Bonjour Tristesse
France, heat, leisure, and desire create a temporary world outside ordinary obligations.
Read our take
A Sport and a Pastime
by James Salter
James Salter’s dreamlike 1967 novel of an intense affair, provincial France, and a temporary life imagined from the outside.
- 1967
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeAn American observer imagines the sexual relationship between a young American man and a French woman in provincial France. The result moves deliberately between fact, fantasy, desire, and the temporary freedom of travel.
What's inside
A footloose American and a young French woman pursue an intense affair in provincial France while another man narrates and imagines their private life.
Why we recommend it
France as a temporary world of desire
It shares the heat, leisure, erotic freedom, and unreality of Sagan’s summer, but it is more explicit, dreamlike, and male-centered.
What this book explores
Book editions
- Paperback
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- 9780374530501
Reader reviews
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document A Sport and a Pastime, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1A Sport and a Pastime
Official recordMacmillanUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
2James Salter
Official recordMacmillanUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
3James Salter Papers
ArchiveHarry Ransom Center, University of Texas at AustinUsed forArchival evidence used to document the historical record connected to A Sport and a Pastime.
4A Sport and a Pastime — edition record
Official recordOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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