Largely autobiographical, La Vagabonde recalls Colette's own years as a dance-hall performer in turn-of-the-century Paris, where she takes the listener backstage and into the demimonde of Renée Néré, an aging dancer, mime, and failed writer, a woman who struggles to choose between freedom and love.
Claudine is the prettiest, smartest and wildest girl in her class. A mischievous 15-year-old who delights in rollicking through the dusty corridors of a parochial school in provincial France, Claudine manipulates her less-astute classmates and her feeble-minded professors. This vivid, honest portrait of adolescent life in turn-of-the-century Montigny was shocking to some readers when it first appeared. Today the novel still sparkles with the freshness and edge that excited readers almost 100 years ago.
