Bonjour Tristesse

The narrator (Cécile) grapples with a feeling akin to “sadness.” She’s always been fascinated by the emotion, though she now recognizes the emotion’s underlying “egoism.” Cécile’s story takes place the summer she is 17. Her father, Raymond, has been a widower for 15 years. At 40, he is a youthful and attractive man who has no trouble attracting women’s attention. Cécile remembers returning from boarding school two years before and noticing that her father was living with a woman. Gradually, she understands that it’s a new woman every several months. Reflecting on her father’s character, Cécile describes Raymond as affectionate and loveable. She understands his appeal as a friend, too. 

At the beginning of that summer, Raymond asks Cécile if she’d be fine with Elsa, the woman he’s presently seeing, accompanying them on holiday to the villa on the Mediterranean that Raymond has rented. Elsa is a beautiful young woman who is “rather simple-minded, and unpretentious.” Cécile has been really looking forward to traveling with her father, and she doesn’t think Elsa will really get in the way of anything, so she agrees to let Elsa come along.

The first days at the villa are great. They spend their days at the beach, and Cécile luxuriates in the idleness of summer. Cécile and her father tan well, but pale, red-headed Elsa gets a horrible sunburn. On the sixth day there, Cécile spots Cyril, a “tall and almost beautiful” young law student. Usually, Cécile avoids university students, who she finds rather immature and self-absorbed; she prefers the company of her father’s friends, who are older and treat her with gentle kindness. But Cyril is different.

That night, Cécile is too distracted with daydreams of Cyril that she doesn’t notice how nervous her father is. After dinner, Cécile, her father, and Elsa are lounging on the terrace after dinner, when her father cautiously announces that someone is coming to stay with them: Anne Larsen. Cécile is shocked. Anne Larsen, a fashion designer, was a friend of Cécile’s mother. Anne—a beautiful and quiet woman of 42—taught Cécile how to dress and how to socialize. She even set Cécile up with her first boyfriend. Cécile recalls now with some embarrassment how much she idolized Anne and her demure sophistication. Anne was so different from her father’s friends, attractive but frivolous people whom her father keeps around for their beauty and their love of a good time.   

After Elsa goes up to bed, Cécile confronts her father about Anne’s visit. Why did he invite Anne—and why would Anne accept? Anne is a confident woman who values intellect and seriousness—Raymond just isn’t the type of man she’d be interested in. And besides, what will Anne and Elsa have to talk about? Cécile’s father laughs off his daughter’s seriousness and rubs her back comfortingly. He says he doesn’t know why Anne accepted—perhaps she just wants to see him. Cécile’s father’s affection disarms her, and she starts to laugh alongside him.

Cécile and Raymond stay up late that night talking about love. Raymond disdains fidelity and has a freer approach to love. Coming from anyone else, the notion would shock Cécile, but she knows her father is a caring and affection man, and the idea isn’t so scandalous coming from him. And besides, at her age, Cécile can’t really understand the appeal of fidelity herself. And she doesn’t know much about love.