Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette
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Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Judith Thurman (Author), Cassandra Campbell (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 125 ratings
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A dazzling biography of the French literary superstar Colette, who is also the subject of a major motion picture.

“A fine and intelligent biography of Colette, with her long tumultuous life and the great body of her work scrupulously considered and presented with style.” (The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice)

National Book Award Finalist

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award

Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award

Having spent her childhood in the shadow of an overpowering mother, Colette escaped at age 20 into a turbulent marriage with the sexy, unscrupulous Willy - a literary charlatan who took credit for her bestselling Claudine novels. Weary of Willy’s sexual domination, Colette pursued an extremely public lesbian love affair with a niece of Napoleon’s. At 40, she gave birth to a daughter who bored her, at 47 she seduced her teenage stepson, and in her seventies she contributed to the pro-Nazi press during the Occupation, even though her beloved third husband, a Jew, had been arrested by the Gestapo.

And all the while, this incomparable woman poured forth a torrent of masterpieces, including Gigi, Sido, Cheri, and Break of Day. Judith Thurman, author of the National Book Award-winning biography of Isak Dinesen, portrays Colette as a thoroughly modern woman: frank in her desires, fierce in her passions, forever reinventing herself. Rich with delicious gossip and intimate revelations, shimmering with grace and intelligence, Secrets of the Flesh is one of the great biographies of our time.

Chosen as one of the Best Books of the Year by The Village Voice and Newsday

“[Colette] has been the subject of....a half-dozen significant biographies over the past thirty years. Yet this one by Judith Thurman will be hard to top.... Its prose is smoothly urbane, at times aphoristic, always captivating.” (The Washington Post Book World)

“It will stand as literature in its own right.” (Richard Bernstein, The New York Times)

“[An] essential biography by a stylish writer of great sympathetic understanding and intellectual authority.” (Philip Roth)

Previous page
  1. Listening Length
    25 hours and 7 minutes
  2. Author
    Judith Thurman
  3. Narrator
    Cassandra Campbell
  4. Audible release date
    October 11, 2016
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B01LZSLEB3
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 25 hours and 7 minutes
Author Judith Thurman
Narrator Cassandra Campbell
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date October 11, 2016
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B01LZSLEB3
Best Sellers Rank #28,757 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#76 in Biographies of Authors
#154 in Historical Biographies (Audible Books & Originals)
#279 in Author Biographies

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
125 global ratings
An Intriguing Portrait Of A Most Fascinating Seductress
5 Stars
An Intriguing Portrait Of A Most Fascinating Seductress
In a most exhaustively researched and well-written "expose" of one of the twentieth centuries most fascination women in literature we have found the perfect biography. Born Sidonie-Cabrielle Colette in the Burgundian village of Saint-Sauveur-en Puisaye. Colette spent a happy childhood in rural surrounding, the scene of her many novels. At the age of 20 Colette married the writer and music critic Henri Gauthier-Villars, ('Monsieur Willy'); he was 15 years her senior. Colette's husband was considered by most to be a charlatan and degenerate. Colette published in a short period four CLAUDINE novels (1900-03) under her husband's pen name Willy. The series of four novels depicted improper adventures of a teenage girl. The series was a huge success and inspired all kinds of side products - a musical stage play, Claudine uniform, Claudine soap, cigars, and perfume.Colette broke free of him in 1905. After divorcing her unfaithful husband in 1906 Colette became a music-hall performer at such places as La Chatte Amoureuse and L'Oiseau de Nuit. She scandalized all of Paris by baring her breast; also causing a riot by miming a copulation in a sketch, at the Moulin Rouge one evening.Colette's protector and manager, a woman known as 'Missy', was the niece of Napoleon III, the Marquise de Belboeuf. Missy committed suicide in 1944. Through her more tumultuous years, and maturing as a writer she produced more honest works and became even more famous or infamous throughout the world. Ms. Judith Thurman has done a most admirable job in looking into the live, loves and literary and artistic merits of the intriguing French lady. I thoroughly enjoyed and was captivated by the most intimate portrait of the lady in question.
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Top reviews from the United States

