This book contains some 400 critically annotated Letters to Colette from her mother, Sido, which were written between 1903 and 1912. All together, they paint a scathing portrait of the era, as well as providing an extraordinary glimpse inside an intimate mother-daughter relationship. Not just any mother-daughter relationship, as Colette turned her mother into a key character in French literature.

Adèle Eugénie Sidonie Landoy, known as Sido, was born in Paris in 1835. She was married for the first time in 1857. Her second marriage was to Jules-Joseph Colette, with whom she had two children. Sidonie Gabrielle, whose pen name was Colette, was born on January 28, 1873. Sido, who appears in 14 of her daughter’s books, was a mother unlike any other, a more typical mother-in-law, and a woman who proudly declared her beliefs as a free-thinker. Her daughter carved out a spot for her in literary history, memorializing her in La maison de Claudine (“Claudine’s House”), La Naissance du jour (“Break of Day”) and Sido, of course. The embodiment of maternal love, Sido passed away at the age of 77.

Colette is still one of the most popular of French writers, a figure of France’s cultural heritage; and Sido is one of the archetypal maternal figures in literature.