Break of Day

Break of Day

Colette began writing Break of Day in her early fifties, at Saint-Tropez on the Côte d'Azur, where she had bought a small house after the breakup of her second marriage. The novel's theme―the renunciation of love and the return to an independent existence supported and enriched by the beauty and peace of nature―grows out of Colette's own period of self-assessment in the middle of her life. A collection of subtle reflections about love and life, it is among her most thoughtful and stylistically bold works. Born in 1873 in France, Colette was the author of many acclaimed novels noted for their intimate style. Colette titles from FSG include Gigi, Julie de Carneilhan, and Chance Acquaintances , The Complete Claudine , Chéri and The Last of Chéri , and The Complete Stories of Colette . She died in 1954.