Abstract EN:

Colette, a prolific letter-writer, introduced a large number of letters in her novels. These letters even constitute the framework of some fictions. As from the twenties, the presence of letters, although they keep playing a role, has no such prestige as before, as far as their textual content is concerned. With la naissance du jour, Colette gives again a main role to letters. Actual letters from her mother get to be the source of the narration and the development of the fiction that the narrator is writing. But the novel is less a demonstration of the late mourning of the writer's mother than an apotheosis of her literary vocation. The author's habits as a private letter-writer has influenced on the imaginary letters. Her own correspondence, richer in lyric descriptions of life than in information about her literary work, reveals aspects of the character of a writer who is reserved, protective and spontaneous.