Bonjour Tristesse: A Novel by Françoise Sagan

A sensation when it was first published in 1954, this popular French novel is now back in print

Written with restraint and a touch of cynical disillusionment, Bonjour Tristesse centers on Cecile, a 17-year-old girl, self-absorbed but endearing, whose meddling in her father’s love life leads to tragic consequences. When Anne, her deceased mother’s best friend, and her father develop a relationship that seems annoyingly intrusive, Cecile and her boyfriend set in motion a plan that brutally claims an unexpected victim.

Deceptively simple in structure, Bonjour Tristesse is complex and beautifully composed study of casual amorality and a young woman’s sexual initiation. Sympathetic and unsparing, Françoise Sagan takes readers into the mind of a precocious girl on the brink of womanhood as she attempts to understand and control the world around her.

Françoise Sagan was only 18 when her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse, was published. She is also the author of Incidental Music, A Certain Smile, A Fleeting Sorrow, Lost Profile, and The Painted Lady, all out of print in the United States. She passed away in 2004.