Françoise Sagan
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Sagan was born in Cajarc, Aveyron, where she lived for the first few years of her life, until her family moved to Lyon at the outset of World War II. She failed entrance examinations to the Sorbonne in 1953 mainly due to her active nightlife in the Paris clubs. Though notorious all her life for her extravagant lifestyle, she would later attend school there but without graduating.
Her first novel was published in 1954, at the age of 18. Bonjour Tristesse (meaning "Hello sadness") and was an immediate international success. It concerns the life of pleasure-driven 17-year-old Cécile, in particular her relationship with her boyfriend and her adulterous, playboy father. The novel allegedly influenced the Simon & Garfunkel song The Sounds of Silence. Her pseudonym was taken from a character in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time).
Sagan's characters became something of an icon for disillusioned teenagers, in some ways similar to those of J.D. Salinger. She produced dozens of works during a career lasting until 1996, many of which have been filmed. Sporting the austere style of the French psychological novel even while nouveau roman became popular, the conversations between her characters are often considered to contain existential undertones. In addition to novels, plays, and autobiography, she also wrote song lyrics and screenplays.
Fond of travelling in the United States, she was often seen with Truman Capote. She was once involved in a car accident with her Aston Martin, which left her in a coma for some time.
She was married twice, to Guy Schoeller and Bob Westhof, but both marriages ended in divorce.
In the 1960s, Sagan became more devoted to writing plays, which, though lauded for excellent dialogues, were only moderately successful. Afterwards, she resumed her career as a novelist.
In the 1990s Sagan was convicted for using cocaine.
Her health was reported to be poor in the decade of the 2000s. In 2002 she was unable to appear at a trial in which she was convicted of tax fraud involving François Mitterrand, and she received a suspended sentence. Françoise Sagan died of a blood clot in a lung in Honfleur, Calvados, on September 24, 2004 at the age of 69.
In his statement French President Jacques Chirac said: "With her death, France loses one of its most brilliant and sensitive writers - an eminent figure of our literary life." Ironically, the same France, through her tax authorities, had seized till the last franc of Sagan's royalties and property, and thus condemned her to a painful and difficult survival during the last four years of her life. Only by the kindness of a few friends she avoided being homeless. These friends appealed for an amnesty that would have allowed Sagan a less tragic end. The French government was adamant in punishing and making an example of her.
The character of Margot Tenenbaum from The Royal Tenenbaums is allegedly based partly on Françoise Sagan.
Works
Novels
- Bonjour Tristesse
- Un certain sourire (A Certain Smile)
- Les merveilleux nuages
- Aimez-vous Brahms? (Goodbye again, USA 1960)
- La chamade
- Les yeux de soie (Silken Eyes)
- Le lit defait (The Unmade Bed)
- Le garde du coeur (The Heart-Keeper)
Plays
- Château en Suède (Château in Sweden) (1960)
Autobiography
- Toxique (1964)
- Des bleus à l'âme (Scars on The Soul) (1972, translated 1974)
- Avec mon meilleur souvenir (With Fondest Regards) (1984, translated 1985)
External Links
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