A sensational 1954 French novel that has become a contemporary
classic
Set against the translucent beauty of France in summer, Bonjour
Tristesse is a bittersweet tale narrated by Cecile, a
seventeen-year-old girl on the brink of womanhood, whose meddling in her
father's love life leads to tragic consequences.
Endearing, self-absorbed, seventeen-year-old Cécile is the very essence
of untroubled amorality. Freed from the stifling constraints of boarding
school, she joins her father--a handsome, still-young widower with a
wandering eye--for a carefree, two-month summer vacation in a beautiful
villa outside of Paris with his latest mistress. Cécile cherishes the
free-spirited moments she and her father share, while plotting her own
sexual adventures with a "tall and almost beautiful" law student. But
the arrival of her late mother's best friend intrudes upon a young
girl's pleasures. And when a relationship begins to develop between the
adults, Cécile and her lover set in motion a plan to keep them
apart...with tragic, unexpected consequences.
The internationally beloved story of a precocious teenager's attempts to
understand and control the world around her, Françoise Sagan's Bonjour
Tristesse is a beautifully composed, wonderfully ambiguous celebration
of sexual liberation, at once sympathetic and powerfully unsparing.
This special Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition includes an
introduction by Diane Johnson and a P.S. section with additional
insights about the book and author.
