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Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile
Bonjour Tristesse is Françoise Sagan's stylish, shimmering and amoral tale of adolescence and betrayal on the French Riviera, published when its author was just eighteen years old.
It tells the story of Cécile, who leads a carefree life with her widowed father and his young mistresses until, one hot summer on the Riviera, he decides to remarry - with devastating consequences. In A Certain Smile, which is also included in this volume, Dominique, a young woman bored with her lover, begins an encounter with an older man that unfolds in unexpected and troubling ways.
Both novellas have been freshly translated by Heather Lloyd and include an introduction by Rachel Cusk.
It tells the story of Cécile, who leads a carefree life with her widowed father and his young mistresses until, one hot summer on the Riviera, he decides to remarry - with devastating consequences. In A Certain Smile, which is also included in this volume, Dominique, a young woman bored with her lover, begins an encounter with an older man that unfolds in unexpected and troubling ways.
Both novellas have been freshly translated by Heather Lloyd and include an introduction by Rachel Cusk.
240 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1956
445 people are currently reading
11907 people want to read
About the author
Françoise Sagan
251 books1,672 followersBorn Françoise Quoirez, Sagan grew up in a French Catholic, bourgeois family. She was an independent thinker and avid reader as a young girl, and upon failing her examinations for continuing at the Sorbonne, she became a writer.
She went to her family's home in the south of France and wrote her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse, at age 18. She submitted it to Editions Juillard in January 1954 and it was published that March. Later that year, She won the Prix des Critiques for Bonjour Tristesse.
She chose "Sagan" as her pen name because she liked the sound of it and also liked the reference to the Prince and Princesse de Sagan, 19th century Parisians, who are said to be the basis of some of Marcel Proust's characters.
She was known for her love of drinking, gambling, and fast driving. Her habit of driving fast was moderated after a serious car accident in 1957 involving her Aston Martin while she was living in Milly, France.
Sagan was twice married and divorced, and subsequently maintained several long-term lesbian relationships. First married in 1958 to Guy Schoeller, a publisher, they divorced in 1960, and she was then married to Robert James Westhoff, an American ceramicist and sculptor, from 1962 to 63. She had one son, Denis, from her second marriage.
She won the Prix de Monaco in 1984 in recognition of all of her work.
She went to her family's home in the south of France and wrote her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse, at age 18. She submitted it to Editions Juillard in January 1954 and it was published that March. Later that year, She won the Prix des Critiques for Bonjour Tristesse.
She chose "Sagan" as her pen name because she liked the sound of it and also liked the reference to the Prince and Princesse de Sagan, 19th century Parisians, who are said to be the basis of some of Marcel Proust's characters.
She was known for her love of drinking, gambling, and fast driving. Her habit of driving fast was moderated after a serious car accident in 1957 involving her Aston Martin while she was living in Milly, France.
Sagan was twice married and divorced, and subsequently maintained several long-term lesbian relationships. First married in 1958 to Guy Schoeller, a publisher, they divorced in 1960, and she was then married to Robert James Westhoff, an American ceramicist and sculptor, from 1962 to 63. She had one son, Denis, from her second marriage.
She won the Prix de Monaco in 1984 in recognition of all of her work.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 737 reviews
April 26, 2022
this author would’ve loved lana del rey.
July 4, 2025
I could not bear for long the memory of the distraught face that she had turned towards me before she left, nor the thought of her grief and my responsibility.
This is my third reading of Bonjour Tristesse and this time round what struck me most forcibly is the struggle that takes place within Cécile. While it looks as if the clash is between the principled Anne and the self-centred and hedonistic Cécile and her father Raymond, the tensions within Cécile are front and centre.
This is a first person narrative but Cécile is writing in the present with hindsight of her seventeen year old past and a specific summer - the segues between 'then' Cécile and 'now' Cécile are cleverly done and unobtrusive but there is a broad space between the teenager enjoying her first real sense of power and sexuality, and the adult narrator who can note the events of that time as being a watershed in her life:
Only when I am in bed, at dawn, when all that can be heard in Paris is the sound of cars, my memory sometimes betrays me: summer, with everything I remember of it, come flooding back. [...] Then something stirs within me that, with eyes closed, I greet by its name, sadness: bonjour tristesse.
Tristesse means more than just sadness in French, it's also the word for a quality of melancholy, even bleakness, so something potentially more nihilistic than simply being sad.
And throughout the narrative there is this sense of adolescent Cécile oscillating between the different selves she could be: cool and heatedly emotional; uncaring and passionate; careless and focused on manipulation; carefree and unmoored from any sense of meaning. The text is built on antonyms.
What I like about this is that Sagan (even writing this at the age of less than 18) is not rigidly judgmental - there's no schematic of morality, and there's a human sympathy for flawed but charming characters. Cécile and Raymond may be 'careless people' as F. Scott Fitzgerald described his own characters in The Great Gatsby but they're not stand-ins for a system (capitalism and consumerism in Gatsby) in this book - they are themselves. And even if Cécile's tragedy is completely self-created, I for one cannot write her emotional emptiness and remorse off as merely deserved.
In lots of ways this is a acute coming of age tale where Cécile is both subject and object of the narrative. Themes of memory, melancholy, desire and regret give a distinctively Gallic air to this novella and I've mentioned Sagan as a precursor to Annie Ernoux and Marguerite Dumas below. This story additionally has the force of Greek tragedy - there's something quite unstoppable from the moment Anne drives to Nice instead of coming by the train that Raymond has gone to meet: mis-timings, missed meetings, and Cécile as the go-between with her volatile and unpredictable emotions - this opening is like the tale in miniature.
