- Paperback: 112 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (3 Sep 1998)
- Language Unknown
- ISBN-10: 0140278788
- ISBN-13: 978-0140278781
- Product Dimensions: 18.2 x 11.1 x 0.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 207,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The French Riviera: home to the Beautiful People. And none are more beautiful than Cecile, a precocious seventeen-year-old, and her father Raymond, a vivacious libertine. Charming, decadent and irresponsible, the golden-skinned duo are dedicated to a life of free love, fast cars and hedonistic pleasures. But when Raymond decides to marry, he lets loose in Cecile raw, ungovernable impulses to destroy, with tragic consequences.
BONJOUR TRISTESSE scandalized 1950s France with its portrayal of teenager Cecile, a heroine who rejects conventional notions of love, marriage and responsibility to choose her own sexual freedom.
About the Author
Francoise Sagan was born in 1935, the daughter ofa prosperous Paris industrialist. She was eighteen when she wrote her bestseller BONJOUR TRISTESSE. She had failed to pass her examinations at the Sorbonne and decided to write a novel. It received international acclaim and by 1959 had sold 850,000 copies in France alone. She has written many other novels, as well as short stories and plays, and a volume of autobiography, AVEC MON MEILLEUR SOUVENIR, appeared in 1984.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
It's hard to believe, now, that this book scandalised 1950s France. Seventeen year old Cécile, and her father Raymond epitomise the Beautiful People of the French Riviera: fun-loving and decadent, Raymond loves fast cars and attractive women and has taught his daughter to emulate his hedonistic lifestyle. This she does with an innocence impossible after the 1960s, stating of the one boy with whom she even flirts during the course of the book, "if Cyril had not been so fond of me I would have become his mistress that week." The picture is entirely charming, even if the lifestyle is now entirely gone.
And then, in the middle of one long summer, Raymond drops his current lover, the sunburned redhead Elsa, and proposes to marry Anne, an old friend. Cécile is appalled; her dreams of life with her father, of the balance of power between them gradually shifting in favour of her telling him her adventures, seem about to be shattered. She determines to stop the marriage, and forms a plan involving Cyril and Elsa pretending to become lovers right under Raymond's nose, trusting that good old fashioned jealousy will drive him to try to win back his erstwhile plaything.
I was expecting to be bored by this book, but needed something very thin to tuck into a pocket (it's just over a hundred pages). I thought that something which shocked France fifty years ago would be either insufferably tawdry, or just plain dull, but that in either case, morés would have changed so drastically in the intervening period, that the book would be all but incomprehensible.
In the event, what I found was a delicately graceful story which is almost timeless in its depiction of falling in love, growing up, growing older, passion and jealousy. Raymond's desire to stay young by bedding younger and younger women is of course only too familiar, but so is Anne's smart and efficient but somehow soulless respectability.
Cécile herself is perhaps the best thing about this book, the character of a teenager drawn with terrifying accuracy. Her relationship with Anne veers between a respect bordering on reverence, and a pathological desire to shock, and this - witness the drunk adolescent trying to be scandalous - will be the thing which keeps modern readers entertained, when implications of extra-marital sex have long lost their power to shock.
What does shock, though, is the ending. Until the last few pages, when the tragic consequences of Cécile's actions become clear, the plot has meandered through a course as languorous as the summer itself; I truly did not expect a moment of high drama. Naturally, through Cécile's eyes, this becomes melodrama, but still it left me stunned. It is, of course, a moral lesson that even the most innocent of meddlers may set in motion events they could not have foreseen, and this thought, too, is timeless.
And then, in the middle of one long summer, Raymond drops his current lover, the sunburned redhead Elsa, and proposes to marry Anne, an old friend. Cécile is appalled; her dreams of life with her father, of the balance of power between them gradually shifting in favour of her telling him her adventures, seem about to be shattered. She determines to stop the marriage, and forms a plan involving Cyril and Elsa pretending to become lovers right under Raymond's nose, trusting that good old fashioned jealousy will drive him to try to win back his erstwhile plaything.
