Colette began writing Break of Day in her early fifties in Provence, where she had bought a house after the end of her second marriage. It shares much of her own reality - the renunciation of physical love, and the return to an independent life enriched by nature - and grew out of a period of intense self-assessment. It is presented as a slice of autobiography by a woman called Colette passing a summer in Provence, comtemplating her past, and laying plans for a future which may not include sexual love. The author's 'real life' weaves in and out of pages which shine with some of the most moving and lyrical lines she ever wrote--Back cover.