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=                         Claudine_at_School                         =
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                            Introduction
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'Claudine at School' () is a 1900 novel by the French writer Colette.
The narrative recounts the final year of secondary school of
15-year-old Claudine, her brazen confrontations with her headmistress,
Mlle Sergent, and her fellow students. It was Colette's first
published novel, originally attributed to her first husband, the
writer Willy. The work is assumed to be highly autobiographical and
includes lyrical descriptions of the Burgundian countryside, where
Colette grew up.


                                Plot
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Claudine, a fifteen-year-old girl, lives in Montigny, with her father,
who is more interested in mollusks than in his daughter. Claudine
attends the small village school, which is the primary location of her
many adventures, presented as an intimate journal. The journal begins
with the new school year, marked by the arrival of the new
headmistress, Miss Sergent, and her assistant, Miss Aimée Lanthenay,
as well as the boys' instructors, Mr. Duplessis and Mr. Rabastens.
Although Claudine begins an affair early on with Miss Lanthenay, Miss
Sergent soon discovers the liaison and discourages Miss Lanthenay,
ultimately taking her on as her own lover. Claudine feels betrayed and
causes trouble for the two women with the help of her friends, cynical
Anaïs and childlike Marie Belhomme. Miss Lanthenay's sister Luce
arrives at school, and Claudine mistreats her, but Luce idolizes
Claudine nonetheless. Some major events of the school year documented
in the novel are the final exams, the opening of the new school, and a
ball to mark the visit of an important political minister to the town.

The ball is in full swing when Miss Sergent's mother suddenly throws a
man's shoe downstairs into the parlor from the living quarters
upstairs. Everyone is silent downstairs as the elder Sergent yells at
her daughter for disgracing the family by sleeping with the
superintendent of the school district. Miss Sergent's attraction to
the man had been mentioned earlier by Claudine, who dismissed it when
Sergent stole Aimée away from her. Publicly humiliated, Miss Lanthenay
runs off crying while Luce and Claudine laugh.

The novel ends with Claudine saying goodbye to her schooldays and
preparing to enter the world, wondering if she'll ever again have as
much fun as she had at school.


                            Major themes
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'Claudine at School' as well as being a coming of age story is an
example of homoerotic fiction in the tradition of  Gertrude Stein's
'Fernhurst' (1904), Ivy Compton-Burnett's 'More Women than Men'
(1934), Christa Winsloe's 'The Child Manuela' (1933), or Dorothy
Bussy's 'Olivia' (1949).


                             Reception
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Upon its publication in 1900, Colette's novel was heralded by Charles
Marras for its "maturity of language and style". It was immediately
successful, yet it brought Colette scandal as well.


                 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
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'Claudine at School' has had several French film adaptations.
* 'Claudine à l'école' (1917)
* 'Claudine at School' (1937)
* 'Claudine à l'école' (1978 - made for TV)

On August 7, 1910, the 'New York Times' reported: "Paris, Aug. 6. - G.
P. Centenini, in conjunction with Gabriel Astruc, has obtained from
Rudolph Berger the right of representation in the United States of
Berger's operetta 'Claudine', the libretto of which is based on a
series of lively French novels by Willy, which have had considerable
vogue. Berger is a Viennese and Parisian combined. He has written many
popular waltzes, of one of which 2,000,000 copies were sold in a year.
'Claudine' will be produced in Paris at the Moulin Rouge."  The
Actors' Charitable Trust in London has an A4 coloured poster (by
Clérice Frères) for the Moulin Rouge production of 'Claudine' which
does mention Colette:  "Opérette en 3 Actes de Willy, d'après les
Romans de Willy & Colette Willy."


                           External links
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*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080227195317/http://www.ibiblio.org/beq/classiques/Colette-ecole.pdf
'Claudine à l'école'] in French
*


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