Claudine's House

For the first time available from Penguin Classics U.S., a new translation for one of the greatest writers of twentieth-century France

A Penguin Classic

Claudine lives in a large house with a rose-filled garden and a vegetable patch smelling of tomato leaves and apricots. Beyond her house is the village, where traveling performers stop for the night and wedding feasts take place under a bright summer moon. Inside her house are Mama, who loves animals, Papa, who lost his leg in the war, and a library full of forbidden and irresistible books . . .

Based on Colette’s own early life, Claudine’s House is a rich and enchanting depiction of childhood, animals, flowers, trees, books, families, and love in late-nineteenth-century France.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.