Sagan passed away in severe debt in 2004 at age 69 in a Honfleur hospital.

In addition to winning the Prix des Critiques in 1954 for Bonjour Tristesse, she was awarded the Prix de Monaco 30 years later for her entire body of work. But no one could deny her innate talent for tracing the emotional landscape of the era’s French youth through her work, and for this, she was appropriately recognized. Throughout her publishing career, Sagan ran in glamorous circles, and many criticized her distinctly hedonistic lifestyle and occasionally reckless relationship to her wealth – not to mention her penchant for driving sports cars. More novels featuring similarly young, female protagonists soon followed, including Un Certain Sourire (1956 A Certain Smile), Aimez-vous Brahms? (1959), and Les Merveilleux Nuages (1961 Wonderful Clouds) – along with film scripts, short stories, and plays – but none ever quite matched the critical frenzy that surrounded her first. The fact that Sagan explicitly wrote it sans pseudonym sent a strong message to readers prone to sexist assumptions: unlike earlier authors, from Louisa May Alcott to Charlotte Brontë, Sagan had no qualms about publishing her work without the veil of a masculine pen name. Some critics even speculated that an older, most likely male, author working under a pseudonym must have penned a book as intuitive and polished as hers. Of course, the underlying subtext had to do with the author’s own age and gender. As is the case with most women who rebuke societal rules through their art, Sagan’s book touched a cultural nerve, sparking heated disputes as to whether it was proper for her protagonist – a 17-year-old girl – to speak freely about her sexuality and to engage in open discussions of decidedly ‘adult’ matters.

Francoise sagan novel