Ch駻i and the End of Ch駻i (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781324006374)

Ch駻i and its sequel, The End of Ch駻i, mark Colette's finest achievements in their brilliant, subtle, and frank investigations of love and power. Set in the Parisian demimonde in the last days of the Belle ﾉpoque, Ch駻i tells the story of L饌, a courtesan at the end of a successful career, and her lover, the beautiful but emotionally opaque Ch駻i. Ch駻i will soon enter into an arranged marriage, ending their six-year affair, which--they will each realize too late--has been the one real love of their lives.

The End of Ch駻i picks up their story in the aftermath of the First World War. Ch駻i, now a decorated soldier, has returned from the trenches to a changed world. Emotionally estranged from his independent and unfaithful wife, a psychically wounded Ch駻i begins an inexorable descent--one that leads him back to a stunning encounter with L饌.

As the acclaimed writer and translator Lydia Davis puts it in an illuminating foreword, Rachel Careau's "brilliantly ingenious, close new translation" reveals Ch駻i and The End of Ch駻i as "the strangest of love stories." Colette skillfully portrays her characters' shifting inner lives and desires amid a clear-eyed depiction of interpersonal power dynamics. Careau's lean, attentive translation restores to these classic novels their taut, remarkably modern style--the essence of Colette's genius.