Sagan was born in Cajarc and spent her early childhood in Cajarc, surrounded by animals, a passion that stayed with her throughout her life. Nicknamed 'Kiki', she was the youngest child of bourgeois parents – her father a company director, and her mother the daughter of landowners. Her family spent the war in the Dauphiné, then in the Vercors. Her paternal great-grandmother was Russian from Saint Petersburg.
Françoise Sagan educated at private and convent schools in France and Switzerland, Sagan attended the Sorbonne. She was an indifferent student, and did not graduate.
The pseudonym "Sagan" was taken from a character ("Princesse de Sagan") in Marcel Proust's "À la recherche du temps perdu" (In Search of Lost Time). Sagan's first novel, "Bonjour Tristesse" (Hello Sadness), was published in 1954, when she was 18 years old. It was an immediate international success. The novel concerns the life of a pleasure-driven 17-year-old named Cécile and her relationship with her boyfriend and her adulterous, playboy father.
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 frequently, middle-aged women and their young lovers. Her plays, which resemble her novels in content, were generally well received. They include Château en Suède (1960; Castle in Sweden) and L’Excès contraire (1987; Opposite Extremes). She also wrote film scripts, short stories, and nonfiction.
Novels
Bonjour tristesse (1954, (Hello Sadness), translated 1955)
Un certain sourire (1955, A Certain Smile, translated 1956)
Dans un mois, dans un an (1957, Those Without Shadows, translated 1957)
Aimez-vous Brahms? (1959, translated 1960)
Les merveilleux nuages (1961, Wonderful Clouds, translated 1961)
La chamade (1965, translated 1966 as La Chamade; newly translated 2009 as That Mad Ache)
Le garde du cœur (1968, The Heart-Keeper, translated 1968)
Un peu de soleil dans l'eau froide (1969, Sunlight on Cold Water, translated 1971)
Des bleus à l'âme (1972, Scars on the Soul, translated 1974)
Un profil perdu (1974, Lost Profile, translated 1976)
Le lit défait (1977, The Unmade Bed, translated 1978)
Le chien couchant (1980, translated 1984)
La femme fardée (1981, The Painted Lady, translated 1983)
Un orage immobile (1983, The Still Storm, translated 1984)
De guerre lasse (1985, Engagements of the Heart, translated 1987)
Un sang d'aquarelle (1987, Painting in Blood, translated 1991)
La laisse (1989, The Leash, translated 1991)
Les faux-fuyants (1991, Evasion, translated 1993)
Un chagrin de passage (1994, A Fleeting Sorrow, translated 1995)
Le miroir égaré (1996)
[edit] Short story collections
Les yeux de soie (1975, Silken Eyes, translated 1977)
Musiques de scène (1981, Incidental Music, translated 1983)
La maison de Raquel Vega (1985)
[edit] Plays
Château en Suède (Château in Sweden) (1960)
Les violons parfois (1961)
La robe mauve de Valentine (1963)
Bonheur, impair et passe (1964)
L'écharde (1966)
Le cheval évanoui (1966)
Un piano dans l'herbe (1970)
Il fait beau jour et nuit (1978)
L'excès contraire (1987)
Biographical works
Brigitte Bardot (1975)
Sarah Bernhardt, ou le rire incassable (1987, Dear Sarah Bernhardt, translated 1988)
Quotations:
"To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter."
When asked if she believed in love: "Are you joking? I believe in passion. Nothing else. Two years, no more. All right, then: three.”
"A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you."
"I have loved to the point of madness, that which is called madness, that which to me is the only sensible way to love."
On 13 March 1958, she married her first husband, Guy Schoeller, an editor with Hachette, who was 20 years older than Sagan. The couple divorced in June, 1960.
In 1962, she married Bob Westhof, a young American playboy and would-be ceramicist. The couple divorced in 1963; their son Denis was born in June 1963
