A Month of Novellas, Book 21: Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan (1955)

doing girlie things

Bonjour Tristesse is one of those titles that become part of one’s cultural lexicon without one necessarily knowing why. Is it a film, is it a book, is it a song, that you’ve heard of long ago? Well, in this case it’s all three, but it all started with a book. A book written by Francoise Sagan and published when she was only 18.

We’re introduced to Cecile, a teenage school girl on summer holiday with her father. Her mother died when she was little and since then her father has been quite the raconteur. Cecile used to frequent a convent school but has been now living with her womanizing father for the last two years. He takes her everywhere he goes and some of those places aren’t exactly kid-friendly. Still, Cecile thinks herself lucky to have such a hip dad, even if some of the lessons learned aren’t exactly the best:

“Although I did not share my father’s intense aversion to ugliness – which often led us to associate with stupid people – I did feel vaguely uncomfortable in the presence of anyone completely devoid of physical charm. Their resignation to the fact that they were unattractive seemed to me somewhat indecent.” p.8

Charming, charming people.

They’ve been joined in this holiday by her father’s latest conquest Elsa, a vapid, albeit beautiful young woman, just like the type he usually beds. Everything is going along well – Cecile has met a young man who she plans on seducing – until her father announces there’ll be another guest joining them. Anne Larsen, a friend of his wife, and a type of mentor for Cecile, is coming to stay with them. Cecile immediately realizes this is a truly bad idea, but there’s nothing to dissuade her father.

Not too surprisingly, they can’t manage to maintain a contented home with two women vying for the same man, because that is what Anne is there for after all, and Elsa goes packing. Soon, they’re a happy little family, Anne, Cecile and her father. But Cecile is starting to denote a change.

“But I could not keep from thinking that although my life was perhaps at that very moment changing its whole course, I was in reality nothing more than a kitten to them, an affectionate little animal. I felt them above me, united by a past and a future, by ties that I did not know and which could not hold me.” p.44

Cecile who had previously been so enamored of Anne and her sophistication, now starts to grow resentful of Anne’s control over her own life. And when her father announces he plans on marrying Anne, Cecile’s whole world comes crashing as she foresees how their “happy” home will soon be pacified and neutralized by Anne’s tastefulness and intelligence.

“Yes, it was this I held against Anne: she kept me from liking myself. I, who was naturally meant for happiness and gaiety, had been forced by her into self-criticism and a guilty conscience. Unaccustomed to introspection, I was completely lost.” p. 52

Cecile devises a plan involving her lover and Elsa to break up the happy couple. Once the plan is put into motion, she keeps on wavering on and off of it on the page, making the reader sometimes think that she regrets it and wants to put an end to it. But she’s one of the most fickle characters I’ve ever read and is soon enthused again about not only the original plan but in particular about her skills in manipulating so many different people into doing her bidding.

The ending will come as a shock, unless you remember the first paragraph of the novel:

“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.” p.5

A wonderfully written novella about the shallowness and selfishness of youth as well as about a young woman’s burgeoning sexuality.