{"product_id":"2026200008626-secondhand-a-certain-smile","title":"A Certain Smile","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good to fair. Paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48956371501275,"sku":"2026200008626-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/5bacee96-11bc-4e31-9c13-94eec3155622.png?v=1783500415","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200008626-secondhand-a-certain-smile","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}