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Product Description
Product Description
Published when she was only nineteen, Françoise Sagan’s astonishing first novel Bonjour Tristesse became an instant bestseller. It 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 Dominique, a young woman bored with her lover, begins an encounter with an older man that unfolds in unexpected and troubling ways. These two acerbically witty and delightfully amoral tales about the nature of love are shimmering masterpieces of cool-headed, brilliant observation.
About the Author
Francoise Sagan (1935-2004) French novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, whose dispassionate portrayals of bored, amoral middle-class people have been translated into many languages. Sagan published her first novel, Bonjour tristesse (1954), at the age of 19. It was a succes de scandale for its depiction of a young woman breaking up her father's affair.
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); The Lucky Ones (2003), and Arlington Park (2006), shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. In 2003 Rachel Cusk was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
These two novellas are nice and short. They are very beautifully written. You might not like the narrator but she knows what she's about. Bonjour Tristesse is deservedly very famous but its immediate impact on French society was because of its immorality. Actually I think the book has depth. The introduction to this edition by Rachel Cusk is very illuminating and sensitive. But, I don't know, I think there is still more to this book than Rachel Cusk allows. It has a certain sensual quality that makes it really live in your imagination. It's not just a story. You are there in the narrator's world. That's why I give it 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
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Two short novels that explore the interface between sexual passions/love and other attachments, notably to family. The first, Bonjour Tristesse, gives us a heroine who understands human nature and the nature of desire very much as the protagonists of Les Liaisons Dangereuses...in the second a young heroine meets an older married man and falls in love, with predictable consequences...What's remarkable in both novels is the portrayal of a world in which passions run high but don't rule the world - men live with their wives, love their daughters (and no doubt their sons) and lead a love life that is quite distinct from this - and when the love life and family life meet, the family attacmnents may well be the ones that matter.
I enjoyed both novels but i found the translation, done in the 1950s when the novels were written, rather off-putting. I don't think we refer to our sons as "my little one", or in casual conversation call each other "darling" and I doubt this was done in the 1950s in the UK. And the use of "bebop" as a verb (for a style of dancing) also, in both novels, causes a double take...So a reminder from time to time that what are reading is translated.
I enjoyed both novels but i found the translation, done in the 1950s when the novels were written, rather off-putting. I don't think we refer to our sons as "my little one", or in casual conversation call each other "darling" and I doubt this was done in the 1950s in the UK. And the use of "bebop" as a verb (for a style of dancing) also, in both novels, causes a double take...So a reminder from time to time that what are reading is translated.
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I loved this book. The writer's style is so lush and so atmospheric, that it's impossible not to be transported and moved by her words. I felt that the characterisation was excellent, the story line poignant and the simplicity of the writing was both sensual and dramatic. My Book Group read this novel, and resulted in a healthy discussion about morality, sexuality and parenthood. It's such a worthwhile and pleasurable read - and it's very short!
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