Secrets of the flesh

by Judith Thurman

"In 1900, a provincial beauty best known as the child bride of a famous Parisian rake captivated the Belle Epoque by writing a story that invented the modern teenage girl. It was the first in a series of wildly popular but also critically acclaimed novels that, combined with a flamboyant career on the stage, made this former country girl the first authentic superstar of the century."--BOOK JACKET. "But for all her celebrity as one of France's greatest and most notorious novelists and personalities, Sidonic-Gabrielle Colette was a profoundly reticent and self-suspicious creature who fiercely resists being known."--BOOK JACKET. "Having spent her village childhood in the shadow of a queenly, possessive mother who taught her the value of resilience, Colette would go on to embody the image of the modern woman. At twenty, she marries the canny but unscrupulous Willy, who not only takes the credit - and the royalties - for her best-selling Claudine novels, but also keeps her enthralled in mor