Bonjour tristesse by Françoise Sagan5/26/2023 ![]() Céline has grown to consider his amoral and casual outlook as quite normal, and so Raymond and his latest ‘mistress’ (as she is described in this translation) Elsa join Céline at the holiday apartment. This trip is funded by her father, Raymond, a similarly hedonistic, blasé man now in his forties who, since the death of Céline’s mother 15 years previously, has satisfied himself with a string of short-term and non-serious relationships. ![]() ![]() ![]() Summary: Bonjour Tristesse is written from the perspective of 17 year old Céline, a fun-loving, heedless adolescent who has recently failed her final exam for her baccalauréat (the examination taken as the culmination to secondary education in France) and is rejuvenating by taking a summer holiday in the French Riviera. So what was all the fuss about with this 1950s smash hit? And does it live up to the hype? Yet it is a short read at around 100 pages and is coupled with Sagan’s second novella, A Certain Smile ( Un Certain Sourire) in my Modern Penguin Classics edition which features a new (& fantastically modern) translation by Heather Lloyd. ![]() Written when she was just 18 during the course of a 2-3 month spurt, Bonjour Tristesse turned Françoise Sagan into a celebrity. ![]()
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