Her real story, not only for later readers but also for herself, is of the process of writing, of its dynamic, transforming powers and its interaction with life. As with Montaigne, the lived feeds the writing, but the art of writing creates the model, and life is altered, pushed onward in a new synthesis. Indeed it is this creative power of writing over her own life which seems to be the most remarkable quality of Colette. Sometimes like the true "maîtresse de maison" that she was she looks backward, turns out the cupboards, airs them at the open windows of the world, digs out the weeds in her garden, and nurtures the best blooms. Occasionally her writing is in advance of experience, and she fleshes out in fiction the path she is later to tread in real life.
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