Claudine at School
The first novel — the Burgundy schoolgirl Claudine was before the city.
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Claudine in Paris
by Colette
Claudine leaves Burgundy for the capital, and the schoolgirl's sharp eye is turned on Parisian society and her own heart.
- 1901
About Colette
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeThe second Claudine novel moves the heroine from the village to Paris, where she and her father settle after leaving Montigny. Ill at first, then recovering, Claudine navigates the manners, flirtations, and social theater of the capital, and meets Renaud, the older man she will marry. Published in 1901 under Willy's name, it turns Claudine from a provincial diarist into a commentator on urban life. (The full plot is below.)
The story, in more detail
Claudine in Paris takes the voice that made the first book famous and gives it a new subject: the city. Where Claudine at School was rooted in one village year, the sequel is about displacement — a sharp country girl set down in Paris and learning to read a more consciously performed society. The move mirrors Colette's own transplanting from Burgundy to the capital after her marriage.
The novel keeps the quick, satirical first-person energy of its predecessor while widening its social field. Claudine observes her relatives, the young men and women of Renaud's circle, and the codes of Parisian sociability, calibrating her independence against them. It is the volume in which the series turns decisively from schoolgirl scandal toward the adult questions of desire and marriage the later books pursue.
Its fame spread quickly beyond the page. A stage adaptation reached the Paris theater in 1902, with the actress Polaire as Claudine — cropped hair, white collar, schoolgirl look — an image Willy merchandised into a phenomenon.
The full plot
Claudine and her father, the slug-obsessed scholar, leave Montigny for an apartment in Paris. Uprooted and unwell, Claudine spends the early part of the book recovering and adjusting to a city that is nothing like her Burgundy village. As her health returns, so does her curiosity, and she begins to explore the social world around her with the same satirical attention she once trained on the school.
Through her relatives she enters the orbit of Renaud, a worldly, indulgent older man, and his son Marcel, a young dandy whose tastes run to other young men. Claudine flirts, observes, and measures the seductions of modern Parisian life against her own strong sense of herself. Renaud becomes the center of the book's romantic interest, and the courtship moves toward the marriage that the next novel will examine.
How it ends — spoilers ahead
The novel ends with Claudine engaged to Renaud, and the book is franker about how that happens than a summary usually is. She refuses to marry him and offers to be his mistress instead, so that nobody can say she was after his money. He tells her it is his wife or nothing, walks past her into her father's study to ask for her while she begs him not to, and that settles it. She had already written, the morning after he first kissed her, that what she had been looking for without knowing it was a master. The disillusionments of that choice are the subject of Claudine Married.
Why we recommend it
Claudine takes the city
The schoolgirl's satirical voice widens to take in Parisian society, flirtation, and social theater — the series growing up in real time.
The courtship that sets up the cycle
Claudine's meeting with Renaud and their engagement launch the marriage plot the next novel dissects.
Belle Époque Paris from an outsider's angle
A country girl reading the capital's codes gives Colette a fresh, unsentimental view of the city she had recently joined.
What this book explores
The people in its pages
Claudine
The Burgundy schoolgirl transplanted to Paris at seventeen: bored, watchful, and engaged by the end of the book to a man of forty who is also, by marriage, her uncle.
Renaud
The worldly, indulgent older man Claudine meets and agrees to marry — the center of the book's romantic turn.
Marcel
Renaud's son, a young dandy whose tastes run to other young men — Claudine's ambiguous new companion in the city.
Bring it to book club
- Claudine agrees to marry the older Renaud. Does the novel present it as a free choice or a softer kind of capture?
- How does Claudine's voice change when the subject shifts from a village school to Parisian society?
- Marcel, Renaud's son, moves through the book openly. What does his presence let Colette say about desire in 1901?
Timeline
1901
Claudine in Paris is published under Willy's name, continuing the series.
1902
A stage adaptation opens in Paris with Polaire as Claudine, fuelling the Claudine craze.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Ollendorff
- 1901
Paperback
- Paperback
- Antonia White
Ebook
- Ebook
Reader reviews
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Gigi
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Read our takeClaudine in Paris: frequently asked questions
Who wrote Claudine in Paris?
Colette. Like the first Claudine novel, it was published in 1901 under her husband Willy's name, but Colette is its author.
What is Claudine in Paris about?
Claudine and her father move from their Burgundy village to Paris, where Claudine adjusts to city life, observes Parisian society, and meets Renaud, the older man she agrees to marry.
Where does it fall in the Claudine series?
It is the second of the four Claudine novels, after Claudine at School and before Claudine Married and Claudine and Annie.
Do I need to read Claudine at School first?
It helps, since the sequel continues Claudine's story and voice, but Claudine in Paris can be read on its own as the volume where she comes to the city.
Was Claudine in Paris adapted for the stage?
Yes. A 1902 stage version starred the actress Polaire as Claudine, whose cropped hair and schoolgirl collar became part of the character's merchandised image.