--------------Original review --------------
So what? I was a woman who had loved a man. It was a simple enough story. There was no reason to make a big deal of it.
Reading this, it's clear to see the tradition from which a writer like Annie Ernaux has sprung, and I'd file Sagan also alongside Marguerite Duras and even Simone de Beauvoir.
Sagan has a more accessible reputation and style and there's a sort of surface raciness to these two novellas that might justify that position. All the same, Sagan's 'heroines' have those strong and intimate feminine voices and are far from unintelligent, despite their youth -Dominique is studying at the Sorbonne and drops the existentialists into her conversation with a sassy casualness. Most of all, the similarities lie in that Gallic way of treating love and affairs with a kind of legitimating and clinical precision - there's no sentimentality though there is a vulnerability which hides beneath the overt cynicism.
A ravishing pair of novellas written when Sagan was enviably young.
June 5, 2019
Françoise Sagan (a pen name) wrote Bonjour Tristesse, a lovely and remarkably nuanced novel when she was just 18! It was her first novel and caused quite a stir when it was published in 1954. The themes of free (ish) love, sex and careless relationships were considered, even in France, to be quite controversial.
Cécile is 17 and looking forward to an idyllic summer with her father in a villa on the French rivière. Her father, Raymond, is attractive, vague, a bit of a ‘ladies man’ and not too hot on responsibility. He brings along his current girl friend Elsa. She’s shallow, vapid and needy ......... and he’s mostly indifferent to her.
Raymond, as a father, is hardly demanding and Cécile sees her lazy sunlit summer stretch ahead, unhindered, spending time with Cyril her casual (older) boyfriend.
Almost as an afterthought Raymond lets on that he’s also invited Anne to stay at the villa, a good friend of his deceased wife - a beautiful, intelligent and very grounded woman.
A threat to Cécile’s unsupervised carefree existence, Anne has a way of imposing ‘..... order, silence and harmony .....’
The scene is now set for relationships to play out in the sun - a backdrop of white light, sensuousness, a glittering sea and Mediterranean heat.
Cecile, indolent and quietly insolent, is a little scared that the ramshackle and exciting life she leads with her father could be coming to an end. This, and an element of half understood jealousy causes her to start meddling dangerously in the lives and affairs of those she’s closest to.
With very dark consequences.
I first read Bonjour Tristesse about 40 years ago and find that time has given it a new emotional clarity.
I’m certainly looking forward to more Françoise Sagan re-reads.
Cécile is 17 and looking forward to an idyllic summer with her father in a villa on the French rivière. Her father, Raymond, is attractive, vague, a bit of a ‘ladies man’ and not too hot on responsibility. He brings along his current girl friend Elsa. She’s shallow, vapid and needy ......... and he’s mostly indifferent to her.
Raymond, as a father, is hardly demanding and Cécile sees her lazy sunlit summer stretch ahead, unhindered, spending time with Cyril her casual (older) boyfriend.
Almost as an afterthought Raymond lets on that he’s also invited Anne to stay at the villa, a good friend of his deceased wife - a beautiful, intelligent and very grounded woman.
A threat to Cécile’s unsupervised carefree existence, Anne has a way of imposing ‘..... order, silence and harmony .....’
The scene is now set for relationships to play out in the sun - a backdrop of white light, sensuousness, a glittering sea and Mediterranean heat.
Cecile, indolent and quietly insolent, is a little scared that the ramshackle and exciting life she leads with her father could be coming to an end. This, and an element of half understood jealousy causes her to start meddling dangerously in the lives and affairs of those she’s closest to.
With very dark consequences.
I first read Bonjour Tristesse about 40 years ago and find that time has given it a new emotional clarity.
I’m certainly looking forward to more Françoise Sagan re-reads.
October 3, 2025
# Though my edition of this book contains two of Françoise Sagan's novels, Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile, respectively, I didn't read the latter (the only age-gap romance I'm willing to indulge in are those written by Sally Rooney, I'm sorry). Therefore, my rating and the following review are for the first novel only.
Hypothetically, think you're a rich, spoiled teenager vacationing off the coast of the south of France with your 40-something dad and his young girlfriend, and you find out your old mentor is suddenly there to crash your little summer holiday, and she seems to have the hots for your dad, who's way beneath her station. So what do you do? Do you get grossed out and keep your nose to yourself, or do you start scheming and planning like an Indian soap opera villainess with your boyfriend and your dad's newly dumped beau as a pair of lackeys? Probably the second option, because you're the insufferably obvious self-insert protagonist of this book.
When I first heard about this, I didn't know anything substantial about its plot, other than the fact that the author had been only 18, my age, when the novel was published. And though I was a bit disappointed to learn that she's not Gen Z like I had initially believed, I soon realised that I could have just read YA contemporaries if I wanted the Gen Z experience. Anyhoo, I got myself into reading the book, and oh well, the experience wasn't quite to the level of phenomenal as I had anticipated.
But let me tell you about the good stuff first, it's only polite, you know. The writing is truly gorgeous in places, but that's about it. The plot has a peculiar anecdotal feel to it, but the author lacked the charm to make it seem unique. The characters seem too shallow and naïve with their intentions, and except for the protagonist, none of them show any ulterior character traits or quirks. I couldn't make myself root for them if I tried. Francoise Sagan certainly had plenty of writing prowess, but it hardly ever shone in this debut.
