On Sunday September 22, Mayflower Bookshop’s Great Books series will feature Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan as the sixth event in the series.
Bonjour Tristesse took the world by storm as a succès de scandale in 1954 and bestowed instant fame on its author, 19-year-old Françoise Sagan. But not quite literary fame – from the beginning, it was the person of Sagan rather than her book that attracted attention. A girl, and such a young girl, writing about sexual relationships! And then, as the money started pouring in, a girl leading a life full of expensive cars and nightclubs!
Coco Hoek, who studied French in Leiden, will explain to us the context in which this famous book was written in which so many characters are in love (but hardly ever mutually so) and in which we find no less than two love triangles, one cleverly manipulated and one rather unusual.
But she will also explore the legends surrounding Sagan and the often despised “little Saganesque world” of the upper classes, and the great themes in her later work. Are they already present in this first novel?
Come and get (re-)acquainted with Cécile and Raymond, and get to know a bit more about Françoise Sagan, in her own words. What did she have to say about the book, the legend, and her writing?
The afternoon will end with a theatrical reading performed by the Mayflower Theatre Company (Freek Bouricius and Roland de Ligny)