In 1907 a Parisian pantomime featuring a passionate kiss between two women triggered a riot and forced the performers into hiding. Nearly five decades later, one of those women became the first female writer in French history granted a full state funeral. This is the story of how a canceled music hall performer transformed into a national monument.

We follow Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette from her Burgundy childhood and her marriage to the manipulative Willy, who published her Claudine bestsellers under his own name, through her years as a struggling mime, her relationships in Paris, her literary triumphs like Gigi, and the deep moral contradictions of her conduct during the German occupation.

• How Willy locked her away to ghostwrite the wildly popular Claudine stories
• Her survival years as a music hall mime after leaving her h ...