Thoughts Before Reaching
Imagine discovering that there's a book out
there about an 18-year-old (cheers!), written by an 18-year-old (double cheers!), and then realising that it was published in 1956, so not quite the Gen-Z experience you'd been anticipating. (no cheers.)
Hypothetically, think you're a rich, spoiled teenager vacationing off the coast of the south of France with your 40-something dad and his young girlfriend, and you find out your old mentor is suddenly there to crash your little summer holiday, and she seems to have the hots for your dad, who's way beneath her station. So what do you do? Do you get grossed out and keep your nose to yourself, or do you start scheming and planning like an Indian soap opera villainess with your boyfriend and your dad's newly dumped beau as a pair of lackeys? Probably the second option, because you're the insufferably obvious self-insert protagonist of this book.
When I first heard about this, I didn't know anything substantial about its plot, other than the fact that the author had been only 18, my age, when the novel was published. And though I was a bit disappointed to learn that she's not Gen Z like I had initially believed, I soon realised that I could have just read YA contemporaries if I wanted the Gen Z experience. Anyhoo, I got myself into reading the book, and oh well, the experience wasn't quite to the level of phenomenal as I had anticipated.
But let me tell you about the good stuff first, it's only polite, you know. The writing is truly gorgeous in places, but that's about it. The plot has a peculiar anecdotal feel to it, but the author lacked the charm to make it seem unique. The characters seem too shallow and naïve with their intentions, and except for the protagonist, none of them show any ulterior character traits or quirks. I couldn't make myself root for them if I tried. Francoise Sagan certainly had plenty of writing prowess, but it hardly ever shone in this debut.
Thoughts Before Reaching
Imagine discovering that there's a book out
there about an 18-year-old (cheers!), written by an 18-year-old (double cheers!), and then realising that it was published in 1956, so not quite the Gen-Z experience you'd been anticipating. (no cheers.)
May 21, 2023
I especially loved A certain smile! (Which is funny because I started reading this for Bonjour Tristesse)
August 7, 2022
I absolutely adored Sagan’s novels when I was a teenager so it was a great pleasure to revisit these and marvel anew at her talent. Languid, moody, impressionistic, jaded, introspective - these are classic states of adolescence that are so wonderfully explored here, as is the sexual awakening and longing that accompanies first love.
Heather Lloyd’s stylish translations are equally pleasurable with their evocative imagery of 1950s Left Bank culture and fashionable intellectualism (existentialist and absurdist, of course), as is Rachel Cusk’s sensitive and thoughtful introduction.
A Penguin Modern Classic indeed!
Heather Lloyd’s stylish translations are equally pleasurable with their evocative imagery of 1950s Left Bank culture and fashionable intellectualism (existentialist and absurdist, of course), as is Rachel Cusk’s sensitive and thoughtful introduction.
A Penguin Modern Classic indeed!
June 19, 2025
── .✦ ׂׂ4.5 stars
(rtc)
pre- read: YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IS IT?! it’s time to read all my summer books 🎉🎉 I started reading this but saved it for the best time, I am BEYOND excited, I know this is gonna eat 🙂↕️🙂↕️
We were laughing together, dazzled, languid, grateful. We had sun and sea, laughter and love. Would we ever experience them again as we did that summer, with all the vividness and intensity lent to them by fear and remorse?
(rtc)
pre- read: YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IS IT?! it’s time to read all my summer books 🎉🎉 I started reading this but saved it for the best time, I am BEYOND excited, I know this is gonna eat 🙂↕️🙂↕️
January 1, 2019
Bonjour Tristesse
This story is set in the South of France and written by Francoise Sagan when she was 17 years old ( published when she was 19)
Cécile, is a seventeen year old girl, holidaying with her widowed father and his young girlfriend on the French Riviera. They enjoy the start of an idyllic summer, sunbathing, swimming and relaxing in the hot french sunshine.
Cécile befriends the good looking Cyril who lives nearby.
A few weeks later, an old friend of her late mother comes to stay and their peaceful summer ends.
This is an extremely short read. I found it emotionally detached in style ... however it was interesting, well written and moving in places.
This story is set in the South of France and written by Francoise Sagan when she was 17 years old ( published when she was 19)
Cécile, is a seventeen year old girl, holidaying with her widowed father and his young girlfriend on the French Riviera. They enjoy the start of an idyllic summer, sunbathing, swimming and relaxing in the hot french sunshine.
Cécile befriends the good looking Cyril who lives nearby.
A few weeks later, an old friend of her late mother comes to stay and their peaceful summer ends.
This is an extremely short read. I found it emotionally detached in style ... however it was interesting, well written and moving in places.
April 7, 2017
4.5 stars
I adored this book - the prose was beautiful, the characters immoral and cynical and it was set on the gorgeous French Riviera in the 1950's.
We follow 17 year old Cécile and her playboy father on their holidays in a villa by the Mediterranean sea. They lead a hedonistic, decadent lifestyle full of parties and mistresses. That is, until a family friend, the beautiful and elegant Anne comes in and threatens to drastically change their lives. Cécile does not appreciate Anne's plans to marry her father and put an end to Cécile's freedom and her meetings with the older man from next door, so she starts plotting to remove her future step mother out of the picture.
The bored teenager sets in motion a course of events that she has never imagined and that will impact her life forever.
