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{{Short description|1954 novel by Françoise Sagan}}
{{For|the film adaptation|Bonjour Tristesse (film)}}
{{about|the book|the film adaptation|Bonjour Tristesse (film)|the building|Bonjour Tristesse (building)}}
{{infobox book
{{infobox book
| name = Bonjour Tristesse
| name = Bonjour Tristesse
| title_orig =
| title_orig =
| translator =
| translator =
| image = image:BonjourTristesse.jpg
| image = File:BonjourTristesse.jpg
| caption = First English edition
| caption = First English edition
| author = [[Françoise Sagan]]
| author = [[Françoise Sagan]]
Line 13: Line 14:
| series =
| series =
| genre =
| genre =
| publisher = [[Rene Julliard]] (France)<br>[[John Murray (publisher)|John Murray]] (UK)
| publisher = [[Éditions Julliard]] (France)<br>[[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] (UK)
| release_date = 1954
| release_date = 1954
| english_release_date = 1955
| english_release_date = 1955
| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])
| pages =
| pages =
| isbn = NA
| isbn = <!--NA-->
| preceded_by =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
| followed_by =
}}
}}


'''''Bonjour Tristesse''''' ([[French language|French]], "Hello Sadness") is a [[novel]] by [[Françoise Sagan]]. Published in 1954, when the author was only 18, it was an overnight sensation. The title is derived from a poem by [[Paul Éluard]], "À peine défigurée", which begins with the lines "Adieu tristesse/Bonjour tristesse..." A [[Bonjour Tristesse (film)|film adaptation]] appeared in 1958.<ref>Camper, Fred (1999). [http://www.fredcamper.com/Film/Preminger.html Bodies in Motion]</ref>
'''''Bonjour Tristesse''''' ({{langx|en|"Hello Sadness"}}) is a [[novel]] by [[Françoise Sagan]]. Published in 1954, when the author was only 18, it was an overnight sensation. The title is derived from a poem by [[Paul Éluard]], "À peine défigurée", which begins with the lines "Adieu tristesse/Bonjour tristesse..." An English-language [[Bonjour Tristesse (film)|film adaptation]] was released in 1958, directed by [[Otto Preminger]].<ref>Camper, Fred (1999). [http://www.fredcamper.com/Film/Preminger.html Bodies in Motion]</ref>


==Plot summary==
==Plot summary==
Seventeen-year-old Cécile spends her summer in a villa on the [[French Riviera]] with her father and his mistress. Her father, Raymond, is a seductive, worldly, amoral man who has had many affairs. His latest woman friend is Elsa Mackenbourg: she and Cécile get on well. When Elsa comes to the villa to spend her summer with Raymond, it is clear that she is the latest of many women whom Cécile has seen enter the life of her father and exit fairly quickly: young, superficial, and fashionable. Raymond excuses his philandering with an [[Oscar Wilde]] quote about sin: "Sin is the only note of vivid colour that persists in the modern world." Cécile says, "I believed that I could base my life on it",<ref>Gleeson, Sinéad (2004). [http://www.bibliofemme.com/others/bonjourtristesse.shtml Bibliofemme review]</ref> and accepts their lifestyle as typical. Cécile, at 17, is still somewhat naïve and tries to disguise this by attempting to attract men of the same age as her father. Her love life is unsuccessful until she meets a man in his 20s, Cyril, with whom she has a romantic but ultimately dissatisfying relationship.
17-year-old Cécile spends her summer in a villa on the [[French Riviera]] with her father Raymond and his current mistress, the young, superficial, fashionable Elsa, who gets on well with Cécile. Raymond is an attractive, worldly, amoral man who excuses his serial philandering by quoting [[Oscar Wilde]]: "Sin is the only note of vivid colour that persists in the modern world." Cécile says, "I believed that I could base my life on it", and accepts their languorous lifestyle as the ideal of privileged status. One of its advantages for Cécile is that her father, who has no intellectual interests, does not care if she studies or not. Another is that he gives her leeway to pursue her own interests, with the assumption that she will be an amusing addition to the superficial social gatherings he favors. In the next villa to theirs is a young man in his 20s, Cyril, with whom Cécile has her first sexual romance.


