Novel
Bonjour Tristesse
Bonjour tristesse
Françoise Sagan · 1954
Synopsis
Cécile is seventeen and spends the summer by the Mediterranean with her father, Raymond, a widower and a light-hearted man, and his young mistress, Elsa. She falls in love with a boy she meets there, Cyril. Anne arrives, an old friend of her mother's, a composed and serious woman, and Raymond soon decides to marry her. Anne wants to bring order to Cécile's life, pushing her to break with Cyril and to study. Cécile then devises a way to prevent the marriage.
Context
Written in August 1953, the novel was published by Julliard on 15 March 1954; its author was eighteen. It won the Prix des Critiques in May and at once became a bookshop success, helped along by scandal: François Mauriac called the novelist a “charming little monster”. The first English translation, in 1955, cut the passages judged too free; that of Heather Lloyd, in 2013, restored the full text.
Who it is for
A short novel, in crisp, quick prose, narrated by Cécile in the first person; it can be read in one sitting.
Prizes and reception
Prix des Critiques 1954. Otto Preminger made a film of it in 1958, with Jean Seberg, Deborah Kerr and David Niven.
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