As I was reading, I could feel the warmth of the sun, the sound of the sea, and I was living and breathing the decadent lifestyle of the protagonists.
Sagan paints a portrait of these characters so vividly that even though they are despicable, spoiled people, it is impossible to hate them - they are deeply flawed and human, and Cécile is the perfect portrayal of a scheming rich girl who does not realize the impact and consequences that her actions will have.
A must read and a book that I thoroughly recommend!
“A strange melancholy pervades me to which I hesitate to give the grave and beautiful name of sorrow. The idea of sorrow has always appealed to me but now I am almost ashamed of its complete egoism. I have known boredom, regret, and occasionally remorse, but never sorrow. Today it envelops me like a silken web, enervating and soft, and sets me apart from everybody else.”
I adored this book - the prose was beautiful, the characters immoral and cynical and it was set on the gorgeous French Riviera in the 1950's.
We follow 17 year old Cécile and her playboy father on their holidays in a villa by the Mediterranean sea. They lead a hedonistic, decadent lifestyle full of parties and mistresses. That is, until a family friend, the beautiful and elegant Anne comes in and threatens to drastically change their lives. Cécile does not appreciate Anne's plans to marry her father and put an end to Cécile's freedom and her meetings with the older man from next door, so she starts plotting to remove her future step mother out of the picture.
The bored teenager sets in motion a course of events that she has never imagined and that will impact her life forever.
As I was reading, I could feel the warmth of the sun, the sound of the sea, and I was living and breathing the decadent lifestyle of the protagonists.
Sagan paints a portrait of these characters so vividly that even though they are despicable, spoiled people, it is impossible to hate them - they are deeply flawed and human, and Cécile is the perfect portrayal of a scheming rich girl who does not realize the impact and consequences that her actions will have.
A must read and a book that I thoroughly recommend!
“A strange melancholy pervades me to which I hesitate to give the grave and beautiful name of sorrow. The idea of sorrow has always appealed to me but now I am almost ashamed of its complete egoism. I have known boredom, regret, and occasionally remorse, but never sorrow. Today it envelops me like a silken web, enervating and soft, and sets me apart from everybody else.”
August 14, 2018
Bonjour Tristesse & A Certain Smile, both novellas by Sagan have been on my TBR for years, and I am so glad I finally read them.
There was no particular reason I wanted to read them other than that I heard so many readers speak of them, tho not about them. I was intrigued.
I had no idea that Sagan was only 18 when she wrote Bonjour Tristesse, but reading the novella I had been wondering what age group the author was writing for. You see, I didn't connect with the main character. She was quite young mentally and I was wondering if this was a novel that would now be found in the YA/NA section, except the writing is far too accomplished for NA.
On the other hand, there are far more issues and layers to the stories than I'd probably expect from a YA (never even mind NA...) book. So, even if the novellas fit on either of those shelves - both certainly feature the angsty young people pursuing love interests as their main plot - the novellas are also more than they appear. I'm just not sure, that the reader is given much of a chance to explore the additional issues before the main plots - the romances in both novellas - end.
There was no particular reason I wanted to read them other than that I heard so many readers speak of them, tho not about them. I was intrigued.
I had no idea that Sagan was only 18 when she wrote Bonjour Tristesse, but reading the novella I had been wondering what age group the author was writing for. You see, I didn't connect with the main character. She was quite young mentally and I was wondering if this was a novel that would now be found in the YA/NA section, except the writing is far too accomplished for NA.
On the other hand, there are far more issues and layers to the stories than I'd probably expect from a YA (never even mind NA...) book. So, even if the novellas fit on either of those shelves - both certainly feature the angsty young people pursuing love interests as their main plot - the novellas are also more than they appear. I'm just not sure, that the reader is given much of a chance to explore the additional issues before the main plots - the romances in both novellas - end.
November 25, 2023
I think I'm alone in having preferred A Certain Smile to the more famous Bonjour Tristesse, but overall, I came out a big fan of Françoise Sagan's work. You can tell she was eighteen and nineteen when she produced these novellas, because Sagan is the quintessential chic writer. Her characters might all be hedonistic Parisians who read Proust, smoke cigarettes and embark on ill-thought affairs, but I loved every sentence.
January 13, 2024
All the sad girl teenage overthinky insecure angst. Beautiful, heartbreaking and sweaty.
July 25, 2011
Contrary to the last book I read, as part of my "Classics" experiment (Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy"), I'm sure as hell glad I picked this one up!
Francoise Sagan's first two novels have proved short, sweet and to the point ~ making the couple of days (on/off) it took me to read them highly enjoyable and utterly worthwhile.
Amongst beautiful landscapes and fascinating, highly complex characters, Sagan weaves two searing, deliciously "French" tales of love, passion, jealousy and betrayal. One simply cannot help but marvel at the maturity and writing prowess of the (18 year old) author ~ while, simultaneously, looking forward to everything else she has to offer.
I have to admit to being totally enthralled by Ms. Sagan's work, of which I, definitely, plan to read more in future (looking up The Unmade Bed & That Mad Ache, as we "speak").
All in all, a highly recommended read!
Francoise Sagan's first two novels have proved short, sweet and to the point ~ making the couple of days (on/off) it took me to read them highly enjoyable and utterly worthwhile.
Amongst beautiful landscapes and fascinating, highly complex characters, Sagan weaves two searing, deliciously "French" tales of love, passion, jealousy and betrayal. One simply cannot help but marvel at the maturity and writing prowess of the (18 year old) author ~ while, simultaneously, looking forward to everything else she has to offer.
