Colette herself described The Pure and the Impure as being "the nearest I shall ever come to writing an autobiography," emphasizing the personal elements of the novel. The Pure and the Impure was published in 1932 and is largely about sex, relationships, gender, and repressive expectations of the early 20th Century.
The novel takes a dialectic format, consisting of commentaries, dialogues, and thoughts about various issues in society, especially about sexual relationships. In this novel she fights against normalized and traditional sexual experiences, instead exploring forbidden desires, rebelling against expectations. The Pure and the Impure reads as a series of encounters with eccentric people, which reveals personal details about the elusive author.
