Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
"Bonjour Tristesse" is a novel by Françoise Sagan, first published in 1954, that explores themes of love, jealousy, and the complexities of parental relationships through the eyes of a young girl named Cecile. Set in a picturesque villa in the south of France, the story unfolds during a carefree summer spent by Cecile and her charming but irresponsible father, Raymond, along with his current mistress, Elsa. The dynamic shifts when Anne, a cultured and principled friend of Raymond's deceased wife, arrives, causing tension as Cecile grapples with her father’s growing attachment to Anne.
Cecile fears the disruption of her hedonistic lifestyle and the potential loss of her father’s attention, prompting her to devise a scheme that inadvertently leads to tragic consequences. As the narrative progresses, Sagan delves into the emotional turmoil resulting from selfish actions and the impact of jealousy, ultimately reflecting on the themes of guilt and the bittersweet nature of youth. Through its exploration of familial bonds and personal choices, "Bonjour Tristesse" invites readers to reflect on the complexities of growing up and the often painful transitions into adulthood.
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Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
First published: 1954 (English translation, 1955)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of plot: After World War II
Locale: French Riviera
Principal characters
Cecile , a seventeen-year-old French girlRaymond , her forty-year-old widowed fatherAnne Larsen , a friend of Raymond’s deceased wife whom Raymond decides to marryElsa Mackenbourg , Raymond’s young mistressCyril , a young law student in love with Cecile
The Story:
On vacation in the south of France, Cecile and her youthful, philandering father Raymond are spending a leisurely, hedonistic summer in a rented villa. With them is Raymond’s mistress of the moment, Elsa, a beautiful, red-haired woman almost half his age whom Cecile finds entertaining but rather simpleminded and nonthreatening to her companionable relationship with her father. The three of them spend lazy days swimming and lolling on the beach, and they dance and drink at the casinos into the nights. Cecile, over-indulged by her father, is enjoying being away from school, where she has flunked a couple of her exams. Raymond is unconcerned with her lack of interest in studying to retake her exams. He acts mostly oblivious to his responsibilities as a father and is more concerned with being his daughter’s “friend” and “companion.”
When the three vacationers have been at the villa for a while, Raymond announces that he has invited an old friend, Anne Larsen, to spend time with them at the villa. Anne was a good friend of Raymond’s dead wife and has been part of their lives off and on during the fifteen years since Cecile’s mother died. Cecile likes her, even though Anne’s more conventional way of life and views on how a young girl should be raised differ considerably from the way her father is rearing her. When she learns that Anne will be staying at the villa, however, she has misgivings, especially since Elsa is also there.
When Anne arrives, Raymond acts pleased, Cecile is conflicted, and Elsa feels threatened. Elsa’s reaction proves to be well founded, because it is soon obvious that Raymond is becoming very attached to Anne. Even Cecile admits that there is much to admire about Anne: She is not only beautiful but also cultured, intelligent, and an accomplished and successful fashion designer. She brings to the villa a more principled way of living and forces the others to a reluctant awareness of the shallowness of their lives.
Cecile begins to worry, however, when she notices that as her father gets closer to Anne, he is becoming more conventional in his habits. To take her mind off this troubling change, she diverts herself with a dalliance with a young law student named Cyril. Cyril has fallen in love with Cecile and even asks her to marry him. When Raymond tells his daughter, after several days, that he and Anne plan to marry, Cecile fluctuates between being pleased that Anne will be part of her family and worrying about Anne’s effects on their family. Cecile believes that having to live Anne’s kind of conventional life, “subjected to fixed habits,” would destroy her father and Cecile as well. More afraid of losing the lifestyle she has grown accustomed to with her father than of adapting to a more settled way of life, Cecile decides she must prevent the marriage from taking place.
Cecile enlists both Cyril and Elsa in a plot to pretend they have become lovers. She believes that the rather vain Raymond will become jealous and try to seduce Elsa back to prove that he is youthful and attractive enough to get any woman he wants. Cyril goes along with the plan because he loves Cecile and wants to please her. Elsa does so because she thinks she can win over Raymond and convince him to marry her instead of Anne. Cecile manages to arrange for Raymond to see Elsa and Cyril at various times and places, looking as if they are in love. As Cecile suspects, Raymond becomes jealous. He not only still has some interest in Elsa but, even more, he needs to prove to himself that he is “not an old fogey.” Thus, when he finally gets a chance to be alone with Elsa, he embraces and kisses her. Thanks to Cecile’s manipulations, Anne sees them.
Stunned and hurt by Raymond’s betrayal, Anne gets into her car and roars away from the villa, driving too fast and too recklessly. Cecile and Raymond try to stop her, but to no avail, and they wait nervously for her to return. Later that evening, they learn that Anne’s car has gone off the road over a 150-foot bluff and she has died in the crash. It appears to have been an accident, but Cecile, knowing what she does of her plot to create a schism between Anne and Raymond and having seen Anne as she drove off in a fit of anguish, knows it could have been suicide.
For a month after Anne’s funeral in Paris, Cecile and Raymond are desolate, Raymond because of his betrayal of Anne and Cecile because of the disastrous results of her immature scheme against Anne. After a while, though, both Cecile and Raymond drift back into their familiar and comfortable pre-Anne way of life.
Bibliography
Brosman, Catherine, ed. “Françoise Sagan.” In French Novelists Since 1960. Vol. 83 in Dictionary of Literary Biography. New Orleans: Tulane University/Gale Group, 1989. Provides biographical information and critical discussion of Bonjour Tristesse and others of Sagan’s books.
Cismaru, Alfred. “Françoise Sagan: The Superficial Classic.” World Literature Today 67 (Spring, 1993). Discusses Sagan’s contribution to literature, including her own assessment of Bonjour Tristesse and some of her other works.
Hewitt, Nicholas, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Modern French Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Overview of French culture in the modern period; includes a section on post-World War II culture and identity and a section on French narrative fiction.
Lloyd, Heather. Françoise Sagan: “Bonjour Tristesse.” Glasgow Introductory Guides to French Literature 35. Glasgow: French and German Publications, University of Glasgow, 1995. A brief overview of the novel, its themes and plot, and its critical context and reception.
Morello, Nathalie. Françoise Sagan: “Bonjour Tristesse.” London: Grant and Cutler, 1998. An exploration of the novel that analyzes its structure and style, relevance to existentialism and feminism, and the character of Cecile.
Sagan, Françoise. Reponses: The Autobiography of Françoise Sagan. Translated by David Macey. Godalming, England: Black Sheep Books, 1979. Useful, among other things, for the author’s discussion of the contemporary French writers who influenced her writing.