Duo. The Shackle

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873–1954) is a classic of 20th-century French literature. Her works have been read—and are read—throughout the world; her novels have been translated into all the languages of the world. Colette’s creative range is astonishingly diverse: exquisite miniaturist novellas and psychological novels, philosophical diaries and poetic works, plays, librettos, and screenplays… But the essential thing for this writer is an undeniable gift—brilliant plots and a woman’s love.

In the 1930s she continues working in the style of psychological prose, writing the duology “Duo” (1934) and “The Niche” (1939). In these books—connected in no way by obligation with her autobiography—the complex problems of family and romantic relationships are explored again. Relationships that sometimes carry danger, as happened in the family of Michel and Alice (in the novel “Duo”): later, after ten years of joyful family life, Michel, having found a letter from her lover, flares up with unbearable jealousy. Alice, meanwhile, continues to love her husband openly; her betrayal was accidental—she easily succumbed once to her former weakness as a woman. Yet Michel clearly realizes that in his life there is nothing besides his love for Alice—that this love is what gives meaning to his existence. And once, as he thinks, she stopped loving him, he cannot—more than that—he cannot go on living.