Mitsou; ou, Comment l'esprit vien aux filles, 1919 (translated as Mitsou: or How Girls Grow Wise, 1930) followed her best-known novel, Chéri, 1920. Chéri is about the love between a 49-year-old woman and  Chéri, a young man just past adolescence.  The following year Colette embarked on an affair with her stepson, Bertrand de Jouvenel, living out her personal version of the novel.
In 1923, Henry de Jouvenel and Colette separated, and Colette returned to the memories of her childhood, producing La Maison de Claudine, 1922 (translated as My Mother's House, 1953), following this with a revisit to adolescent love in Le Blé en herbe, 1923 (translated as The Ripening Seed, 1932).  This writing endeavor allowed Colette to resolve the character of the restless and spoiled Chéri, in La Fin de Chéri, 1926.  During this period, Colette began a new romance with jeweler, Maurice Goudeket, performed in theatrical versions of Chéri throughout Europe, and continued to write. Her work during that time included La Naissance du jour, 1928, La Seconde, 1929 and Sido, 1930.
In the next decade of her life, approaching sixty, Colette wed Maurice Goudeket, her third husband, opened an Institut de Beauté  (1932), and produced Ces plaisirs, 1932 (These Pleasures) La Chatte, 1933 (The Cat), Duo, 1934 (Duet), Mes apprentissages, 1936 (My Apprenticeships), and Le Toutounier, 1939. (The Doggie Bed) .

Truffles  in the style of

It was a difficult time as Goudeket, who was Jewish, was arrested and sent to an internment camp during Germany's occupation of France.  He was not freed until 1942.      After Goudeket's arrest, Colette wrote in L'Etoile Vesper, 1946  (translated as The  Evening Star, 1973) that: …Ever afterward, if there was an unexpected ring at the door she would react with a nervous tic, a trembling of the mouth.  Her overt reaction at the time was practical: to hide as much as she could of her sorrow, to do her best to have Goudeket released, which she managed after a few months, to support him when he then lived a hounded existence, and above all to keep on writing.  (DLB, Vol. 65, p. 63)

During the Occupation, Colette actively worked as a journalist and broadcaster, encouraging her countrymen to retain their dignity.  In her late sixties and plagued with arthritis, she was no longer able to write novels; however she continued to write short stories. Many of them were a retreat to the days of her youth; Chambre d' hôtel, 1940 (translated as Chance Acquaintances, 1952) and Le Kepi, 1943 are prime examples of her work at that time. Gigi, from Gigi et autres nouvelles, 1944 is the most famous of the stories written during this period, eventually making it to the stage and to the cinema.  In 1945, Colette was the first woman to be elected to the Academié Goncourt.
By 1947 Colette had become immobile with arthritis. She remained in her bed, viewing the gardens from the Palais Royal, but she continued to write.  Le Fanal bleu, 1949 (translated as The Blue Lantern, 1963) was her final collection of meditations and perceptions.  In 1953 she received the Médaille d'Or de la Ville de Paris and also was promoted to Gran Officier de la Légion d'Honneur.  Then after several years of failing health, Colette died on August 3, 1954.  Denied a Catholic funeral by Archbishop Cardinal Feltin at the petition of Catholic political pundit Graham Greene, Colette was given a secular state funeral and put to rest in the Père Lachaise cemetery on August 7, 1954.  France had lost one of her most beloved authors.
  Was Colette aware of how popular she was?  On her eightieth birthday, there were unusual celebrations, her photograph was in every newspaper.  When she appeared in the lobby of the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo ensconced in her wheelchair, many stood up and applauded. 'Oh Maurice,' she said, 'see, they remember me from last year.'  (Colette, p. 422)

Written by Paula DiTallo and L. Margaret Pomeroy

Sources used by the authors:  Bosman, Catharine Savage, Editor.  Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 65. French Novelists 1900-1930.  Detroit: Bruccoli Clark Layman Book, 1988.  (Article:  Colette by Margaret Davies, p. 42-46)
Sarde, Michèle. Colette: Free and Fettered (translated from the French by Richard Miller). New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1980.