I have to admit to being totally enthralled by Ms. Sagan's work, of which I, definitely, plan to read more in future (looking up The Unmade Bed & That Mad Ache, as we "speak").
All in all, a highly recommended read!
August 28, 2024
Françoise Sagan, the original Gifted Kid burnout 💔
January 29, 2019
How can an 18 year old possess such insight and skill as Sagan?
She writes with such sophistication and as every reviewer points out - it's oh so French (love that).
I bought this particular copy last summer at Heathrow after finding out that post 24+ hours of flying my last plane was to be delayed by a few hours, so I needed to do some serious bookish retail therapy at WH Smith's - I tried reading this lovely turquoise Penguin edition in autumn but didn't click with it so put it down for a future moment and really, it was a great inbetween read now.
Inbetween meaning: in between my studying for exams, hey procrastination.
I think I prefer the second story in my copy, A Certain Smile, not just because this quote fits my current situation to a t: "With my exams miraculously over and done with, I was able just to read [...]".
A girl after my own heart.
She writes with such sophistication and as every reviewer points out - it's oh so French (love that).
I bought this particular copy last summer at Heathrow after finding out that post 24+ hours of flying my last plane was to be delayed by a few hours, so I needed to do some serious bookish retail therapy at WH Smith's - I tried reading this lovely turquoise Penguin edition in autumn but didn't click with it so put it down for a future moment and really, it was a great inbetween read now.
Inbetween meaning: in between my studying for exams, hey procrastination.
I think I prefer the second story in my copy, A Certain Smile, not just because this quote fits my current situation to a t: "With my exams miraculously over and done with, I was able just to read [...]".
A girl after my own heart.
July 8, 2024
I am in absolute awe of Sagan—such prowess! To be able to write like this at just eighteen years of age is nothing short of genius and a testament to her rare and extraordinary talent.
Her exploration of existential themes, of the depth and mature understanding of human nature, of the classic paradox between hedonism and responsibility, and of the complexities of love and interpersonal relationships is not just profound but timeless.
Yet, there is also a charming vulnerability in her writing style. The prose is elegant and understated—poignant, acutely insightful, and nuanced—but at times transparently youthful, innocent, and naive.
What a classic! I was so captivated by ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ that I will definitely re-read it and eagerly seek out her other works.
Her exploration of existential themes, of the depth and mature understanding of human nature, of the classic paradox between hedonism and responsibility, and of the complexities of love and interpersonal relationships is not just profound but timeless.
Yet, there is also a charming vulnerability in her writing style. The prose is elegant and understated—poignant, acutely insightful, and nuanced—but at times transparently youthful, innocent, and naive.
What a classic! I was so captivated by ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ that I will definitely re-read it and eagerly seek out her other works.
August 13, 2025
second book for women in translation month! hadn’t been planning on reading these books (this book?) this summer but i was going through my TBR shelves looking for women in translation and thought it would be perfect for this time of year, and i was right! bonjour tristesse particularly reminded me of another great summer read - swimming home by deborah levy.
i’d give bonjour tristesse 4 stars and a certain smile 3 stars. the narrators of both books feel like continuations of each other, so i love that they were published in one volume. i think a certain smile was weaker, less gripping and tense, but i enjoyed reading it directly after bonjour tristesse because of that flow. both stories feel like a sweltering summer day filled with worries about unrequited love. the dialogue was sometimes a bit juvenile to me, but sagan was only 19 when she first got published so i can forgive it. the rest of the writing combined drama and humor in a really compelling way, i found it very evocative.
i’d give bonjour tristesse 4 stars and a certain smile 3 stars. the narrators of both books feel like continuations of each other, so i love that they were published in one volume. i think a certain smile was weaker, less gripping and tense, but i enjoyed reading it directly after bonjour tristesse because of that flow. both stories feel like a sweltering summer day filled with worries about unrequited love. the dialogue was sometimes a bit juvenile to me, but sagan was only 19 when she first got published so i can forgive it. the rest of the writing combined drama and humor in a really compelling way, i found it very evocative.
April 21, 2025
Bonjour Tristesse
1954
The main character is a 17 year old French girl named Cecile who lives with her womanizing father. She is growing up and making out with a boy named Cyril, but the book is mostly focused on complications with her father’s fiancé Anne and his mistress Elsa.
1954
The main character is a 17 year old French girl named Cecile who lives with her womanizing father. She is growing up and making out with a boy named Cyril, but the book is mostly focused on complications with her father’s fiancé Anne and his mistress Elsa.
December 21, 2016
Françoise Sagan become an overnight sensation in 1954 which the publication of her first novel Bonjour Tristesse. At the age of 18, she published the novel she will be remembered for; the story of Cécile, a seventeen year old living with her widowed father and his mistress on the French Riviera. During an uneventful summer, an old friend of her late mother comes and stirs the peaceful balance of their summer villa.
Not knowing much about Françoise Sagan, I could not determine just how autobiographical Bonjour Tristesse might have been. I do know that Sagan, much like Cécile was kicked out of school and both enjoyed the bourgeois lifestyle. Sagan is a pseudonym (real name Françoise Quoirez) that was taken from the character Princesse de Sagan from Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perd (In Search of Lost Time). I expect that much of this novel is semi-autobiographical because she managed to perfectly capture the narcissism, emotions and angst of teenage life.
