Retreat from Love (Peter Owen Modern Classic) by Colette

Retreat from Love (Peter Owen Modern Classic) Reviews

• 
  Jennie Rogers

  I don't understand why this isn't in the Complete Claudine other than Colette wrote this alone. It's a thoughtful & great completion to the Claudine series. A mature exploration on ageing & seasoned love. So essential !
  
  Maybe the best Claudine, it's between this & Claudine Married for me.
• 
  Theresa Kennedy

  I read this darling, delightful and wonderful little novel years ago, as a young woman in my early 20s. "The Final novel in the Famous Claudine Series." It was published in 1907 when Collette willy was 34-years-old. In the book she has written that "For reasons which have nothing to do with literature, I have ceased to collaborate with Willy." Willy was of course her first husband at the time, Henry Gauthier Villars, and a man who had exploited her writing and had used the money she earned from her writing. When she wrote Retreat From Love, the title as much as anything else expressed her growing sense of self and desire to distance herself from Villars, who used the pen name of Willy.
  
  And I think I've read this book three times. There is something so special about books translated from other languages. And of course there is something so alluring and gripping about French women writers. My favorites are of course Collette, Simone De Beauvoir, and my personal favorite Marguerite Duras, who is the best of the trio and always will be. But Collette was spectacular too, and this classic book is no exception. Its the only one of the series that I've read and I really should read the others, but I still just love this book. I love the slow pace of life in the farmhouse and how the women rely on each other, how they go to each other for support and how they handle the various dynamics such as the husband's infidelity and their own desires for stimulation other than from the world of men. Passages that I recall, for their descriptive beauty are... "His slight illness had left him with two little valleys of mauve mother-of-pearl beneath his eyes, too poetic and voluptuous." I love the ways that Collette describes things that others might see as unattractive and she makes them seem lovely.
  
  Then there is the sensuality that Collette uses to describe animals and the characters reactions to them that I just love. "As light as an elf, a little squirrel flies along in front of us from branch to branch. Its russet tail fans out like smoke, its fleecy front moving up and down as he leaps along. He's plumper, better upholstered and richer than an angora rabbit and leans down to look at me, his forelegs wide apart, his fingernails holding on in human fashion. His beautiful black eyes quiver with a timid effrontery, and I yearn to catch hold of him, to feel his tiny little body beneath the soft fleece; its so pleasurable to imagine that it makes me clench my teeth slightly." I love this kind of attention to detail and the natural world, the slow contemplative pace and the way the characters quietly observe each other, and how the women provide support for each other.
  
  This is a lovely little book and a pleasure to read for its old fashioned quality and knowing that this is the shared perspective of a time that existed over 100-years-ago. Recommended as a charming book of light reading.
• 
  Doug

  Colette’s writing voice is always filled with witty spunk and mischievous energy. This book is certainly no exception. The fifth novel in the Claudine series, we once again return to the point of view of Colette’s vain and often dramatic heroine, Claudine (the previous book in the series was told from the perspective of another character, Annie). Overall this was very well written, and I especially appreciated Colette’s shift to nature and animal themes for this fifth installment, in which the setting is far more rural than the previous books. I imagine this is a sign of things to come, as I have heard that several of her other books have a similar focus on the natural world.
• 
  Dvora Treisman

  I wouldn't describe the story as does the synopsis given by Goodreads. This is a lovely book, the last in the Claudine series and one Colette wrote after her separation from Willy. Her love of the country and wonderful descriptions of nature and the animals that surround her there is what makes this book special.
• 
  Kathy Ahn

  I personally found this book interesting, but not that great. However, the writing is stunning. Colette is gifted at descriptions that are straightforward and seemingly simple, but are incredibly rich. Her metaphors are imaginative and visceral. My favorite from this book was the pimple popping as a metaphor for resisting temptation (p134). You just try to write something like that yourself and you can see how gifted she is.
  
  I didn't know this when I picked it up, but this book is the last in the series of her "Claudine" books. She wrote the others with her ex-husband and this is the first of the series she wrote alone. Not having read any other Claudine books, I can't compare them but this one does seem to mirror her personal life in some ways -- losing an intense love and realizing that life goes on just as it would any other day.
  
  And maybe as much as you want that kind of all consuming love, perhaps it's not quite what it seems -- that in absence you fantasize, and on reunion you feel betrayed, lost because the person who came back to you isn't the person you remembered. But that's ok because he'll soon be dead and you can be left with your soft, fuzzy memories of your love, and perhaps be a better person for it.
• 
  Joanna

  Continuing on my Colette binge, I picked this one because Harold Bloom includes it in his Western Canon. This was actually my least favorite of the the 5 Colette books that I've read in quick succession (the others were
  Dialogues de bêtes,
  Cheri & The Last of Cheri, and
  The Vagabond). Fundamentally, I never believed the central love story between Claudine, the narrator, and the absent Renaud. Perhaps I would of liked the story better if I had read the 4 previous Claudine novels. I quite enjoyed reading about Annie, even without the back story that I would have had from the previous novels. Though Annie was describing salacious events from her life, the modern reader will not find the descriptions overly sexy or embarrassing.
  
