A Certain Smile
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
A landmark of mid-twentieth-century French literature, A Certain Smile is a slim yet emotionally devastating novel of romantic obsession, disillusionment, and the peculiar melancholy of youth. The story chronicles the affair between Dominique, a bored Parisian university student, and Luc, the charming, older uncle of her boyfriend — a liaison pursued with cool detachment and quiet inevitability. Sagan writes with a languid, ironic precision that strips romance of its illusions, presenting love not as salvation but as a passing sensation, indifferent and transient as a smile glimpsed across a room. First published in 1956, just a year after her scandalous debut Bonjour Tristesse, the novel cemented Sagan's reputation as the voice of a disillusioned post-war generation, earning both critical acclaim and popular success across Europe and beyond. Translated into English with elegant economy, it remains a touchstone of existentialist-inflected fiction — cool, unsentimental, and quietly devastating.
Original: $7.31
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$2.56A Certain Smile
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
A landmark of mid-twentieth-century French literature, A Certain Smile is a slim yet emotionally devastating novel of romantic obsession, disillusionment, and the peculiar melancholy of youth. The story chronicles the affair between Dominique, a bored Parisian university student, and Luc, the charming, older uncle of her boyfriend — a liaison pursued with cool detachment and quiet inevitability. Sagan writes with a languid, ironic precision that strips romance of its illusions, presenting love not as salvation but as a passing sensation, indifferent and transient as a smile glimpsed across a room. First published in 1956, just a year after her scandalous debut Bonjour Tristesse, the novel cemented Sagan's reputation as the voice of a disillusioned post-war generation, earning both critical acclaim and popular success across Europe and beyond. Translated into English with elegant economy, it remains a touchstone of existentialist-inflected fiction — cool, unsentimental, and quietly devastating.
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Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
A landmark of mid-twentieth-century French literature, A Certain Smile is a slim yet emotionally devastating novel of romantic obsession, disillusionment, and the peculiar melancholy of youth. The story chronicles the affair between Dominique, a bored Parisian university student, and Luc, the charming, older uncle of her boyfriend — a liaison pursued with cool detachment and quiet inevitability. Sagan writes with a languid, ironic precision that strips romance of its illusions, presenting love not as salvation but as a passing sensation, indifferent and transient as a smile glimpsed across a room. First published in 1956, just a year after her scandalous debut Bonjour Tristesse, the novel cemented Sagan's reputation as the voice of a disillusioned post-war generation, earning both critical acclaim and popular success across Europe and beyond. Translated into English with elegant economy, it remains a touchstone of existentialist-inflected fiction — cool, unsentimental, and quietly devastating.
