Francoise Sagan Bonjour Tristesse 2001

FICTION

A French Classic Set against the translucent beauty of France in summer, Bonjour Tristesse is a bitter­ sweet 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.

Frangoise Sagan

Freed from boarding school, Cecile lives in unchecked enjoyment with her youngish, widowed father-an affectionate rogue, dissolute and promiscuous. Having accepted the constantly changing women in his life, Cecile pursues a sexual conquest of her own with a "tall and almost beautiful" law student. Then, a new woman appears in her

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father's life. Feeling threatened but empowered, Cecile sets in motion a devastating plan that claims a surprising victim. Deceptively simple in structure, Bonjour Tristesse is a complex and beautifully com­ posed portrait of casual amorality and a young woman's desperate attempt to under­

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Qonjour Tri0te00e F rans:oise Sagan Translated from the French by Irene Ash

Introduction by Diane johnson

An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

First English edition published by E.P. Dutton & Co. in 1955.

BONJOUR TRISTESSE. Copyright © 1955 by E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc. Introduction copyright © 2001 by Diane Johnson. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written per­ mission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical ar­ ticles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. HarperColiins books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information please write: Special Markets Department, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY JO022. First paperback edition published 2001.

Designed by Cassandra]. Pappas Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

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Introduction

in '9)4, readers in France (and the following year in the United States) were excited by a first novel by the pert, talented teenager Fran