Francoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse; an analysis
I read the book several times, without understanding it, until I read about sadists. It starts off innocently enough; a father and his 17 year old daughter spending the summer holidays in the south of France. The father is a widower who has a mistress living with them. The mother died two years ago and the daughter left the convent to live with her father who leads a life of superficial pleasures. His daughter follows his example meeting a young man with whom she begins a love affaire based on sex.
Then a fly gets in the ointment of their happy hedonism. Anne, who is a friend of the deceased wife, arrives to stay with them pushing the happy threesome into a panic. Anne is a serious person - moral - and strict. Soon her presences is felt. The father falls in love with her, leaving his mistress. Anne takes his daughter under her wing/control; much to her chagrin. Anne locks the daughter in her room to ‘punish’ her. The “innocent” young girl plans her revenge. She starts to manipulate everyone.
The daughter hatches a plan to get the old mistress back in the good graces of her father, even into his bed. She persuades her boyfriend to act as if he is in love with her father’s mistress, making her father jealous. It works. The father meets his ex-mistress. But his new love Anne sees them making love and is devastated. She drives off leaving the daughter and father bemused and sad.
The daughter feels guilty - for the first time - and she and her father write Ann letters of apology. But it is too late. Anne has had a car accident. She dies in an apparent suicide. The daughter admits she never loved her young man and the father is at a loss to what happened. Only the daughter knows; she keeps her silence. She talks of sadness, but is it real or just feigned?
The young girl is sadistic, hedonistic and immoral because she lacks any real depth of feeling for others. She is following in her father’s foot steps. It reminds me of Camus book ‘The Stranger’ with its emptiness of feeling. There is a lack of human kindness in the young girl who is just playing with people. She feels sorry/sad for herself but not for what she did. Her narcissism is evident in the end.
