In 1954, scandalised readers with its depiction of a 17-year-old girl who partied, had sex and played havoc with other people’s lives. The author, French writer Françoise Sagan, was only 18 herself. She shot to fame when the novel won the prestigious Prix des critiques.
“Today she’s just a pretty girl,” , “tomorrow, she’ll be someone to talk about.” Sagan went on to publish some 20 novels, and to write for the theatre and screen. But the slim Bonjour Tristesse remains her most recognised work.
The author was quickly equated with her first protagonist, Cécile. She was said to like money, fast cars, new dresses and gambling. And for a long time, her myth and celebrity overpowered everything else.
The novel has inspired several film adaptations, the most famous of these being the directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jean Seberg. A , directed by Canadian Durga Chew-Bose, premiered this September at the Toronto International Film Festival. Some 70 years after publication, Sagan’s depiction of a young woman’s sexuality is G-rated.
And conceptions of immorality, taboo and transgression have vastly changed. But the novel remains powerful in its characterisation of a girl who feels the wrong things – not enough shame, too much pleasure – and feels sadness with such style. Charming little monster Bonjour Tristesse takes place in one summer on the French Riviera, or , where Cécile is whiling away the holidays with her well off, womanising father, Raymond, and.
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