Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (French: [sidɔni ɡabʁijɛl kɔlɛt]; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette or as Colette Willy, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her 1944 novella Gigi, which was the basis for the 1958 film and the 1973 stage production of the same name. Her short story collection The Tendrils of the Vine is also famous in France.
Early life
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born on 28 January 1873 in the village of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye in the department of Yonne, Burgundy.
Her father, Captain Jules-Joseph Colette (1829–1905), was a war hero. He was a Zouave of the Saint-Cyr military school, who had lost a leg at Melegnano in the Second Italian War of Independence. He was awarded a post as tax collector in the village of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye where his children were born. Her mother, Adèle Eugénie Sidonie, née Landoy (1835–1912) was nicknamed Sido. Colette's great-grandfather, Robert Landois, was a wealthy Martinican mulatto, who settled in Charleville in 1787. In an arranged first marriage to Jules Robineau Duclos, Colette's mother had two children: Juliette (1860–1908) and Achille (1863–1913). She later married Captain Colette and had two further children: Leopold (1866–1940) and Sidonie-Gabrielle. Colette attended a public school from the ages of 6 to 17. The family was initially well off, but poor financial management substantially reduced their income.
