Bibliofemme Reviews
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Gigi and the Cat by Colette 
(Published by Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
Gigi and The Cat are two novellas from the
French novelist Colette.
Gigi is a 15 year old girl born into a family of what
were high class Parisian courtesans ("We never marry
in our family"). She is looked after by her
grandmother, although her mother - an unmarried opera
singer - also resides in their humble home. To her
grandmother Gigi is still an uncouth child; to her
grand-aunt, a pupil of the arts of enticing and
‘accompanying’ men.
A family friend and millionaire Gaston becomes a
frequent visitor to the ladies home, to find refuge
from his playboy lifestyle and the press and society
who follow his love life with avid interest (that of
ladies overdosing on opium to regain his favour). In
this sanctuary he rediscovers Gigi as the blossoming
woman - seemingly innocent of the scheming ways of
women. Gaston decides to take Gigi as his ‘companion’
and puts it to her Grandmother. The family agree to
the proposal and inform the girl. Gigi however has
something else in mind.
The Cat opens with a young man poised on the edge of
bethrothment and the beginning of married life. He
leaves his mother's home and his beloved cat for an
apartment and beautiful new wife. The cat pines for its
master's loss so he brings it to live in the marital
home. He understands his cat implicitly and is totally
comfortable in its presence, a position not shared with
his wife.
His wife Camille’s jealousy of the cat Saha
grows 'til she attempts to take the feline's life. The
cat lives and the discovery of the crime causes
the couple to separate.
Gigi is the better known of these two stories and it taps
into every adolescent girls daydream; to be swept off
their feet by an older, wealthy, desirable man and
to have the power of manipulating men and getting
exactly what you want. It is a fairy tale and like
all fairy tales if you were to take away the
historical or fable context then you are left with
what would be a contemporarily dubious story - a 15
year old girl been sold into prostitution by her
grandmother to a 33 year old man for the price of the
odd goose! But of course this is not a contemporary
tale, it is a turn of the century ‘Pretty Woman” and
will be enjoyed as such by any reader.
The Cat however reflects something more ageless and
less escapist. Here we are shown the struggles of the
newly married couple, not those with big worries about money,
fidelity or ideals but one with the little niggly feelings of "maybe this
just isn't right? maybe I’m not happy? maybe I want
things to go back to the way they were?". It's a way of looking for a
way to back out of coupling, entwining and
getting back to yourself. Hooked around the device of
love for a pet it shows both unconditional complete
love and conditional convenience of marriage.
Of the two Gigi is a pretty story but The Cat is
something more complex.
January 2005
