Cido used to say, yes, regard, regard look, look. But she also said, don't touch. Don't touch, meaning, don't destroy what you're looking at. She's greedy and violent about wanting to possess - but doing it in language. Her of words is absolutely glorious. i think reading collette helps us to re engage with maybe what we think of as a childish way of being in the world. It's actually the most important way for all of us to be in the world,. To praisee the extraordinary world that we're in, amd and go on valuing language.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the outstanding French writers of the twentieth century. The novels of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873 - 1954) always had women at their centre, from youth to mid-life to old age, and they were phenomenally popular, at first for their freshness and frankness about women’s lives, as in the Claudine stories, and soon for their sheer quality as she developed as a writer. Throughout her career she intrigued readers by inserting herself, or a character with her name, into her works, fictionalising her life as a way to share her insight into the human experience.
With
Diana Holmes
Professor of French at the University of Leeds
Michèle Roberts
Writer, novelist, poet and Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia
And
Belinda Jack
Fellow and Tutor in French Literature and Language at Christ Church, University of Oxford
Producer: Simon Tillotson