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Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature

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Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature

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Overview

“Groskop skillfully juggles memoir, biography, philosophy, and literary criticism to create a delightful tour through some of French literature’s greats.” —Madeline Miller, New York Times–bestselling author

Like many people the world over, Viv Groskop wishes she was a little more French. A writer, comedian, and journalist, Groskop studied the language obsessively starting at age 11, and spent every vacation in France, desperate to escape her Englishness and to have some French chic rub off on her. In Au Revoir, Tristesse, Groskop mixes literary history and memoir to explore how the classics of French literature can infuse our lives with joie de vivre and teach us how to say goodbye to sadness. From the frothy hedonism of Colette and the wit of Cyrano de Bergerac to the intoxicating universe of Marguerite Duras and the heady passions of Les Liaisons dangereuses, this is a love letter to great French writers. With chapters on Marcel Proust, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Albert Camus, and of course Françoise Sagan, this is a delectable read for book lovers everywhere.

“Ms. Groskop is a skilled raconteuse who brings people—and the page—to life. She writes with a self-deprecating appreciation of the Frenchman or -woman manqué(e) that lurks in us all. You don’t have to be a savant to enjoy this book . . . Au Revoir, Tristesse will make a witty, seductive companion.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Groskop’s combination of her own memories, what the novels meant to her at different stages in her life, her description of the authors, along with her description of the novels, will have readers eagerly turning the book’s pages.” —Forbes

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683357971
Publisher:	ABRAMS, Inc.
Publication date:	03/31/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	262
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Viv Groskop is an award-winning comedian, writer, and broadcaster. She is the author of The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature. She writes for the Guardian, Observer, and Financial Times and is the host of the chart-topping podcast How to Own the Room, where she has interviewed Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, Margaret Atwood, and Julie Andrews. She lives in London.

Introduction: Happiness is … pretending to be French 1

1 Don't judge yourself for being young and foolish: Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (Or: Interfering in your father's love life can have dire consequences) 26

2 When memories visit you, soak them up: À La Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust (Or: Find excuses to eat your favorite cake) 41

3 Sometimes you've just got to make the most of what you've got: Gigi by Colette (Or: Don't let someone publish your work under the name Willy) 61

4 No one can be truly happy while others suffer: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (Or: There are times when you need to write in your underpants) 76

5 Self-deceit is the surest path to misery: Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos (Or: Do not use your naked lover as a writing desk) 94

6 Do not judge your own happiness-just let it be: L'Amant by Marguerite Duras (Or: Avoid excessive alcohol consumption) 112

7 True happiness may involve quite a lot of hypocrisy: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (Or: Beware people who dump you by leaving a note in a basket of apricots) 128

8 Our greatest weaknesses conceal our greatest strengths: Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (Or: Be proud of your huge nose) 146

9 It's all very well to be ambitious as long as you are willing to pay the price: Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant (Or: The bigger the moustache, the greater the fall) 161

10 Social climbing rarely pays off, but you'll probably want to do it anyway: Le Rouge et Le Noir by Stendhal (Or: Don't flirt with the woman who pays you to teach her children Latin) 180

11 If you're going to behave badly, then do it in style: La Cousine Bette by Honoré de Balzac (Or: Use your disappointing looks to fuel a campaign of revenge against your more attractive cousin) 195

12 Freedom matters more than anything: L'Étranger by Albert Camus (Or: Don't take a gun to the beach) 212

Conclusion: Happiness is not feeling that you have to pretend to be French 227

Acknowledgments 241

A Note on Other Writers 243

Editorial Reviews

03/16/2020
Journalist Groskop (The Anna Karenina Fix) embarks on a lighthearted and insightful romp through 12 of her favorite French literary works. Her unlikely conceit is to locate the joy in works that most find downbeat: Les Misérables, Madame Bovary, and The Stranger, among others. As she searches out the happy lessons from these grim tales (from Bovary, “True happiness may involve quite a lot of hypocrisy”), Groskop weaves in her lifelong fascination with French language and culture, once the embodiment of all that was chic and desirable to her. Groskop presents her younger self as a wide-eyed reader who interacted with texts with the innocent freshness of a more intelligent Bertie Wooster, to reliably amusing effect. The book’s greatest asset lies in Groskop’s restating of insights derived from literature, noting, for example, Proust’s observations that one of life’s joys is a sudden memory, or that Cyrano de Bergerac can show that “all we really want is... be slightly better than we are.” This is a book to dip into cheerfully, whether to recall novels read years ago or to find an entertaining entrée into those yet unread. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Ms. Groskop is a skilled raconteuse who brings people—and the page—to life. She writes with a self-deprecating appreciation of the Frenchman or -woman manqué(e) that lurks in us all. You don’t have to be a savant to enjoy this book…“Au Revoir, Tristesse” will make a witty, seductive companion.

