''Nothing is real except the dance, the light, the freedom, the music.''Colette''s semi-autobiographical novel The Vagabond (1910) follows thirty-three-year-old Ren-N- as she embarks on a stage career after a divorce from philandering ex-husband, painter Adolphe Taillandy. Unlike the earlier Claudine series, which began as a collaboration between Colette and her first husband, Colette worked alone on The Vagabond to create a leading lady navigating the Parisian working world on her own terms. The music hall performers are Ren-'s familiars and confidants, her fellow vagabonds; for the first time, the reader is offered a look behind the scenes from a woman''s perspective, a view enabled by Colette''s own simultaneous experience as writer and dancer. Unambiguously feminist and unabashedly sensual, The Vagabond established Colette as a serious novelist, showcasing her talent as an observer of the natural world and a painter of the beauty of the human form.Frances Egan''s new translation pr