Raymond, Elsa and Cécile are spending an uneventful summer together until Anne Larsen arrives by way of an earlier invitation from Raymond. A friend of Cécile's late mother, Anne is very different from Raymond's other girlfriends. She is cultured, educated, principled, intelligent, and is his age. Raymond eventually leaves Elsa for Anne, and the next morning Anne and Raymond announce their impending marriage. At first, Cécile admires Anne, but soon a struggle begins between Cécile and Anne for Raymond's attentions. The plot begins to focus on the relationship between the two women. Realizing that Anne will do away with their carefree lifestyle, Cécile devises a plan to prevent the marriage.
Their peaceful holiday is shattered by the arrival of Anne, whom Raymond had vaguely invited. A cultured, principled, intelligent, hard-working woman of Raymond's age who was a friend of his late wife, Anne regards herself as a sort of godmother to Cécile. The three women all have claims on Raymond's attention; the remote, enigmatic Anne soon becomes Raymond's lover, and the next morning she announces their engagement. Elsa moves out, then Anne tries to take over parenting Cécile. She tells Cécile to stop seeing Cyril and get back to her schoolbooks. Cécile is horrified at this threat to her pampered life as her father's darling, especially as Anne becomes the entire focus of Raymond's interest. She devises a plan to prevent the marriage, while nevertheless feeling ambiguous about her scheming.
She arranges for Elsa and Cyril to pretend to be a couple, and to appear together at specific moments in the hopes of making Raymond jealous of Cyril so that if Raymond decides he wants Elsa back, he'll leave Anne. Cécile is jealous and desperate for Anne to recognize the life she and her father have shared, but she misjudges Anne's sensitivity with tragic results. When Raymond finally relents and goes into town to see Elsa, Anne leaves, only to drive her car off a cliff in a suspected suicide after she sees Elsa and Raymond in the woods together. It is later known that they were kissing.


To make Raymond jealous, Cécile arranges for Elsa and Cyril to pretend to be a couple and appear together at specific moments. When Raymond predictably becomes jealous of the younger Cyril, he renews his pursuit of Elsa. But Cécile has misjudged Anne's sensitivity. After she sees Raymond and Elsa together in the woods, with Raymond brushing pine needles off of his suit, Anne drives off in tears and her car plunges from a cliff in an apparent suicide.
⚫
Cécile and her father return to the empty, desultory life they were living before Anne interrupted their summer.

⚫
Cécile and her father return to the empty, desultory life they were living before Anne interrupted their summer and consider the impact Anne has had on their lives. Cécile lives with the knowledge that her manipulations led to Anne's death and longs for the summer they shared.


==Characters==
==Characters==
* Cécile, a wealthy and careless seventeen-year-old girl
'''Cécile''', a 17-year-old girl who lives with her father after her mother died when she was two.
* Raymond, her middle-aged father, a notorious partier and ladies' man
* Elsa, Raymond's latest mistress at the beginning of the novel
*Anne, an old friend of Cécile's mother, who mentored Cécile after she withdrew from Catholic boarding school
* Cyril, a young man who lives near the house Raymond rents for the summer


==Reception==
'''Raymond''', Cécile's father, a 40-year-old widower and libertine.
An early brief review of Irene Ash's English translation (John Murray, 1955), in ''[[The Times]]'' of 19 May 1955, describes it as "An unusual little fiction ... written by a 19-year-old girl from the Dordogne ... a nice piece of precocity".<ref>{{cite news|title=The Old Adversary (book reviews)|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/newspaperRetrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DateAscend&tabID=T003&prodId=TTDA&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R1&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28ke%2CNone%2C12%29dennis+parry%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28da%2CNone%2C23%2901%2F19%2F1955+-+12%2F31%2F1955%24&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&userGroupName=lancs&inPS=true&contentSet=LTO&&docId=&docLevel=FASCIMILE&workId=&relevancePageBatch=CS218584243&contentSet=UDVIN&callistoContentSet=UDVIN&docPage=article&hilite=y|accessdate=22 February 2016|work=The Times|date=19 May 1955|page=13 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The reviewer in ''[[The Spectator]]'' of the same date said "''Bonjour, Tristesse'', which has achieved remarkable celebrity by virtue of its subject-matter and its authoress's age, is a vulgar, sad little book".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Metcalf|first1=John|title=New novels|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/20th-may-1955/31/new-novels|accessdate=23 February 2016|work=The Spectator|date=19 May 1955|page=31}}</ref>


== Translation into English ==
'''Elsa''', Raymond's mistress at the start of the book. She is 29 and tall, with red hair.
''Bonjour Tristesse'' was translated into English by Irene Ash in 1955. Ash's translation censors much of the amoral and sexual themes of the original text, removing over 100 lines of Sagan's original writing to make it more palatable for British publication. A later 2013 translation by Heather Lloyd includes the full uncensored text.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sagan |first=Françoise |title=Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile |url=https://www.collinsbooks.com.au/p/classics-bonjour-tristesse-and-a-certain-smile--11 |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=Collins Booksellers |language=en}}</ref>


== Cultural adaptations ==
'''Anne''', a friend of Cécile's mother, is 42. She is invited to the villa by Raymond when they begin a relationship and get engaged.