The Wall Street Journal

Groskop skillfully juggles memoir, biography, philosophy, and literary criticism to create a delightful tour through some of French literature’s greats. As a guide she is top notch: witty, infectiously engaged, and always thoughtful. This book will charm both newcomers and Francophiles alike.

author of The Song of Achilles and Circe - Madeline Miller

"Groskop’s combination of her own memories, what the novels meant to her at different stages in her life, her description of the authors, along with her description of the novels, will have readers eagerly turning the book’s pages. They’ll also be making a list of novels they want to buy, and movies they want to see."

Forbes

Groskop skillfully juggles memoir, biography, philosophy, and literary criticism to create a delightful tour through some of French literature’s greats. As a guide she is top notch: witty, infectiously engaged, and always thoughtful. This book will charm both newcomers and Francophiles alike.”—Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles and Circe

“a lighthearted and insightful romp…to dip into cheerfully, whether to recall novels read years ago or to find an entertaining entrée into those yet unread.”—Publishers Weekly

“thoughtful…a lighthearted read for all fans of French literature”—Kirkus Reviews

“Ms. Groskop is a skilled raconteuse who brings people—and the page—to life. She writes with a self-deprecating appreciation of the Frenchman or -woman manqué(e) that lurks in us all. You don’t have to be a savant to enjoy this book…“Au Revoir, Tristesse” will make a witty, seductive companion.”—The Wall Street Journal

"Groskop’s combination of her own memories, what the novels meant to her at different stages in her life, her description of the authors, along with her description of the novels, will have readers eagerly turning the book’s pages. They’ll also be making a list of novels they want to buy, and movies they want to see."—Forbes

From the Publisher

“Viv Groskop’s whip-smart and compelling take on French classics is deliciously entertaining. This book should be required reading for all bibliophiles!

author of The New Paris and The New Parisienne - Lindsey Tramuta

05/01/2020
In twelve essays, Groskop (Anna Karenina Fix) discusses works of the French literary canon by authors including Françoise Sagan, Marcel Proust, Colette's Gigi, Edmund Rostand's Cyrano and Honoré de Balzac's Cousin Bette. Groskop recognizes that many of these titles were written by men and none by authors of color, and considers these works most interesting for her to revisit as she read many of them as a student. Groskop has an affinity for France. Every chapter boasts amusing personal anecdotes related to her French experiences, in addition to a discussion of a particular literary piece. She aptly notes that rereading a work such as Stendhal's Red and the Black, can elicit a different interpretation when it is read by choice rather than to complete a college paper. Groskop provides thoughtful interpretations (i.e., her analysis of Marguerite Duras's The Lover), but the book's purpose reflects its title, to find happiness. Groskop achieves this by frequently interspersing comic asides that some readers might find irritating. Her comments about authors' appearances, (Victor Hugo, "a man with bad hair," Gustave Flaubert a "mournful walrus") can become tiresome despite the attempt at hilarity. VERDICT A lighthearted read for all fans of French literature.—Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA

Library Journal

2020-02-09
A Francophile learns about life from French novels.
Growing up in rural England, comedian, journalist, and podcast host Groskop wanted desperately to escape the conformity and dullness that surrounded her. Being French, she decided at a young age, “represented something so exciting for me: dynamism, energy, heat.” She studied French in school, went to France on school exchanges, and had French-speaking pen pals. As she boasts repeatedly in this breezy, enthusiastic riff on 12 canonical (white, mostly male) writers, she learned to speak and read the language fluently, and she diligently immersed herself in Frenchness, “snorting up every little croissant crumb of culture and language I could find.” Acquiring Frenchness brought her joy, she writes, and reading French literature has been “meaningful and life-changing.” However, her attempt to show “the intersection between Frenchness and happiness” by glossing over works by Proust, Hugo, Camus, Flaubert, Balzac and others is unconvincing. From Françoise Sagan she learns that the French version of happiness is “being young—or stubbornly young at heart” and “living in the moment.” From Colette’s Gigi, “a slightly messier Cinderella story,” she learns that “we can’t all be born with agency and choices” but still can end up content. From Victor Hugo, she discovers that “personal happiness is intimately linked to having a clear conscience.” Cyrano de Bergerac “is about body positivity”; like Gigi, Cyrano’s “overall philosophy is this: make the most of what you’ve got and play to your strengths.” From Guy de Maupassant, who, though a literary star, suffered from syphilis and tried twice to commit suicide, Groskop learned “that life is actually played out in a haze of different shades of gray.” Stendhal teaches her “about the tempestuous nature of desire.” There seems nothing particularly French about these life lessons, and, in the end, the author admits that her Francophilia came from needing “a pretend foreign identity in order to feel happy”—a need she has happily outgrown.
An exuberant yet superficial celebration of French classics.

Kirkus Reviews

Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature

Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature

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