Cheri, Chapters 1, 2 and 3 Summary

Cheri and The Last of Cheri are two novellas about the relationship between a young man named Cheri and his French courtesan named Lea. Although the two novellas were written several years apart, they flow seamlessly together to provide a complete picture of the relationship between the two characters, Cheri and Lea.

As the novella opens, a petulant young man toys with an older woman and playfully demands that the woman give the young man the string of pearls around her neck. The young man dances around the woman's bedroom and dangles the pearls while the woman forcefully requests that the pearls be put down before the string is broken. When this game ends, the man named Cheri joins his courtesan, Leonie Vallon also known as Lea de Lonval, in her ornate bed in her home in Paris, France...