Bonjour Tristesse

A sensational 1954 French novel that has become a contemporary classicSet 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.