  We report a variational calculation of ground state energies and radii for
4He_N droplets (3 \leq N \leq 40), using the atom-atom interaction HFD-B(HE).
The trial wave function has a simple structure, combining two- and three-body
correlation functions coming from a translationally invariant
configuration-interaction description, and Jastrow-type short-range
correlations. The calculated ground state energies differ by around 2% from the
diffusion Monte Carlo results.
