Good morning, sadness

Françoise Sagan scandalized 1950s France with her classic Good Morning, Sadness and its protagonist, Cécile, a young heroine far removed from conventional notions of love and marriage, whose interference in her father's love life leads to unexpected consequences.

The captivating and self-centered seventeen-year-old Cécile is pure amorality. Torn between remorse and the cult of pleasure, she knows little about love—and what she does know, she dislikes. But that's about to change. Freed from the suffocating constraints of the boarding school where she studies, Cécile and Raymond, her young and flirtatious widower father, become one in the world.

Summer is coming, and she knows it's time to spend her vacation on the French Riviera, with her father and his current wife. With the magnificent mansion, the warm climate, and the Mediterranean Sea at her feet, Cécile enjoys free-spirited moments, just like her father, while pursuing her own sexual adventures with a tall and sometimes handsome law student.

Everything is rosy until a visit from her late mother's best friend disrupts her delightful disorder. And when Raymond announces he's getting married again, Cécile realizes her freedom has been threatened and that she must stop her father's madness, unaware that this could have tragic consequences.

"Everything will seem dull after you read this book. Good Morning, Sadness is a masterpiece of cynicism and cruelty, which even before winning the Prix des Critiques was already the literary event of the time." — Le Monde

“It's a book about adolescence, love, and loneliness, and it had an immediate impact on a world that was searching for new ways to express emotions and identity.” — BBC UK

“Sagan represents the archetype of the bored and rebellious young people who lived in the French capital, reflecting the post-war spirit.” — BBC Paris