“Bel-Ami” by Guy de Maupassant

After serving in the military in Algeria, George Duroy decides to move to Paris to start his new career, but after an uninspiring start, a chance meeting with an old friend, Forestier, leads to a new job as a journalist on La Vie Francaise. With help from his friends wife, his first article is a success, and he soon finds himself caught up in politics and a society full of corruption and deceit, but his swift ascendence up the social hierarchy is only achieved by learning the art of manipulation and seduction.

This was the best book I’ve read so far this year. Absolutely engrossing from the start, I thought this tale of society and morals was wickedly funny and fantastically observed. While the characterisation of George Duroy is exquisite, a man I felt I knew inside and out by the end of the book, the women he is involved with are all wonderful inventions who feel very real and well drawn, with their different foibles and personalities making them in turns sympathetic, ridiculous and manipulative, almost as much as George himself.

The most astounding thing for me, however, was the conclusion. It’s difficult to discuss without spoiling it, but I had expectation of how the themes of redemption and morality would be applied for each of the characters, but there were certainly some surprises as to how each story was resolved. Definitely not a run of the mill tale, and all the better for it.

Beautifully written, elegant plotting, and an engrossing, satisfying read. If this doesn’t make my top five reads of the year, then I’ll be very surprised.

“Bonjour Tristesse” and “A Certain Smile” by Françoise Sagan

Every once in a while, a book or author comes along that blows everything or everyone else out of the water. Françoise Sagan is one of those authors.

I’ve just finished Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile by this author, and I’m completely stunned by how staggeringly good these two books are. From the very first paragraph I was in awe of the writing; it was the best opening of any book I have ever written. I’m not exaggerating, I honestly feel the writing is just sublime.

Bonjour Tristesse is the story of a summer on the French Riviera for Cécile, a seventeen year old, who is living a carefree life with her widowed father and his latest girlfriend. When her father decides to remarry, it turns Cécile’s world upside down. The main theme of the book is morality and whether it is possible to be without moral sense or if it is something inherent within all of us.

A Certain Smile follows the love affair between law student Dominique and an older married man, Luc, the uncle of her boyfriend. It is an honest look at the emotional journey of a young woman embarking on an affair, and considers the truth of what love is.

The translations by Irene Ash are superb, and while I’ve already mentioned that Bonjour Tristesse has the best opening of a book I’ve ever read, the final paragraph of A Certain Smile, while deceptively simple, is profound yet real, and brought a complete sense of closure to the narrative. All of this seems all the more incredible when you realise that Sagan wrote Bonjour Tristesse, her first novel, when she was just eighteen, with A Certain Smile following just two years later.

These books have made such an impact on me, I won’t be picking up another book for a couple of days, as I want to ponder and savour them before starting something new.

“The Post Office Girl” by Stefan Zweig

In the bleak years following World War One, Christine is one of the lucky few with a job in an economically destroyed Austria; she’s a civil servant working in a provincial post office in a safe government job. At 28, she’s working full time, both at the post office and at home, where she’s caring for her sick mother, and has no prospects or expectations for the future. One day, Christine receives a telegram from an American aunt, inviting her to join her aunt and uncle in a resort in the Swiss Alps. A few days later, she arrives at the hotel and is immediately transported into a care-free world of wealth and luxury, and her transformation begins. Abruptly, rumours and jealousy cast a shadow over her, and the dream of a different life is cut short, sending her back to the post office, but with a new outlook on life.

The manuscript for this novel was found amongst the authors papers after he’d died in 1942, and was published posthumously. I’m not sure exactly when he wrote it, but I’m guessing in the 1930′s, and what I find incredible, is how modern the book feels. Although this is a modern translation, I can’t imagine any translator would attempt to alter the style or language of the original work, so I’m assuming this is a true representation of the authors manuscript, and as such it is a great piece of writing. I felt as though the story and characters could be transplanted into a modern day setting, and would still be just as relevant as the post-WWI Austria and Switzerland Zweig has represented.

Christine’s story reveals an emotional journey from resignation, to the awakening to hope and joy, through confusion and embarrassment, and finally the anger and despair of a young woman who has glimpsed the wonders that the world can hold, only to have it all snatched away. It is the transition of a young woman who has never had the opportunity to fulfil her potential, whose naivety and joy is a breath of fresh air amongst the wealth and riches of the hotel guests, but is her downfall as jealousy rears its ugly head, and she is plunged back into her old life with little hope of an escape back to the colourful, care-free world she knows is out there.

The way the author writes from Christine’s point of view feels very real, and the emotional rollercoaster we are taken on is the heart of this book, while it always has an eye on the sociological issues of the period as the backdrop to the story. Christine’s thought processes, drifting fluidly or flitting quickly, are written with clarity and feel very honest.

As the book was not submitted as a finished manuscript by the author himself, we can’t be sure if this was the completed book he’d planned. The denouement of the book concludes in a very abrupt manner, but I hope it was how the author intended it to end. It doesn’t try to end the story and leaves the reader to decide how they think the lives of the characters will continue, yet instead of leaving me wanting more, wanting to know what happened next, I thought the single world last sentence was the most satisfying ending to a book I’ve read in recent times.

“Fire In The Blood” by Irène Némirovsky

Silvio is growing old in his quiet Burgundy house and as the narrator of this story, tells us of the story of his cousins, their family, his neighbours and friends. In his seemingly mundane community, he gradually reveals to us the love, relationships, tragedy and passion that are present now and in the past, and how they affect those whose eyes flash with the passion of the “fire in the blood” that flows through them.

I read Suite Francaise last year, and thoroughly enjoyed it, and I wasn’t expecting Fire In The Blood to live up to the same standard, but for me, it actually surpassed it. Némirovsky perfectly describes the rural country villages and towns of between the wars France, with beautiful descriptions of people (“He seemed a good lad, his face thin and soft, with the beautiful anxious eyes of a hare”) and places(“the azure blue of the day grows misty, turns almost green; colour slowly melts away, leaving a delicate hue that is midway between translucent pearl and steel grey”), as well as conveying the emotions of each of the characters with clarity and brevity. Silvio’s narration allows us an apparently objective view of the various family members and their friends and acquaintances, though as the book draws to a conclusion, his own past is revealed along with revelations of relationships that echo through the generations.

The translation of the novel is by Sandra Smith, and for the most part, I loved it, but I did have one extremely minor quibble, when one of the characters refers to “Mum”, as I felt that as all the character names were left as their original French version, I would have preferred this reference to have been to “Mama” or “Maman”. The use of Aunt and Uncle didn’t bother me at all though, it was just this one use of “Mum” that just felt a bit awkward in amongst the French names.

An excellent book, and very brief at just 153 pages, but I would definitely recommend it to others.