* German-American filmmaker [[Otto Preminger]] produced and directed a film adaptation of the book through his film production company Wheel Productions. [[Bonjour Tristesse (film)|''Bonjour Tristesse'']] was released in 1958 and stars [[Jean Seberg]], [[Deborah Kerr]] and [[David Niven]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Preminger|first=Otto|title=Bonjour tristesse|date=1958-03-07|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051429/|type=Drama, Romance|others=Jean Seberg, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Mylène Demongeot|publisher=Wheel Productions|access-date=2020-11-10}}</ref>
'''Cyril''', a 26-year-old student at university studying law, who lives with his mother. He is good at sailing and is in love with Cécile.
* Canadian [[dark ambient]] band Soufferance based and themed their 2011 [[Concept album|concept extended play]] on the book. Titled ''Bonjour Tristesse'', the EP features a single 17-minute song.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Weatherford|first=Sage|date=November 1, 2011|title=Soufferance – Bonjour Tristesse|url=http://heathenharvest.org/2011/11/01/soufferance-bonjour-tristesse/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515070808/http://heathenharvest.org/2011/11/01/soufferance-bonjour-tristesse/|archive-date=May 15, 2012|access-date=November 10, 2020|website=[[Heathen Harvest]]}}</ref> A follow-up concept album was released a year later, titled ''Adieu Tristesse'', which also took elements from the novel.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Marinova|first=Joanna|date=February 10, 2014|title=Soufferance Interview for Abridged Pause Blog|url=http://www.abridgedpause.com/soufferance-interview-for-abridged-pause-blog-2|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906225307/http://www.abridgedpause.com/soufferance-interview-for-abridged-pause-blog-2|archive-date=September 6, 2017|access-date=November 10, 2020|website=Abridged Pause Blog|language=en-US}}</ref>

* French artist Frédéric Rébéna had adapted ''Bonjour Tristesse'' into a graphic novel, with [[NBM Publishing]] scheduled to release an English version in 2025.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DC3MXTCP|last=Rébéna|first=Frédéric|title=''Bonjour Tristesse''|date=August 12, 2025|publisher=[[NBM Publishing]]}}</ref>
==Analysis==
The book is split into two parts; during the first part Cécile is very naïve and behaves like a young child. In the second part she is more mature and acts more like an adult.

One of the most important use of symbols is that of the sea and the sun. The sea is a maternal symbol and the sun a paternal symbol. Throughout the book, Françoise Sagan uses the sea to show Cécile is missing her mother. For example, when she realises that she is losing an argument with Anne, she runs to the sea, as a child runs to their mother when something goes wrong.

There are numerous references to the fact that Cécile is missing the presence of a mother figure. Anne Larsen tries to fill this role; in the first part of the book Cecile accepts this, but as she "grows up", she begins to resent Anne.

Some argue that Cécile lacks a father as well, even though Raymond is present. Raymond's behavior is immature and he doesn't treat his daughter like a child or even a teenager. He buys her an exotic dress and takes her to casinos. This behaviour confuses Cécile and she does not know whether she is supposed to act like an adult or a teenager.

When Anne arrives she treats Cécile as a child, adding further confusion to Cécile's life.


==See also ==
==See also ==
*[[Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century|''Le Monde'''s 100 Books of the Century]]
*[[Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century|''Le Monde''{{'}}s 100 Books of the Century]]


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


{{Authority control}}
⚫
[[Category:1954 novels]]

[[Category:Debut novels]]
[[Category:1954 French novels]]
[[Category:French novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:French novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Novels by Françoise Sagan]]
[[Category:Novels by Françoise Sagan]]
[[Category:Novels set in Provence]]
[[Category:Novels set in Provence]]
[[Category:French Riviera]]
[[Category:French Riviera]]
⚫
[[Category:1954 debut novels]]

Latest revision as of 17:05, 26 October 2024

This article is about the book. For the film adaptation, see Bonjour Tristesse (film). For the building, see Bonjour Tristesse (building).
Bonjour Tristesse
First English edition
AuthorFrançoise Sagan
LanguageFrench
PublisherÉditions Julliard (France)
John Murray (UK)
Publication date
1954
Publication placeFrance
Published in English
1955

Bonjour Tristesse (English: "Hello Sadness") is a novel by Françoise Sagan. Published in 1954, when the author was only 18, it was an overnight sensation. The title is derived from a poem by Paul Éluard, "À peine défigurée", which begins with the lines "Adieu tristesse/Bonjour tristesse..." An English-language film adaptation was released in 1958, directed by Otto Preminger.[1]

Plot summary

[edit]

17-year-old Cécile spends her summer in a villa on the French Riviera with her father Raymond and his current mistress, the young, superficial, fashionable Elsa, who gets on well with Cécile. Raymond is an attractive, worldly, amoral man who excuses his serial philandering by quoting Oscar Wilde: "Sin is the only note of vivid colour that persists in the modern world." Cécile says, "I believed that I could base my life on it", and accepts their languorous lifestyle as the ideal of privileged status. One of its advantages for Cécile is that her father, who has no intellectual interests, does not care if she studies or not. Another is that he gives her leeway to pursue her own interests, with the assumption that she will be an amusing addition to the superficial social gatherings he favors. In the next villa to theirs is a young man in his 20s, Cyril, with whom Cécile has her first sexual romance.