Raymonde St. John Burke
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly interesting
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2024
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Wonderful history and life of Colette
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Shannon L. Youngs
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written biography
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2014
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This may be one of the best written biographies I have read, as far as the style in which it was written. Theories are clearly stated when they are not 100% known as facts (such as interpreting Colette's state of mind during some of her writings) and facts in the book are clearly sited in the index if the reader wishes to investigate further. I think it really helped that the writer knew French and did much of their own translation of Colette's letters and bodies of work.
One person found this helpful
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Lorac
4.0 out of 5 stars Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2018
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I wanted this book as the movie did not release in my city. It was supposed to be new, but there were marks on the page edge that looked like dirt or that it had been stored in a musty or dirty area. I paid for a new book, but I don't believe this one was.
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areader
5.0 out of 5 stars Immersed in the life of Colette
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2020
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I just finished the book and am so sad. Thurman brought me into the life of Colette and her world so completely that when she died at the end I felt as sad as if had just happened. I put it down partway to read "My Mother's House" and now am going to re-read "Cherie" -- Thurman was clear about the conflicts in Colette's logic, but she shows that Colette never did anything silly. Colette was a true artist, and this book deepened my understanding of that.
3 people found this helpful
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dennyt
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book for its genre
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2020
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This was a present for my sister who specifically asked for it. I think she was pleased.
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Phred
3.0 out of 5 stars Well written. Superb documentation and in serious need of editing
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2015
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Bottom Line First
Secrets of the Flesh; A life of Colette is over long. The scholarship is excellent. Ms Thurman is at her best giving her analysis of Madam Colette's extensive library, but the biographer cannot tell the difference from significant, or illustrative events and tittle-tattle. Overall this is a good book. There is too much book and not enough of it is important.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Early in Secrets of the Flesh Author Judith Thurman tells us that her subject, Colette may have invented the modern teenager. Her subject is self-indulgent, moody, jealous and given to causing jealousy. These details may be sufficient to validate the case, but Ms Thurman does not define what she means by so categorizing Colette and which of these characteristics prove the characterization.

This same woman was a prodigious writer, novelist, autobiographer, reporter, reviewer, and playwright. In short there were very few applications of the written word that carry no examples of Colette as a superior performer. When not writing, and she was almost always writing, she became an actress. Not merely a woman of the stage but a performer at the leading edges of the field, even where the roles required nudity. Meantime she had at least three husbands (one would become head of the French government and a major player in world politics) and scandalous for her affairs with men, including much younger men and women. There would be few secrets of the flesh unknown to Colette, but one suspects many secrets of the heart that eluded her.

As much as the book title emphasizes matters of the flesh an as much as Colette's life and writing revolved around matters sexual. Ms. Thurman can be rather prissy. Leaving it to your imagination may be the academically correct alternative, and indeed Colette herself was never overtly pornographic but the readers should not have to read between the lines about who is having affairs with who. Colette could be very wounded by the many infidelities of her various husbands and lovers, except that she frequently was involved in infidelities of her own. Including infidelities with the mistresses/lovers of her husbands and lovers. All rather complex and occasionally calling for the kind of specifics that Ms Thurmond avoids.

The breath of Colette's authorship is as vast as her romantic entanglements. This biography is at its best when time is taken to consider these writings. Ms Thurman shares with us insights and opinions that clarify the context of the novelist and the shades of meaning as one moves from French to, in my case English. I am most grateful for those parts of this Bio that help me relate the author to her words.

I am least grateful for the nearly endless recounting of the many parties, homes and other social engagements of this important and well connected woman. There are too many pages given over to these visitations and listing attendees. Madam Colette lived a complex and productive life. She is worthy of 500 pages. More of the pages could have been devoted to the product of the author and less on how and with whom she dined.
14 people found this helpful
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Tom Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars It simply doesn't get better than this
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2016
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There are enough stars to rate this.book. It simply doesn't get better than this. Not only is the
research extraordinary and the writing brilliant on its own, but the depth of her perception takes
one's breath away. There will never be a better book written about Colette.
3 people found this helpful
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Maryo Stimmel
5.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth the Effort
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2014
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Judith Thurman is a good writer and this is an extensive, if not exhaustive, bio of Colette. Colette was quite a complicated woman, and Thurman takes the extensive material written about her and by her, and uses it ably to create this well done biography.
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Top reviews from other countries

C. Roderick
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant book about a brilliant woman
Reviewed in Mexico on December 16, 2022
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I read one of the new translations of Cheri, and The End of Cheri....with age I have a new appreciation for those works...Colette live a fascinating life, brilliant told by Judith Thurman....highly recommend..
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Andrew Leigh
5.0 out of 5 stars This is the zeitgeist
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2019
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Probably the best biography I have ever read, but really hard work as it's so dense and detailed.
More than matches Casanova's My History, though of course much shorter and not an autobiography.
Be prepared for a long read and and a strong demand on your intellect. You know it's challenging when you have to look up the occasional word!
3 people found this helpful
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Gaston
1.0 out of 5 stars A good book but the photos from the print edition are not included.
Reviewed in Germany on April 20, 2022
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I would recommend not to buy the KINDLE edition but the print version as the photos which are a necessary part of the biography are not included.
One person found this helpful
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bass brown
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2021
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Outstanding book, an an amazing woman. Wish I could have met her!
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Fisher
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and interesting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2021
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Interesting and fascinating woman. Well worth a read
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