"Their dresses were so decollete that they looked undressed. They displayed their teeth, laughing out loud and eating candy. I looked at Monsieur Leonce beside them...[he] was very changed: his red face was swollen as if with too much drink, his body was bursting out of his white waistcoast; he had lost the brilliance of his eyes, their gaze now thickened and clouded."

Une historie de soldat by Louise Colet

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Perhaps the true predecessor to Lui among Colet's writings, Une historie de soldat is Louise's first account of the fatal downfall of her relationship with Gustave Flaubert. It is in this work that she establishes some of the alternate identities that will transfer on into Lui, for instance, Flaubert appears already as "Leonce."

Where the work most notably *differs* from Lui is in theme: while Lui tackles universal issues of gender and equality in relationships, Une historie de soldat is a far more personal account, drawing from Colet's bitter heartache over her separation with Flaubert. Her motive in writing the work seems to be not merely lessening that heartache, but perhaps, on some level, a desire to entice Flaubert back to her. Whether or not that was her intent, it certainly did not succeed.