Sign-In
Cart
Le Chien Couchant
Paperback
Series: La Bleue
ISBN13: 9782234063617
Publisher: Stock
Published: Nov 8 2021
Pages: 198
Weight: 0.53
Height: 0.45 Width: 5.32 Depth: 8.47
Language: French
SALAD DAYS
Rights sold to: Bulgaria (Fama), Italy (Barbès), Russia (Eksmo)
In the small northern town of Cardin, Guéret takes the same route home from the factory every evening, and every evening the same dog follows him back to his lodgings. This dog would be his only companion if it were not for Nicole, a young factory-worker with dreams of marriage. Nicole is attractive and considerate, but so frivolous that Guéret prefers Maria, his landlady in her fifties. Sadly, she shows him only indifference or contempt; until the day when a bloodcurdling murder is committed.
Maria loses no time in seeing her lowliest tenant as the perpetrator of the crime... and finally looks at him. Better still, she respects and admires him. Guéret, only too happy to be in favour with her at last, does nothing to disabuse her. A fool's game begins between them. Where will this imposture take Guéret? If he comes clean, surely he will lose Maria's love, lose everything? The only witness to the relationship who anticipates its painful end is the faithful dog.
Sagan takes on a challenge in this book. It is an unexpected story. Far from Paris with its flighty society and bourgeois women in love, the author of Bonjour Tristesse sets this book in working class circles, appropriating their hardships and grimness. No more artifice, just honest people caught up in their eccentric infatuations and ambitious dreams. And, in this unusual setting, readers take great pleasure in rediscovering what is so loved about Sagan: we keep boredom at bay as best we can, and manage to love by cheating a bit.
At nineteen, Françoise Sagan enjoyed huge acclaim with Bonjour Tristesse, followed by many plays and novels, all of which were well received. She wrote her own obituary for the Dictionary of Authors, compiled by Jérôme Garcin: Appeared in 1954 with a slender novel, Bonjour Tristesse, which created a scandal worldwide. Her death, after a life and a body of work that were equally pleasant and botched, was a scandal only for herself.
The unprecedented success of Toxique, published by Stock in autumn 2009, is ample proof of the tremendous enthusiasm Françoise Sagan still arouses. Éditions Stock are continuing to publish all of Sagan's titles from the 1970s and 1980s.
Also from
Sagan, Françoise
Fiche de lecture Bonjour tristesse de Françoise Sagan (Analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet)
Sagan, Françoise
Paperback
Also in
Literary Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Philip Roth: Novels 1973-1977 (Loa #165): The Great American Novel / My Life as a Man / The Professor of Desire
Roth, Philip
Hardcover
John Updike: Novels 1978-1984 (Loa #339): The Coup / Rabbit Is Rich / The Witches of Eastwick
Updike, John
Hardcover
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk
St Aubyn, Edward
Paperback