In 1955, a censored translation of Bonjour Tristesse hit the shelves for English speaking readers. It was only recently with Heather Lloyd’s translation that we able to enjoy an uncensored edition. Not that there was much of a reference to sex in the novel anyway. This new translation also packaged Françoise Sagan’s second novel, A Certain Smile into the one book. A novel about Dominique, who bored with her lover, starts an affair with a much older married man.
I found that Françoise Sagan likes to play with ideas of morality and pleasure, while also exploring just how problematic a wealthy and carefree life can be. She likes to look at the disillusionment of the bourgeois characters and explore the emotions that she must have been facing herself. In a lot of ways, I tend to associate the angsty style of Sagan with The Sorrows of Young Werther. Françoise Sagan and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe both managed to capture the intensity of emotions in their novels that I have not experienced in more recent books.
Bonjour Tristesse is a stronger novel than A Certain Smile, but I think both books are worth experiencing. I feel like Bonjour Tristesse had a depth that was not found in A Certain Smile. Both come in at about 120 pages each and A Certain Smile might have benefited with more pages, to fill in the plot and characters a lot more. I enjoy the style of Françoise Sagan and I hope to get a chance to read a few more of her other novels. I wonder what age and life experience does to her writing style.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/book-rev...
Not knowing much about Françoise Sagan, I could not determine just how autobiographical Bonjour Tristesse might have been. I do know that Sagan, much like Cécile was kicked out of school and both enjoyed the bourgeois lifestyle. Sagan is a pseudonym (real name Françoise Quoirez) that was taken from the character Princesse de Sagan from Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perd (In Search of Lost Time). I expect that much of this novel is semi-autobiographical because she managed to perfectly capture the narcissism, emotions and angst of teenage life.
In 1955, a censored translation of Bonjour Tristesse hit the shelves for English speaking readers. It was only recently with Heather Lloyd’s translation that we able to enjoy an uncensored edition. Not that there was much of a reference to sex in the novel anyway. This new translation also packaged Françoise Sagan’s second novel, A Certain Smile into the one book. A novel about Dominique, who bored with her lover, starts an affair with a much older married man.
I found that Françoise Sagan likes to play with ideas of morality and pleasure, while also exploring just how problematic a wealthy and carefree life can be. She likes to look at the disillusionment of the bourgeois characters and explore the emotions that she must have been facing herself. In a lot of ways, I tend to associate the angsty style of Sagan with The Sorrows of Young Werther. Françoise Sagan and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe both managed to capture the intensity of emotions in their novels that I have not experienced in more recent books.
Bonjour Tristesse is a stronger novel than A Certain Smile, but I think both books are worth experiencing. I feel like Bonjour Tristesse had a depth that was not found in A Certain Smile. Both come in at about 120 pages each and A Certain Smile might have benefited with more pages, to fill in the plot and characters a lot more. I enjoy the style of Françoise Sagan and I hope to get a chance to read a few more of her other novels. I wonder what age and life experience does to her writing style.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/book-rev...
April 6, 2020
Mladučká hviezda literárneho neba Francoise Sagan bola svojho času ako letná búrka. Dovalila sa, rozmetala konvencie vtedajších tém a štýlu písania francúzskych autorov, poničila predstavy, čo ľudia naozaj od literatúry, ktorá sa má ešte stále nazývať beletriou, aby byť súčasnou, citlivou, nežnou, drzou a hlavne čítavou vlastne očakávajú a potom .... Potom už len vytvárala nespočetné variácie na svoju hrdinku- na seba samu ukrytú v týchto príbehoch. Jej hrdinky sú ako ona. Trocha znudené, mladé, príťažlivé, nespútané, múdre, rady čítajú a majú rady voľnosť. K nej ale potrebujú peniaze, auto, bývanie, pitie, tanečky, aby sa mohli pozerať nadránom na východ slnka. Existenčné problémy ich netrápia. Nemusia sa nimi zaoberať.
Saganová celý život píše variácie na rovnakú tému, píše ich ale výborne. Veľmi sa mi páčil Dobrý deň, smútok, v ktorom sa dá nájsť všetko, čím žije mladý človek v sedemnástich. Láska, žiarlivosť, vzťah z trucu, manipulácia, vina, pohrávanie sa s ľuďmi, bezstarostnosť, leto a štúdium na háku.
Saganová celý život píše variácie na rovnakú tému, píše ich ale výborne. Veľmi sa mi páčil Dobrý deň, smútok, v ktorom sa dá nájsť všetko, čím žije mladý človek v sedemnástich. Láska, žiarlivosť, vzťah z trucu, manipulácia, vina, pohrávanie sa s ľuďmi, bezstarostnosť, leto a štúdium na háku.
February 24, 2022
4.25/5
I started reading this book with a friend in my first year of uni (four years ago). We used to read it aloud at the park near our flat. We then had to stop reading the due to exams and moving back home so we never picked it back up again. Randomly I decided to pick it up from the short story A Certain Smile the other day and I am so glad I did.
To this Sagan wrote this when she was 18 is outstanding. She writes with such a sophisticated style. Both stories were short, maybe a little too short, particularly A Certain Smile. I would have liked to learn explored the characters a little further as the ending seemed a bit rushed. Reading this felt like I was living the carefree lifestyle of the protagonist in the South of France. I often questioned the characters morals however it was not possible to dislike them. Sagan paints her world with such vividness and intricacy, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I started reading this book with a friend in my first year of uni (four years ago). We used to read it aloud at the park near our flat. We then had to stop reading the due to exams and moving back home so we never picked it back up again. Randomly I decided to pick it up from the short story A Certain Smile the other day and I am so glad I did.
