Bonjour Tristesse

Bonjour Tristesse is a novel by French author Françoise Sagan, first published in 1954 when the author was only eighteen years old. The main character, Cécile, lives with her rich father Raymond on the French Riviera. Their relationship is upended when Anne, a mature and cultured friend of Raymond’s late wife, arrives at the villa. Raymond quickly falls for her, and Cécile worries that their way of life will be disrupted. As Raymond tries to turn away from his past playboy lifestyle, Cécile schemes with Raymond’s mistress Elsa to destroy his and Anne’s relationship, with tragic consequences. Exploring themes of coming of age, jealousy, and the complex relationship between fathers and daughters, Bonjour Tristesse was an overnight success and kick-started the writing career of its young author. Although critical response was mixed and the book was criticized for its overt sexual themes and its unlikable lead character, it became a commercial success and endured to become one of Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century. It was adapted into a 1958 film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Deborah Kerr and David Niven as Anne and Raymond.

Bonjour Tristesse begins as teenage Cécile and her playboy father Raymond are spending a relaxing summer in a rented villa along the French Riviera. Staying with them is Elsa, Raymond’s latest mistress. She’s a red-haired woman half Raymond’s age whom Cécile likes because she doesn’t seem like a threat to her own relationship with her father. The three enjoy their summer, spending lazy days by the beach, and Cécile enjoys the time away from school, where she’s been struggling. Raymond knows his daughter has failed her latest exams, but doesn’t seem overly concerned and generally avoids being strict with his daughter. One day, Raymond announces that he’s invited his old friend, Anne Larsen, to come with the villa. Anne was a good friend of Raymond’s late wife and Cécile has seen her occasionally in the fifteen years since her mother died. Although Cécile likes her, Anne is a serious, traditional woman who has tried to get Raymond to be more parental. When Cécile hears Anne will be staying with them, she worries that this will upend their casual dynamic and potentially drive Elsa away.

Raymond is happy to see Anne arrive, but Cécile is conflicted and Elsa feels threatened. It soon becomes clear that Raymond feels a strong connection to Anne, and Cécile does come to admire the cultured, intelligent, and successful woman, who has her own career as a fashion designer. With her arrival at the villa, Anne brings a new focus on a principled, focused way of living. Raymond begins to see that he’s been doing his daughter a disservice by letting her live such a shallow life. Cécile begins to worry when she sees that as her father gets closer to Anne, he becomes more serious and conventional. To take her mind off this change in her father, Cécile begins a relationship with a young law student named Cyril. Cyril falls passionately in love with Cécile and asks her to marry him. Raymond decides to ask Anne to marry him, and when he tells Cécile, she’s torn. She likes the idea of Anne becoming part of their family, but she worries about Anne’s influence on her father. She worries that Anne’s conventional outlook would ruin the way she and her father live. Ultimately, she decides that she’s more afraid of losing their way of life than hopeful for the future, and decides she needs to prevent the wedding from taking place by any means necessary.



Cécile enlists Cyril and Elsa in a plan that involves the two young adults pretending that they’ve become lovers. She believes Raymond will become jealous, his vanity driving him back to Elsa to prove he can satisfy a younger woman. Cyril is reluctant, but goes along with the plan because he wants to make Cécile happy. Elsa thinks she can win Raymond back and convince him to marry her. Cécile arranges for Raymond to see Elsa and Cyril acting as though they were a couple, and sure enough, he becomes jealous. He still has an interest in Elsa and wants to prove he can win her back. When he’s alone with Elsa, he kisses her, and Cécile makes sure Anne sees it. Anne is crushed by Raymond’s betrayal and races to her car, driving as fast as she can away from the village. Raymond tries to stop her but fails. He and Cécile anxiously await her return. That night, they get word that Anne’s car went off a cliff and she was killed in the crash. The police say it was an accident, but Cécile knows her role in the plot and can’t get it out of her mind that it might have been suicide. After the funeral, both Cécile and Raymond are crushed because of their respective roles in her death. However, as time goes on, life returns to normal and the two of them return to their typical, hedonistic way of life.

Francoise Sagan was a French author, the writer of twenty novels, three short story collections, nine plays, and fifteen autobiographical works, including eight published after her death. She also wrote biographies of Brigitte Bardot and Sarah Bernhardt. Her life was dramatized in a 2008 biographical film titled Sagan and starring Sylvie Testud.