Like many people the world over, Viv Groskop wishes she was a little more French, but—despite studying the language obsessively and spending every vacation in France—she has profited the most by absorbing the classics of French literature, which can infuse our lives with joie de vivre and teach us how to say goodbye to sadness. Encompassing the frothy hedonism of Colette, the wit of Cyrano de Bergerac, and the heady passions of Les Liaisons dangereuses, Groskop's love letter to great French writers salutes Marcel Proust, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, Marguerite Duras, Albert Camus, and Françoise Sagan.