Besides generously supplying us, via endnotes, with a supplement of vital factual material, Rachel Careau in her attentive, sensitive translation avails herself of a wide, rich vocabulary and nimble syntax to match Colette's own linguistic ingenuity. The Pure and the Impure is a significant addition to the growing body of freshly retranslated works by a French writer whose true interest has been for too long misunderstood.--Lydia Davis

Finally Colette has the translator she has always deserved! Rachel Careau's sure-footed renderings of the Chéri novels breathed new life into these brilliant works, and now she has brought her considerable talents to The Pure and the Impure, a crucial work for our time. In this peculiar volume Colette compiled her insights into various forms of love, sex, and sexuality, and Rachel Careau has rendered these reflections into accurate and nuanced English. Truly cause for celebration.--Elisabeth Ladenson, Columbia University

What delight in relishing the tonal variations of the textual presentation. . . . A true and real experience we can dwell in.--Mary Ann Caws, author of Symbolism, Dada, Surrealisms: Selected Writing of Mary Ann Caws

Rachel Careau has beautifully and lucidly translated Colette's The Pure and the Impure, a unique novel on men, women, and sexuality. Colette is wily, her ideas ambiguous, contradictory, and occasionally absolute. In The Pure and the Impure, what is pure or impure remains as perplexing as woman, sexuality, and love. Always a mystery.--Lynne Tillman, author of Thrilled to Death and Paying Attention

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2026-07-07

Length: 176 pages