Their peaceful holiday is shattered by the arrival of Anne, whom Raymond had vaguely invited. A cultured, principled, intelligent, hard-working woman of Raymond's age who was a friend of his late wife, Anne regards herself as a sort of godmother to Cécile. The three women all have claims on Raymond's attention; the remote, enigmatic Anne soon becomes Raymond's lover, and the next morning she announces their engagement. Elsa moves out, then Anne tries to take over parenting Cécile. She tells Cécile to stop seeing Cyril and get back to her schoolbooks. Cécile is horrified at this threat to her pampered life as her father's darling, especially as Anne becomes the entire focus of Raymond's interest. She devises a plan to prevent the marriage, while nevertheless feeling ambiguous about her scheming.

To make Raymond jealous, Cécile arranges for Elsa and Cyril to pretend to be a couple and appear together at specific moments. When Raymond predictably becomes jealous of the younger Cyril, he renews his pursuit of Elsa. But Cécile has misjudged Anne's sensitivity. After she sees Raymond and Elsa together in the woods, with Raymond brushing pine needles off of his suit, Anne drives off in tears and her car plunges from a cliff in an apparent suicide.

Cécile and her father return to the empty, desultory life they were living before Anne interrupted their summer and consider the impact Anne has had on their lives. Cécile lives with the knowledge that her manipulations led to Anne's death and longs for the summer they shared.

Characters

[edit]
  • Cécile, a wealthy and careless seventeen-year-old girl
  • Raymond, her middle-aged father, a notorious partier and ladies' man
  • Elsa, Raymond's latest mistress at the beginning of the novel
  • Anne, an old friend of Cécile's mother, who mentored Cécile after she withdrew from Catholic boarding school
  • Cyril, a young man who lives near the house Raymond rents for the summer

Reception

[edit]

An early brief review of Irene Ash's English translation (John Murray, 1955), in The Times of 19 May 1955, describes it as "An unusual little fiction ... written by a 19-year-old girl from the Dordogne ... a nice piece of precocity".[2] The reviewer in The Spectator of the same date said "Bonjour, Tristesse, which has achieved remarkable celebrity by virtue of its subject-matter and its authoress's age, is a vulgar, sad little book".[3]

Translation into English

[edit]

Bonjour Tristesse was translated into English by Irene Ash in 1955. Ash's translation censors much of the amoral and sexual themes of the original text, removing over 100 lines of Sagan's original writing to make it more palatable for British publication. A later 2013 translation by Heather Lloyd includes the full uncensored text.[4]

Cultural adaptations

[edit]
  • German-American filmmaker Otto Preminger produced and directed a film adaptation of the book through his film production company Wheel Productions. Bonjour Tristesse was released in 1958 and stars Jean Seberg, Deborah Kerr and David Niven.[5]
  • Canadian dark ambient band Soufferance based and themed their 2011 concept extended play on the book. Titled Bonjour Tristesse, the EP features a single 17-minute song.[6] A follow-up concept album was released a year later, titled Adieu Tristesse, which also took elements from the novel.[7]
  • French artist Frédéric Rébéna had adapted Bonjour Tristesse into a graphic novel, with NBM Publishing scheduled to release an English version in 2025.[8]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Camper, Fred (1999). Bodies in Motion
  2. ^ "The Old Adversary (book reviews)". The Times. 19 May 1955. p. 13. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  3. ^ Metcalf, John (19 May 1955). "New novels". The Spectator. p. 31. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  4. ^ Sagan, Françoise. "Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile". Collins Booksellers. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  5. ^ Preminger, Otto (1958-03-07), Bonjour tristesse (Drama, Romance), Jean Seberg, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Mylène Demongeot, Wheel Productions, retrieved 2020-11-10
  6. ^ Weatherford, Sage (November 1, 2011). "Soufferance – Bonjour Tristesse". Heathen Harvest. Archived from the original on May 15, 2012. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  7. ^ Marinova, Joanna (February 10, 2014). "Soufferance Interview for Abridged Pause Blog". Abridged Pause Blog. Archived from the original on September 6, 2017. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  8. ^ Rébéna, Frédéric (August 12, 2025). "Bonjour Tristesse". NBM Publishing.
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