To this Sagan wrote this when she was 18 is outstanding. She writes with such a sophisticated style. Both stories were short, maybe a little too short, particularly A Certain Smile. I would have liked to learn explored the characters a little further as the ending seemed a bit rushed. Reading this felt like I was living the carefree lifestyle of the protagonist in the South of France. I often questioned the characters morals however it was not possible to dislike them. Sagan paints her world with such vividness and intricacy, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
January 23, 2022
Both novellas included in this book are such a vibe. Very strong aesthetic with a sparse and clean prose, which made them so enjoyable to read. Really great books.
August 21, 2025
‘Bonjour Tristesse’ was meh. The 5 stars are for ‘A Certain Smile’ which was perfection.
Read
November 4, 2024A savage little novel. Renders you breathless.
August 3, 2025
I loved both Bonjour Tristesse (4⭐️) and A Certain Smile (4.5⭐️).
Sagan’s writing is impeccable. I want to read more by her!
Sagan’s writing is impeccable. I want to read more by her!
January 3, 2017
Inciting literary and social uproar at its time of publication over sixty years ago, Bonjour Tristesse, penned by a not so naïve eighteen year old is still painfully provocative and disturbing even today. This is because it reaches for and tears out the heart of human immorality. Cecile is both selfish and manipulative, her adolescent brain has not entirely caught up with the amorality and imperfect realities of adulthood. A sheen of false materialism glosses the main characters, though the story told is gritty and real and superbly rendered against the luxurious back drop of the French Riviera. That Sagan was eventually consumed by whisky, cocaine and a gambling addiction, and finally heroin may well have been foreshadowed eerily in this, her first novel.
July 12, 2025
Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan is celebrated as one of the best novels, it is ranked 41st on Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century, and you find it in 187th place on The Greatest Books of All Time site, while I still ponder where it would be on my own list, perhaps in the Top 500, however, my point of view on thousands of works is posted on my blogs https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
8 out of 10
This is the third time that I encounter Bonjour Tristesse.
I have read it, and then saw an earlier film adaptation https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... which was not on the level of the novel
Admittedly, according to the French Le Monde, this is the 41st best book of the century – the last one – and that means a quite high mark to pass, but the latest take on Bonjour Tristesse has a je ne sais quoi, a certain
- Savoir faire, but not enough
We have the dolce far niente, the charming atmosphere of the original https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... which makes sense.
There is after all the coast, the sea, a beautiful villa, attractive people, a sort of Games People Play - which is a classic of psychology by Eric Berne, a very good read -so what is there to dislike in all this setting?
The characters have panache, they might be what audiences need to escape the pressure, tension of everyday life, watching those people without a bother, apparently, but then it could also be tedious, unchallenging
Flow https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is another psychology classic, which offers you the formula for Being in The Zone, reach the zenith, nirvana if you will
Time flies, seconds feel like hours, and a day can just melt, you are in the area between boredom and burnout, but then Bonjour Tristesse, as filmed recently appears to offer – at least some – ennui, periods of taedium vitae
Maybe Cecile is too young, only seventeen, though it must be said that the author was only Eighteen, when Bonjour Tristesse was published, furthermore, I was not very impressed by the thespian in the leading role
On the other hand, none of the other actors have had an unforgettable performance, and I wonder what would happen if I were to read the book itself again, it might be a repeat of some previous experiences, such as
- White Man Falling
This book by Mike Stocks seemed to be a magnum opus, when reading it for the first time https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... alas, the second time, it was not so glorious
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
8 out of 10
This is the third time that I encounter Bonjour Tristesse.
I have read it, and then saw an earlier film adaptation https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... which was not on the level of the novel
Admittedly, according to the French Le Monde, this is the 41st best book of the century – the last one – and that means a quite high mark to pass, but the latest take on Bonjour Tristesse has a je ne sais quoi, a certain
- Savoir faire, but not enough
We have the dolce far niente, the charming atmosphere of the original https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... which makes sense.
There is after all the coast, the sea, a beautiful villa, attractive people, a sort of Games People Play - which is a classic of psychology by Eric Berne, a very good read -so what is there to dislike in all this setting?
The characters have panache, they might be what audiences need to escape the pressure, tension of everyday life, watching those people without a bother, apparently, but then it could also be tedious, unchallenging
Flow https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is another psychology classic, which offers you the formula for Being in The Zone, reach the zenith, nirvana if you will
Time flies, seconds feel like hours, and a day can just melt, you are in the area between boredom and burnout, but then Bonjour Tristesse, as filmed recently appears to offer – at least some – ennui, periods of taedium vitae
Maybe Cecile is too young, only seventeen, though it must be said that the author was only Eighteen, when Bonjour Tristesse was published, furthermore, I was not very impressed by the thespian in the leading role
On the other hand, none of the other actors have had an unforgettable performance, and I wonder what would happen if I were to read the book itself again, it might be a repeat of some previous experiences, such as
- White Man Falling
This book by Mike Stocks seemed to be a magnum opus, when reading it for the first time https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... alas, the second time, it was not so glorious
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
November 12, 2023
adding this to my fantasy high school english syllabus
December 15, 2023
Women should be allowed to do questionable things once in a while as a treat
November 21, 2022
Románové prvotiny legendárnej francúzskej spisovateľky mali vo svojom období obrovský úspech a je fajn, že vyšli opäť v novom vydaní. Sú to príbehy o láske, vášni, náklonnosti, ale aj nude a zvrátenosti...
