Nine Lives

THE CAT--Colette--Farrar & Rinehart ($1.50).

To a number of other distinctions Sidonie Gabrielle Claudine Colette can add that of being one of the most rapidly-translated novelists in literature. In the past seven years 15 of her French novels have been published in the U. S., and at one period in 1931-32 translations of them appeared almost every other month. That the reserve of untranslated Colette novels was rapidly being exhausted, many an enthusiast realized with regret last week when the latest item in this Frenchwoman's list appeared.

The Cat tells the story of Saha, a golden-eyed, jealous, aristocratic little animal that broke up a marriage, sapped the strength of young Alain Amparat until he came to care more for her than for his handsome wife. That Colette can make such a tale readable will be no surprise to her admirers. That she can manage to include in it many artful descriptions of amorous misadventures and much erotic play, they will take for granted. But if they expect her to make it plausible as well, they are demanding more of her fiction than she will give them.

Alain was blond, handsome, a little priggish, a pampered only son. He bought Saha at a cat show, raised her for three years, delighted in her quiet, affectionate tricks. He had a few misgivings when he married Camille, who was modern, athletic, informed, impulsive, changeable as a mountain stream. But he lost them during their honeymoon and only began to harbor a secret resentment at Camille's plans for remaking their house. While it was being done over they lived on the ninth floor of a Paris apartment, to which Alain soon found an excuse for bringing his pet. As the young couple began to quarrel, after the first ardor of their passion died, Camille grew to hate the cat, at last pushed it off the railing. Then she felt at peace, dressed herself fetchingly, waited for her husband's return. He came in carrying the cat, scarcely injured, soon discovered what had happened. When Camille and Alain finally separated forever, the girl thought she could see the cat looking at her as triumphantly as a human being.

The Author. The life of Sidonie Gabrielle Claudine Colette reads like a scenario for one of her novels. She was born 63 years ago in Burgundy, the daughter of a Captain in the Zouaves who was an unsuccessful politician and a student of military affairs. A star pupil in school, she read constantly, wrote compositions "as easily as one would fry an egg," did not realize the character of her talent until later. At 20 she married a 34-year-old author of popular romances who had hoped she would help him socially, found that she was too outspoken to be a social success. Soon he published a book called Claudine at School which made both a scandal and a success, and although he admitted that he had not written all of it, witnesses who saw the manuscript afterwards testified that he had written almost none, that it was his wife's work. For six years thereafter the collaboration persisted, with Colette writing the books and her husband signing them. Divorcing him in 1906, she acted for a time, married Diplomat Henri de Jouvenel in 1910, became a leading contributor to Le Matin, dramatic critic on another paper, editor of a publishing house, author of some 30 volumes of plays, novels, short stories, essays.

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