Gigi And The Cat

Gigi And the Cat (1979) – Colette
Penguin Books – ISBN: 014001313X
Condition: Good (structurally sound, morally ambiguous)
Questionable vendor: Crappy Old Books

At last, a book that answers the age-old question: What if your entire emotional life hinged on either a teenage almost-courtesan or a man who is unhealthily obsessed with his cat?

In Gigi And the Cat, Colette very kindly gives you both options. This 1979 Penguin paperback bundles two novellas:

• Gigi – in which a lively Parisian girl is being painstakingly trained for a future as a courtesan, only to treat the whole enterprise with the sort of cheerful disregard that makes society nervous and rich men confused.

• The Cat – in which a young man’s most significant relationship is with Saha, his exquisitely superior Russian Blue, much to the dismay of his new wife and anyone who believes humans should maybe come first in a marriage.

Together they form a sort of unofficial guide to love, desire and bad decisions in early-20th-century France:

• Want a tutorial in how to groom a girl into a perfectly presented decorative companion and then watch her refuse to play along? That’s Gigi. 

• Want to see a man effectively leave his wife for his cat and move back in with his mother? That’s The Cat, and yes, it’s exactly as psychologically tidy as it sounds. 

This particular copy is in Good condition, as decreed by the rigorous, highly scientific grading system of Crappy Old Books:

• The cover: intact, quietly stylish, and possibly featuring that classic Penguin vibe which says “literature” while the content whispers “scandal”. 

• The spine: may have a reading crease or two, proof that someone has already wrestled with the ethics of grooming, age gaps, and choosing a cat over your spouse.

• The pages: all present, lightly tanned like a Parisian who sat in a café for several decades. No catastrophic damage, just the sort of gentle wear that says “vintage paperback”, not “rescued from a flooded cellar”.

No dust jacket, no pomp, no nonsense. Just Colette, translated into sharp, supple English, making you feel slightly morally compromised for enjoying this as much as you do.

Ideal for:

• Romantics who suspect love might not be the tidy, respectable institution the brochures promised.

• Cat people who would absolutely choose the pet and are now disturbingly seen.

• Literary voyeurs who like their Paris with extra gossip, lace, and emotional catastrophe.

The irony, of course, is exquisite: you’re acquiring this cool, sophisticated, quietly notorious little book from a place called Crappy Old Books. Colette dissects desire with surgical precision; we specialise in pre-owned paper with slightly worn corners. Somehow it works.

Adopt this Good-condition Gigi And the Cat and enjoy:

• One girl trained for a career she doesn’t quite want.

• One man incapable of prioritising his human relationships over a cat with good bone structure.

• One slim Penguin paperback that has survived since 1979 purely to sit on your shelf and judge your life choices.

Crappy Old Books: supplying morally complicated French literature in pleasantly scuffed paperbacks so you don’t have to look too shiny while reading about everyone else’s bad behaviour.

Keep browsing: See more Fiction books Other books by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette