, whose hand grew increasingly sure in sensuous description and natural dialogue. Both Claudine and the passive, domestic Annie, who narrates the fourth Claudine book, reappear in Colette’s Retreat from Love (1907), which was published under the name Colette Willy.