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Before Françoise Sagan the literary icon there was Françoise Quoirez, an eighteen-year-old Parisian girl, who wrote a novel and needed a publisher for it. This intimate narrative charts the months in 1954 leading up to the publication of the legendary Bonjour Tristesse. We encounter Françoise, her family and friends close-up, in a post-war world that is changing radically; and Mlle Quoirez, in her new guise of Françoise Sagan, will be at the heart of that social change. Sagan was always focused on her writing, though at times the fame of her books was to be eclipsed by her wild-child reputation. Yet, as Anne Berest herself testifies, Sagan’s fearless approach to life lived on her own terms remains an inspiration even now.
Set against the translucent beauty of France in summer, "Bonjour Tristesse" is a bittersweet tale narrated by Cé cile, a seventeen-year-old girl on the brink of womanhood, whose meddling in her father's love life leads to tragic consequences.Freed from boarding school, Cé cile lives in unchecked enjoyment with her youngish, widowed father -- an affectionate rogue, dissolute and promiscuous. Having accepted the constantly changing women in his life, Cé cile pursues a sexual conquest of her own with a "tall and almost beautiful" law student. Then, a new woman appears in her father's life. Feeling threatened but empowered, Cé cile sets in motion a devastating plan that claims a surprising victim.Deceptively simple in structure, "Bonjour Tristesse" is a complex and beautifully composed portrait of casual amorality and a young woman's desperate attempt to understand and control the world around her.
Françoise Sagan is best known for her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse, which caused a scandal when she first published it at the age of eighteen in 1953. But her second novel, A Certain Smile, less shocking and more psychologically convincing, was preferred by many critics. Like Bonjour Tristesse, this story is set in Paris in the 1950s and told by a young student bored by her law books, restless and curious about love and sex. She is fond of her loyal boyfriend, but he, too, bores her. His worldly uncle strikes her as more exciting, appealingly risky and forbidden. Frank and spontaneous, vulnerable and cruel, thoughtless and insightful, Sagan's young narrator explores such perennial themes ...
That Mad Ache, set in high-society Paris in the mid-1960's, recounts the emotional battle unleashed in the heart of Lucile, a sensitive but rootless young woman who finds herself caught between her carefree, tranquil love for 50-year-old Charles, a gentle, reflective, and well-off businessman, and her sudden wild passion for 30-year-old Antoine, a hot-blooded, impulsive, and struggling editor. As Lucile explores these two versions of love, she vacillates in confusion, but in the end she must choose, and her heart's instinct is surprising and poignant. Originally published under the title La Chamade, this new translation by Douglas Hofstadter returns a forgotten classic to English. In Transla...
Studies a small circle of young Parisians and the changing pattern of their love affairs.
A certain smile: "A young woman bored with her lover, begins an affair with an older man that unfolds in unexpected and troubling ways."--Publisher description.
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Five years earlier the beautiful actress Beatrice Valmont had broken gauche insurance broker Edouard Maligrasse's heart. Now he is an acclaimed young playwright whose star is in the ascendant and suddenly she is attracted to him."