Bonjour Tristesse

In Uncategorized on April 9, 2010 at 7:02 pm

I don’t think I’ve read a French book in 20 years. I didn’t read Bonjour Tristesse, by Françoise Sagan; I listened to it in audio book format. It was read by none other than Catherine Deneuve and I’m guessing that the recording I listened to was more than 20 years old because Deneuve’s voice sounded very young and.. well, she’s not that young anymore.

I kept thinking that it was quite impressive for a 17-18 year old Françoise Sagan to write such a gem. I was also struck by the use of the passé simple since it is a past tense essentially used in formal writing. Try it with an irregular verb like “aller”.

Nous allâmes ?
Vous allâtes ?

I wonder if it struck me as so odd because I listened to it. Perhaps I would not even have noticed if I had been reading it. And I have no interest in watching the movie version. It could only be a disappointment.