Françoise Sagan  Françoise Sagan, pseudonym of Françoise
Quoirez   (born June 21, 1935, Carjac, France—died September 24,
2004Honfleur), French novelist and dramatist who wrote her first
and best-known novel, the international best-seller Bonjour
Tristesse (1954), when she was 19 years old.  Educated at
private and convent schools in France and Switzerland, Sagan
attended the Sorbonne. She wrote the manuscript of Bonjour
Tristesse in three weeks; it was made into a film in 1958. Among
the novels that followed Bonjour Tristesse are Un Certain
Sourire (1956; A Certain Smile), Aimez-vous Brahms? (1959), Les
Merveilleux Nuages (1961; Wonderful Clouds), Un Profil perdu
(1974; Lost Profile), De guerre lasse (1985; Engagements of the
Heart, or A Reluctant Hero), and Un Sang d’aquarelle (1987;
Painting in Blood). Most of Sagan’s novels feature aimless
people who are involved in tangled, often amoral relationships.
Almost all her protagonists are young women involved sexually
with older, world-weary men or, less frequ