Cheri and the Last of Cheri
by Colette

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Book Reviews of Cheri and the Last of Cheri

Book Review: A Boy and a Courtesan
Summary: 5 Stars

In 19th-century Paris, formidable courtesan Lea, a once-breathtaking and sought-after beauty, is still beautiful in middle age, albeit a bit wiser and more wistful. A friend, Mmm. Peloux, herself an aging courtesan, sends Lea her only son Fred (affectionately known as Cheri) to be groomed in the ways of the world.

Cheri, a selfish, self-centered young man in his 20s, is almost excessively gorgeous. And Lea, a woman who is well beyond the infatuation stage and certainly well aware of all of his many frailties, is simply besotted with him. Under her care, Cheri is spoiled, pampered, gifted with expensive presents, and indulged in every possible way, from sexual to culinary delights. In his own pompously careless way, Cheri loves Lea as well, calling her "noun-noun," and partaking of her generosity, in bed and out, like a child. And so goes the relationship--Lea, looking over her shoulder at approaching age and the subsequent loss of her looks; and Cheri, taking everything she has to offer with complete abandon. Until his mother declares him groomed quite enough--and arranges a suitable marriage for him with a beautiful young woman.

So ends Book I, "Cheri." "The Last of Cheri" is quite a different matter, as chilling in its way as "Cheri" is sensual. The mood of the book is a type of frantic fear. Lea, ever the no-nonsense realist (in her line of work, she has to be) knows from her mirror that her time as a beauty is gone. Without Cheri, the spectre of aging begins to haunt her in a very real way, and with a kind of real terror, she contemplates her lonely and manless future. Money will not be a problem; Lea has invested the gifts from her many celebrated lovers with care and a clear head. But loneliness and the very real anguish over losing her young lover are overtaking her.

Cheri has changed too. He is no longer the eager young satyr, but, trapped in a loveless marriage, the gorgeous, greedy child has become a gorgeous, cynical man, almost overwhelmed by ennui. Cheri is in a dangerous depression, but nobody, including Colette herself, had a name for that condition in high-society Paris of the 1800s! Colette describes Cheri's state in unflinching terms. He needs Lea. Lea needs him. Is it possible? Can she still be his mistress?

The answer to that question provides the denoument to what really, in the end, is a human tragedy. This doomed couple cannot possibly survive as they are, and they do not. One dies. One survives. And the reader cannot help but sigh for Lea and Cheri, two lovers whose affair of the heart is overwhelmed by the realitis of life.

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