Littérature de notre temps
Françoise Sagan, author of Bonjour Tristesse (1954).1
That which is essential to understanding the text, then, is in the thin works of equal length,
which, beneath their white-and-green covers, relate a young being’s first confrontations with
life and destiny. And yet, what could be finer than the subject of these novels? In the first, a girl
of seventeen defends her freedom and her pleasures – encouraged by an easy-going father, of
numerous casual affairs – against whomever threatens them; the break-up that Cécile provokes
between her father and the bothersome Anne leads to catastrophe: Anne commits suicide on
the road along the Esterel Massif.2 In Un certain Sourire (1956), Dominique, bored of the
idleness of a first lover, gives herself to Luc, a man in his forties, lives with him for a few weeks,
then separates from him.3 The more muddled intrigue of Dans un mois, dans un an (1957) takes
on a more insignificant character: Josée passes from Jacques´s bed to Bernard´s; Béatrice
chases young Edouard from her breast in order to welcome Jolyet, her theatre director, to it,
Alain consoles himself in the arms of a young girl after the disappointment of a great love and
searches for his last help in drunkenness…. A Machiavellianism, at once perverse and innocent,
characters moving backwards and forwards between beds, these are what are brought out in a
work which a pressed, grumpy reader could compare to certain novels from the beginning of
the century.
He would add only that the atmosphere has changed: the sports car has replaced the trotting
horse-drawn carriage, whiskey has succeeded champagne, jazz has relegated waltz to oblivion,
the skimpy négligé and whispering corsets have withdrawn before the two-piece swimsuits and
nylon underwear. However, if Françoise Sagan belongs to her time, she reveals herself as its
witness by way of the attentive and lucid description of that little shut-off universe where
fortune favours an easy, comfortable life, and where work appears very rarely, catches hold of
us more than the painting of the struggles and agonies of the human heart.
1
Bonjour Tristesse (1954): The first of French novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, Françoise Sagan’s work, a
short novel published when the author was still a teenager. Sagan’s work was known to focus on the emotional
lives of those to whom money was never an obstacle in their lives. This first novel was translated into English by
Irene Ash in 1955.
2
Esterel Massif: A coastal mountain range in Provence, France.
3
Un certain Sourire (1955): A Certain Smile, Sagan’s second novel, translated into English by Irene Ash in 1958.
J.Majault, J.M. Nivat, C : Geronimi, Littérature de notre temps (Casterman, 1966).