Gigi is set in "the period of the early Claudines; Colette has returned to her point of departure," comments Elaine Marks. There is no more valid precedent for this sprightly tale than the first published work of Colette. Gigi is a renewed version of the Claudine of the first novel, Claudine at School (1900, trans. 1956). These girls both display the same innocence without ignorance, beauty without elegance, and a vigorous spirit that shows them ready to deal with the world on their own terms.