The Long Hours
The near-contemporary wartime book, sharing this one's plain observation of public life.
Read our take
In the Crowd
by Colette
Short chronicles of the street and the throng — Colette watching the anonymous life of the city pass.
- 1918
About Colette
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeIn the Crowd is a collection of Colette's chronicles, published in 1918. Its French title, Dans la foule, names its subject: the anonymous life of the city seen from within the crowd — passing faces, social types, the flux of the street. The pieces continue the art of the newspaper chronicle Colette had been refining, with a stronger turn toward the public, urban, and impersonal. It is one of her less famous books, in part because it was never reissued on its own. (What's inside is described below.)
The story, in more detail
The book gathers sixteen short pieces, all new when it appeared, and its interest is the throng — the movement of people through the city, the momentary faces and habits a watchful writer can catch in passing. Where Colette's memory-writing turns inward, these chronicles turn outward, to the anonymous social world and the small comedy and pathos of the crowd.
Its relative obscurity is partly a matter of its publishing history. Unlike some neighboring collections, In the Crowd was never reissued as a separate commercial volume, though it was later reprinted intact within Colette's collected works. That is one reason it is less read than the books around it, and one reason a full account of Colette needs it.
It belongs with the wartime and post-war chronicles — The Long Hours and The Lighted Room — in which Colette was working out the observational manner that her later, more famous books would carry.
What's inside
There is no plot. The book collects sixteen short chronicles, all previously unpublished, on the life of the crowd — passing faces, social types, and the flux of the city street. Colette watches the anonymous public world and catches its momentary figures, with the eye of a practiced newspaper chronicler.
The emphasis falls on the outward and the impersonal rather than on memory or the self. The book was never reissued as a separate volume, though it survives intact within Colette's collected works, which is part of why it is less known than the collections around it.
Themes and analysis
Watching the race
In “La Fin d’un Tour de France,” waiting spectators are swept into the race's noisy motor procession. The riders themselves remain almost silent, seeming less like rivals than prey pursued by the entourage. Colette includes her own car in the dangerous appetite for speed, so observation offers no innocent position outside the spectacle. The crowd's enthusiasm also obstructs the cyclists it celebrates. At the finish, the winner's distant legs seem tiny beside the mechanical storm they have set in motion. That reversal returns attention to bodily effort after the escort has threatened to swallow it.
Among the waiting faces
In “Les voilà, les voilà !,” the narrator cannot see the approaching royal visitors, but she can observe her neighbors changing. Mockery gives way to cheers and tears; afterward, a critical remark about the queen's hat helps restore an appearance of composure. Public feeling is shown through these small reversals rather than reduced to one anonymous mass. The evening scene extends that interest: stalled cars become places for conversation and temporary familiarity. Even imperfect illuminations cannot exhaust the spectacle, because the people watching have become its most revealing subject.
Why we recommend it
The city as subject
Colette turns her attention outward to the crowd, catching the momentary faces and habits of the street.
A little-known book worth finding
Never separately reissued, it is one of the collections most readers miss.
The chronicler's craft
It shows the observational manner Colette was refining before her more famous books.
What this book explores
Bring it to book club
- The book watches the anonymous crowd rather than named individuals. What can Colette see in a throng that she can't in a portrait?
- These chronicles turn outward, away from memory. How does that change the feeling of her prose?
- The book was never separately reissued. What is lost when a minor collection slips out of print?
Timeline
1910–1915
Colette’s regular contributions to Le Matin supply the journalistic material from which the collection is selected.
1918
Dans la foule is published by Crès — sixteen chronicles of the city crowd, never separately reissued.
1949
The sixteen-piece collection is reprinted intact in Volume IV of the Le Fleuron collected works.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- 1918
Paperback
- Paperback
Ebook
- Ebook
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
From My Window
Colette's later chronicles of the city, meeting the next war from a fixed vantage.
Read our takeIn the Crowd: frequently asked questions
Who wrote In the Crowd?
Colette. Dans la foule was published in 1918, a collection of her chronicles about the life of the city crowd.
What is the book about?
It gathers sixteen short chronicles on the anonymous public world — passing faces, social types, and the flux of the street — seen from within the crowd.
Is it a novel?
No. It is a collection of short chronicles without a continuous plot.
Why is In the Crowd so little known?
It was never reissued as a separate commercial volume, surviving intact only within Colette's collected works, so it is read less than the collections around it.
Is it available in English?
There is no securely verified standalone English edition of the book.
If you like Colette
Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.
Henry Miller
The Brooklyn dropout who arrived in Paris broke at thirty-eight and wrote the exuberant, banned books that ended American censorship.
View author
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
The doctor of the Paris slums who wrote the century's blackest, funniest novel — and changed the sound of French prose.
View author
Martha Gellhorn
War correspondent who covered the Spanish Civil War, D-Day, and conflicts across five more decades; Hemingway's third wife, 1940–1945.
View author
References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document In the Crowd, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1In the Crowd
NovelColette, 1918Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Dans la foule — Crès 1918 text and contents
WebsiteWikisourceUsed forComplete La Fin d’un Tour de France, pp. 83–90, and contents confirming Les voilà ! les voilà ! in the Crès 1918 collection. The latter reading uses the separately cited later collected transcription; no edition collation, whole-volume or independent event verification.
3Les voilà, les voilà ! — collected text in Contes des mille et un matins (1970)
WebsiteWikisourceUsed forPublicly indexed primary passages covering the waiting spectators, royal procession and evening illuminations, in the later Flammarion 1970 transcription, pp. 181–185. Collection membership independently checked in the 1918 Dans la foule contents. Not a collation with the 1918 text or a claim of complete source inspection.
4Colette — bibliography of original editions
WebsiteSociété des amis de ColetteUsed forThe Société des amis de Colette bibliography verifies the original edition's publisher and publication date.
5Société des amis de Colette — Chronology
WebsiteUsed forUsed to place In the Crowd within Colette's published work and verify its bibliographic context.
6Bibliothèque nationale de France — The Worlds of Colette
Exhibition catalogueUsed forUsed for independent biographical, archival, or historical context surrounding Colette's career and the period in which In the Crowd appeared.
7Library of Congress — Colette resource guide
WebsiteUsed forUsed to cross-check authorship, chronology, and the work's place in Colette's wider catalogue.
8Bibliothèque nationale de France — Colette: online resources
WebsiteUsed forUsed to verify Colette's bibliography and place In the Crowd within the broader chronology of Colette's career.
9Colette — publication history of in the crowd
WebsiteSociété des amis de ColetteUsed forPublication and revision history used for the timeline.
i
Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
Explore more resources