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La Vagabonde

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La Vagabonde

By: Colette
Narrated by: Johanna Ward
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About this listen

 Largely autobiographical, La Vagabonde recalls Colette's own years as a dance hall performer in turn of the century Paris, where she takes the listener backstage and into the demimonde of Renée Néré, an aging dancer, mime, and failed writer. Successfully evoking the excitement, the sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and colors of the Parisian dance hall, Renée describes her romance with her admirer, Maxime, and the downward slide of a young Piaf type singer named Jadin.

The story follows the struggles of a woman who must choose between freedom and love. The story is told in a sultry, passionate, and intelligent voice. La Vagabonde contains all that is best in Colette: wisdom, vitality, and her astute observations on art, pleasure, and love.

(P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc. Classics
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Critic reviews

"Ward presents the controlled, but deep, emotion of this woman struggling to release the pain and frustration of an abusive first marriage and to enjoy the almost painfully awkward ardor of her suitor." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about La Vagabonde

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what a beautiful listen

Colette is one of my most beloved authors and I was worried listening instead of reading would disappoint me but that was not the case, beautifully read moving interpretation of woman's emotional struggles with love, loss, aging, fear and desire, what a heartbreaking and oh so familiar story

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Vivid and personal

The first Collette novel I’ve listened to. An intimate portrait of her agile mind and damaged heart, her ambiguous nuanced feelings, and the jousting relationships in which she is engaged, and disengaged. What a wonderful woman surrounded by boobies of one sort or another.

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badly read

I love colette but this flat dull reading captures nothing of her vitality and warmth.

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Prefer reading it to listening

Sure that the reader is excellent in her way - unfortunately I find that I prefer reading these stories (supplying my own voices, if you will) to listening.

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