Bonjour tristesse

Françoise Sagan was only 19 when she took the world by storm with "Bonjour tristesse." Her novel has been translated into dozens of languages, sold millions of copies, and adapted into a film. With great precision, she describes the feelings of her youthful protagonist: Cécile is a moody teenager, sharp-witted, selfish, and manipulative—doomed to spend the summer with her vain father and his young, somewhat simple-minded lover Elsa in a house on the Côte d'Azur. Initially, however, Cécile manages to pit the adults against each other and shape the stay to her liking: with delightful ease and freedom. Until suddenly the wise Anne appears, a friend of her deceased mother, threatening to disrupt the summer idyll with her educational strictness. When her father leaves Elsa and intends to marry Anne, Cécile devises a plan.