Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

ChĂ©ri, novel by Colette, published in 1920, about a love affair between LĂ©a, a still-beautiful 49-year-old courtesan, and ChĂ©ri, a handsome but selfish young man 30 years her junior. It is an exquisite analysis of not only May–December romance but also age and sexuality. Colette also wrote a sequel, La Fin de ChĂ©ri (1926; The Last of ChĂ©ri).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.