Gigi was Colette's adieu to fiction; she never wrote another story. The work, done when the author was nearly seventy, returns in its setting and tone to the vanished era of her youth.

It is based on a romance between an older man and young woman that Colette recalled from 1926. The story is slender in plot, perceptive but economical in characterization, and rich in style. Robert Cottrell compares it to a comedy of manners (one reason the novella lent itself so readily to dramatic adaptation); and, "As is true of any good comedy of manners, Gigi is a triumph of style."

Adding to the lively text, which is mostly fast-paced dialogue, the narrative sparkles with epigrams worthy of Oscar Wilde. Most of them are given to Aunt Alicia and Madame Alvarez. The worldly-wise aunt remarks to Gigi on the necessity of "A pretty little collection of weaknesses" because...