succès fou

plural succès fous

1. A tremendous success.

   “I am caged! I don't fit in, and I never will. You are so right. It's not being American—it's being myself. I'm a writer, Adrian!” “Well, what if you are? You're a succès fou.”

   2014, May Sarton, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing: A Novel, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   This coyness produced the desired effect: the exhibit at the Fine Arts Society Gallery on Bond Street proved "a howling success” and “a mob scene.” “It was a succès fou, recalled Arthur Houghton much later. A succès fou is right,” added Gates.

   2001, Davis Dyer, Daniel Gross, The Generations of Corning: The Life and Times of a Global Corporation, →ISBN

   I'm glad to report that the masses are still attending my orations at 12 on Mondays and I'm even given to understand, through some of my more faithful former pupils, that I am having what ladies in Henry James call a succès fou.

   2013, Andrew Burrows, David Johnston, Reinhard Zimmermann, Judge and Jurist: Essays in Memory of Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, →ISBN

   For the past year,Natasha Lawrence had been playing the title role in Estella, a musical by a celebrated English composer which had been a succès fou in London,and was now a succès fou in New York.

   2014, Sally Beauman, Sextet: Lovers and Liars Trilogy, →ISBN