  Colette is a master of language and manages to capture emotions, natural beauty, and the antics of her dog and cat perfectly. I'll continue to look for more by this author.
• 
  Michael

  I picked up this book at a bargain price at my favourite bookshop in Melbourne, Readings, back in September. I've read a couple of other Collette novels. And like the others, the language in this novel, even in translation, is superb. The novel centres on Claudine, her heroine in quite a few novels, and loosely semi-autobiographical. She is awaiting the return of her older husband who is recovering in a Swiss sanatorium at her friends Annie's house in the countryside. While she is awaiting her gay step-son arrives. There is a lot of talk of sexual exploits and walks out in the woods and fields. While the dialogue was considered scandalous when published in 1907, it is rather tame by today's standards. Still the reason to read this book is for the quality of the dialogue and the language used.
• 
  Ocean (Charlie)

  Beautiful prose but the story doesn't interest me.
  Might read it over again when my head is in a better place, or perhaps, a few years down the line I could appreciate it more.
• 
  Delphine Pernot

  C'est tellement bien écrit qu'on oublie que parfois Colette s'égare dans le récit.
• 
  Rachael Eyre

  What on earth happened?
  
  To put it in perspective: I love Colette, and Claudine at School has been one of my favourite books since, breathless and scandalised, I discovered it aged 14. Although the other books in the series weren't quite as good, they still have plenty to recommend them.
  
  This, however ... It's still beautifully written, even in a sketchy translation; I think Colette was incapable of writing badly. But everything else - the plot (or lack of), Claudine's apparent personality transplant, Annie (who I never liked much) suddenly becoming a nympho ... Worst of all, the way she foists Annie on her gay stepson, Marcel.
  
  Marcel's never been the most sympathetic character. He's like a homophobe's nightmare of a gay man : ultra feminine, promiscuous and a spiteful little exhibitionist. But he's honest in his declaration that he has never found women attractive, has no desire to sleep with women - yet Claudine has the nerve to shove him into Annie's bed, and yells at him when it goes wrong!! Why not take it out on Annie, who is completely aware of his orientation but shallow and vain enough to think he'll make an exception for her? Whatever your opinions on homosexuality (I'm naturally biased, and think it's innate), this scene is insulting beyond belief.
  
  There were a few good set pieces, but the above plot development really rankled. What a shoddy way to end an otherwise great series.
• 
  Jen Well-Steered

  Ce que j'ai aimé: Colette est le maître des signalements et de la métaphore. Elle amine les sentiments, le cadre, et les pensées de ses personnages merveilleusement.
  
  Ce que je n'ai pas aimé: L'héroïne est frustrante, car elle se manque des emotions. Elle est completement calme en face d'un avenir incertain.
  
  omnibrowbooks.blogspot.com
• 
  Angela

  This book seems to be missing context - i don't like any of the bored rich characters. The story, for turn of the century seems especially sexually liberated. The point seems to shock. Didn't want to finish it but it is my bookgroup book.
• 
  Jennifer

  Une écriture qui me jette à terre par sa justesse, sa finesse, ses images, sa sensibilité. Il y a des passages très intéressants dans ce roman mais j'ai trouvé ça long. Pas mon préféré mais j'étais contente de retrouver cette Annie affranchie.
• 
  Kezia

  It could be that because of my own stage in life I enjoyed this more than the preceding ones in the series, just as I'd probably have loved "Claudine at School" if I'd read it at 14. Some lovely reflections on love and on the indelible marks we leave on each other.
• 
  Elossoles

  Full betimleme okuyacağınız bir kitap. Ne çok beğendim ne de nefret ettim. Ama baş karakter Claudine'da kendimi buldum. Kafalarımız aynı 😅
• 
  Spiritedfrog

  Le vrai dernier tome des Claudines qui s’ouvre sur une note pernicieuse pour la continuité des Renaud-Claudine car Renaud est malade…
  Claudine et sa vagabonde Annie entretiennent la retraite sentimentale dans le domaine provincial de cette dernière, terminé la profusion amoureuse que connaissent Claudine avec son mari et Annie avec sa "chair fraîche".
  On retrouve la Claudine grande sœur qui badine avec sa pauvre Annie qui elle "erre et cherche, en mal de ce que, en un jour j’ai trouvé"
  Un tome beaucoup plus basé sur l’introspection et les souvenirs avec un cadre arborescent privilégié par la partenaire de la nature qu’est Claudine.
  C’est l’occasion pour Claudine de se remémorer son amour pour Renaud que les épreuves du désir n’ont fait qu’entretenir.
  La fin du roman marque l’apogée de la vigueur de Claudine entourée de son amant le plus chère; sa maison ceinturée de son jardin.
  
  
• 
  Leonie

  I *quite* enjoyed this, mainly for Colette's ability to evoke the natural world around her characters, like an impressionist painter. The scenes in the wood were particular vivid for me. I don't like Claudine but you're not supposed to, are you? She always a dead spider in the cheesecake for my money. I was delighted to meet Annie and Toby the dog again, especially as we find out about Annie's experiences after the previous Claudine novel. I was going to call them "adventures", but I feel Annie seems somewhat scarred by her sally out into the world by herself, our poor girl.
• 
  Antonio Fanelli

  Una Claudine adulta, che si confronta con la malattia, gli affetti e il dolore.
  Quello scritto meglio degli altri Claudine, naturalmente.
  Colette è una scrittice straordinaria ed ogni singola frase e un distillato di meraviglia.
  Il personaggio di Annie zoppica un po': andava approfondito maggiormente IMHO.
• 
  belisa

  oldum olası sevdiğim bir yazardır, keşke başka kitapları da çevrilse...
• 
  beforlee

  I had to read this for my french class and it was honestly pretty interesting. Not the best book ever, but pretty decent.