TRANSLATED BY ROGER SENHOUSE

Lea de Lonval is a magnificent and aging courtesan facing the end of her career. She has devoted the last six years to the amorous education of the exquisitely handsome and spoilt Cheri - a playboy half her age. When an advantageous marriage is arranged for Cheri, Lea reluctantly decides their relationship must end. But neither lover can forsee how deeply they are connected, or how much they will have to give up.

First published in 1920, it was instantly greeted by Marcel Proust and Andre Gide as a masterpiece.

`I devoured Cheri at a gulp. What a wonderful subject and with what intelligence, mastery and understanding of the least-admitted secrets of the flesh' Andre Gide