A review by frostling
La maison de Claudine by Colette

4.0

A French childhood, told through a collection of vignettes that describe the little quirks of a family, along with several portrays of people (and pets) who are familiar to the narrator/author, Minet-Chéri (little darling). It often touches on the transition from teenage to adulthood, and although the time-line is sometimes broken, this is a subtle and amusing account of rural life in the late 19th century.

I particularly enjoyed the tale of ‘La petite Bouilloux’, who doesn’t take the path that everyone assumes she will take. It doesn’t make her happier, but it shows that in this type of village (pre-radio, cinema and tv), rumours were what entertained people, and like our modern forms of entertainment, most of them were fake and empty...

Plus ça change...