Brilliantly capturing her young narrator's voice, Sagan's stiletto-sharp novella of entitlement, impetuosity and cruel tragedy on the Riviera is an ice-cool slice of essential summer fiction.
Sylish, shimmering and amoral, Sagan's tale of adolescence and betrayal on the French Riviera was her masterpiece, published when she was just eighteen. However, this frank and explicit novella was considered too daring for 1950s Britain, and sexual scenes were removed for the English publication. Now this fresh and accurate new translation presents the uncensored text in full for the first time.
Bonjour Tristesse tells the story of Cécile, who leads a carefree life with her widowed father and his young mistresses until, one hot summer on the Riviera, he decides to remarry - with devastating consequences. In A Certain Smile, which is also included in this volume, Dominique, a young woman bored with her lover, begins an encounter with an older man that unfolds in unexpected and troubling ways.
Both novellas have been freshly translated by Heather Lloyd and include an introduction by Rachel Cusk. Heather Lloyd has also written a new afterword for this edition.
Françoise Sagan was born in France in 1935. Bonjour tristesse (1954), published when she was just 19, became a succès de scandale and even earned its author a papal denunciation. Sagan went on to write many other novels, plays and screenplays, and died in 2004.
Heather Lloyd was previously Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Glasgow, and has published work on both Bonjour tristesse and Françoise Sagan.
Rachel Cusk is the author of Saving Agnes (1993), which won the Whitbread First Novel Award; A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother (2001); and Arlington Park (2006), shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her most recent book is Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation (2012).
'Funny, thoroughly immoral and thoroughly French' The Times
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780141198750
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 180 g
Dimensions: 197 x 129 x 14 mm
All at once light and dark, funny and sincere but above all beautifully written. Cecile is a capricious teenager who cannot figure out what she wants or how she feels, despite acting like she knows everything. It is a... More
Two beautifully emotive, fairly short stories.
Bonjour Tristesse tells the story of teenage Cecile and the glorious selfishness of youth. Her inability to see beyond her actions is so perfectly teenage and I adore...
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