L’Entrave

L’Entrave, a sequel to La Vagabonde, was serialized in La Vie parisienne from March 15 to October 25, 1913, with an interruption between July and September due to the birth of Colette’s daughter, Gabrielle: “[…] the child and the novel were both racing toward me… the child made it clear she was arriving first, and I screwed the cap back onto my pen” (Colette, in L’Étoile Vesper).

Colette had married Henry de Jouvenel in 1912, and their daughter Sido was born in 1913. Married life is therefore at the heart of the novel, which continues on from La Vagabonde, which had ended with the break from Maxime. The novel was warmly received: “critics appreciated this feminine submission… even Rachilde approved: we must first obey our inner laws, which are our instincts and which come from far beyond ourselves” (notice on L’Entrave, Société des Amis de Colette, online).

The copy is enriched with an autograph letter signed to Léopold Marchand (1 page on 1 leaf — 270 x 410 mm — on paper, written in pencil): “Excessively good morning! I’m going in the morning [underlined]. I’m having dinner with Sidi [her husband, Henri de Jouvenel] at home and I plan to work after dinner, and finish this blessed scene, this and that. You can find me at the ‘Matin’, either by telephone or in real flesh, until 7:30, then I put down the green pencil — but at what a cost! Colette.”

A rare deluxe printing limited to only ten copies, réimposé.

Note also that another réimposé printing exists, this time on vergé d’Arches paper, made for the “Société Les XX.”

Spine skillfully retinted.

Talvart & Place III, no. 12, p. 199.