La Vagabonde
About this audiobook
Largely autobiographical, La Vagabonde recalls the author’s own years as a dance-hall performer in turn-of-the-century Paris. Colette takes the listener backstage and into the demimonde of Renée Néré, an aging dancer, mime, and failed writer. In a sultry, passionate, and intelligent voice, Renée narrates the story of her romance with an admirer named Maxime. Her struggle is that of a woman who must choose between freedom and love.
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About the author
Sidonie Colette (1873–1954), French literary genius, wrote over fifty novels amid a life of scandal. Her first husband took credit for her early works, but then she achieved fame as the author of such works as Chéri and Gigi. Along the way she had an affair with her sixteen-year-old stepson and caused a riot kissing her lesbian lover onstage. Her third husband was arrested by the Gestapo. She was the first woman to be given an official state funeral by France.
Johanna Ward (a.k.a. Kate Reading) is an Audie Award–winning narrator and has received numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine. She is also a theater actor in the Washington, DC, area and has been a member of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company since 1987. Her work onstage has been recognized by the Helen Hayes Awards Society, among others. She and her husband live in Hyattsville, Maryland, with their two children.
