Fran癟oise 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 as unrequited love
and the precarious balance of irrational emotions and self-restraint.
This edition includes a new foreword by Diane Johnson, author of the best-selling novels Le Divorce and L'Affaire.
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��he second book is now out, and so is the verdict. Sagan's novel Un Certain Sourire, written in two months, is the new literary sensation of Paris.����i>Time
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��iss Sagan is a technician of the highest order, working with exceptional economy and elegance in the tradition of Colette and Benjamin Constant.����i>Atlantic
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��he reader is given the feeling of having opened a young girl's intimate diary by mistake. But whoever put such a diary down?��specially when the author is as sensitive, experienced, gifted
and freshly talented as Mlle. Sagan!����i>San Francisco Examiner
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��Sagan's] style is honest, direct, and her dialogue true. But for her sake let's hold back those invidious comparisons. Colette indeed! She might turn out to be Sagan.����i>Saturday
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