V knihe Dobrý deň, smútok sledujeme príbeh 17-ročnej povrchnej a egoistickej študentky Cécile, ktorá trávi prázdniny so svojím prelietavým otcom Raymondom a jeho priateľkou Elsou. Už pätnásť rokov bol vdovcom a ženy menil skoro každý polrok. Všetko vyzeralo v pohode, leto plynulo, no problém nastáva, keď otec oznámi, že za nimi príde Anne Larsenová. Ich dávna rodinná priateľka, ku ktorej Cécile pociťovala obdiv...
„Vo svojich štyridsiatich dvoch rokoch to bola žena veľmi zvodná, veľmi pestovaná, s peknou, hrdou, unavenou a ľahostajnou tvárou. Všetko na nej hovorilo o pevnej vôli, o pokoji srdca, ktorý pôsobil stiesňujúco,“ popisuje ju Cécile.
Dobrý deň, smútok je príbeh o ľudskej ľahostajnosti, ktorá dokáže ublížiť najmä nevinným ľuďom. Cécile chce zvrátiť vzťah jej otca s inteligentnou Anne, a tak zmanipuluje okolie, až sa ich vzťah dostane k bolestivému a dramatickému koncu. Saganová výborne vystihla postavy, najmä ich prostoduchosť, plytkosť, prelietavosť, intrigánsku povahu. Neponúka len dobré, či zlé postavy, čierne alebo biele, ale skutočne komplexné, ako v reálnom živote. Zdanlivo jednoduchý príbeh však dokázala literárne spracovať naozaj na úrovni, a to mala v čase jeho písania len 19 rokov.
Akýsi úsmev z roku 1956 je príbeh krátkeho ľúbostného pomeru mladej intelektuálky Dominique, vnímavého a citlivého dievčaťa komplikovaného intelektuálskeho typu so starším ženatým mužom Lucom. To, čo je pre obidvoch spočiatku len nezáväzný flirt, sa postupne stáva mení na hlboké city. No ani jeden si ich nechce otvorene priznať.
Príbeh vás síce zavedie do čarovného Paríža, no autorka sa sústredila najmä na vzťah dvojice – starší, ženatý muž a mladá študentka Sorbonny v polovici 50.rokov 20.storočia. Ide o veľmi jednoduchý, niekto by povedal až banálny príbeh, ktorému však Saganová dokázala vdýchnuť ducha doby; pocítite sympatie s Dominiqou a to aj napriek jej častej pasivite a egocentrizmu. Vo vzduchu cítiť vtedajší existencializmus a v texte vycibrenosť i zručnosť mladučkej autorky.
V knihe Dobrý deň, smútok sledujeme príbeh 17-ročnej povrchnej a egoistickej študentky Cécile, ktorá trávi prázdniny so svojím prelietavým otcom Raymondom a jeho priateľkou Elsou. Už pätnásť rokov bol vdovcom a ženy menil skoro každý polrok. Všetko vyzeralo v pohode, leto plynulo, no problém nastáva, keď otec oznámi, že za nimi príde Anne Larsenová. Ich dávna rodinná priateľka, ku ktorej Cécile pociťovala obdiv...
„Vo svojich štyridsiatich dvoch rokoch to bola žena veľmi zvodná, veľmi pestovaná, s peknou, hrdou, unavenou a ľahostajnou tvárou. Všetko na nej hovorilo o pevnej vôli, o pokoji srdca, ktorý pôsobil stiesňujúco,“ popisuje ju Cécile.
Dobrý deň, smútok je príbeh o ľudskej ľahostajnosti, ktorá dokáže ublížiť najmä nevinným ľuďom. Cécile chce zvrátiť vzťah jej otca s inteligentnou Anne, a tak zmanipuluje okolie, až sa ich vzťah dostane k bolestivému a dramatickému koncu. Saganová výborne vystihla postavy, najmä ich prostoduchosť, plytkosť, prelietavosť, intrigánsku povahu. Neponúka len dobré, či zlé postavy, čierne alebo biele, ale skutočne komplexné, ako v reálnom živote. Zdanlivo jednoduchý príbeh však dokázala literárne spracovať naozaj na úrovni, a to mala v čase jeho písania len 19 rokov.
Akýsi úsmev z roku 1956 je príbeh krátkeho ľúbostného pomeru mladej intelektuálky Dominique, vnímavého a citlivého dievčaťa komplikovaného intelektuálskeho typu so starším ženatým mužom Lucom. To, čo je pre obidvoch spočiatku len nezáväzný flirt, sa postupne stáva mení na hlboké city. No ani jeden si ich nechce otvorene priznať.
Príbeh vás síce zavedie do čarovného Paríža, no autorka sa sústredila najmä na vzťah dvojice – starší, ženatý muž a mladá študentka Sorbonny v polovici 50.rokov 20.storočia. Ide o veľmi jednoduchý, niekto by povedal až banálny príbeh, ktorému však Saganová dokázala vdýchnuť ducha doby; pocítite sympatie s Dominiqou a to aj napriek jej častej pasivite a egocentrizmu. Vo vzduchu cítiť vtedajší existencializmus a v texte vycibrenosť i zručnosť mladučkej autorky.
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