I was expecting to be bored by this book, but needed something very thin to tuck into a pocket (it's just over a hundred pages). I thought that something which shocked France fifty years ago would be either insufferably tawdry, or just plain dull, but that in either case, morés would have changed so drastically in the intervening period, that the book would be all but incomprehensible.
In the event, what I found was a delicately graceful story which is almost timeless in its depiction of falling in love, growing up, growing older, passion and jealousy. Raymond's desire to stay young by bedding younger and younger women is of course only too familiar, but so is Anne's smart and efficient but somehow soulless respectability.
Cécile herself is perhaps the best thing about this book, the character of a teenager drawn with terrifying accuracy. Her relationship with Anne veers between a respect bordering on reverence, and a pathological desire to shock, and this - witness the drunk adolescent trying to be scandalous - will be the thing which keeps modern readers entertained, when implications of extra-marital sex have long lost their power to shock.
What does shock, though, is the ending. Until the last few pages, when the tragic consequences of Cécile's actions become clear, the plot has meandered through a course as languorous as the summer itself; I truly did not expect a moment of high drama. Naturally, through Cécile's eyes, this becomes melodrama, but still it left me stunned. It is, of course, a moral lesson that even the most innocent of meddlers may set in motion events they could not have foreseen, and this thought, too, is timeless.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Bonjour Tristesse tells the story of Cecile who is spending the summer on the French Riviere with her father and his girlfriend Elsa. The three are perfecly happy, indulging in a decadent lifestyle of drinking, dancing and sunbathing! Everything seems perfect, in Cecile's mind until an old freind of her mothers, Anne arrives to spend the rest of the summer with them and their carefree lifestyle begins to unravel.
This is a beautifully written book and extremely short, so can quite easily be read in one day. It is narrated by Cecile who becomes extremely manipulative towards those around her when Anne's presence fails to suit her. The book jacket describes Francoise Sagan as the French F Scott Fitzgerald, and their are definitely passages here reminiscent of The Great Gatsby.
This book is a great tale of a carefree adolescene who fails to acknowledge the consequences of her actions and wishes only to suit herself. All in all, a great read which transports you into the heart of a decadent French bourgeois family.
This is a beautifully written book and extremely short, so can quite easily be read in one day. It is narrated by Cecile who becomes extremely manipulative towards those around her when Anne's presence fails to suit her. The book jacket describes Francoise Sagan as the French F Scott Fitzgerald, and their are definitely passages here reminiscent of The Great Gatsby.
This book is a great tale of a carefree adolescene who fails to acknowledge the consequences of her actions and wishes only to suit herself. All in all, a great read which transports you into the heart of a decadent French bourgeois family.
this was our book group's 'book of the Month' so we bought a recycled one for 1p - what a bargain, and it was in good condition.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Promising but tails off...
The opening few chapters of Bonjour Tristesse are great. You can't help but marvel at the poise, maturity and precocious powers of the novel's eighteen-year old author. Read more
Published 11 months ago by John Moseley
Hello Sadness
This book was written by an 18 year old which, when you consider the richness of the narrative and the emotions involved, I find quite astounding. Read more
Published on 20 Jun 2009 by Boof
Fascinating but implausible
This review relates to the translation by Irene Ash for Penguin Books. Despite being a translation, this book is beautifully written. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2006 by Reptile
A remarkable story that I could not put down until the end.
Although I had already read the French version of this novel as part of my studies I was so invigorated by it that I found I wanted to read the English version purely for my own... Read more
Published on 5 Jun 2001
mills and boon or fantastic?
i downed this book in one, but was this because it came free with marie claire or because i'm a hopeless romantic? i rather think the latter - a beautiful stream of conscience.
Published on 31 Oct 2000
A very good read
This book tells the story of Cecile and focuses on a holiday to the Rivera that she has with her father. Read more
Published on 8 May 2000 by jules.is@popstar.com
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