Bibliofemme News
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25/09/2004
French literary icon Sagan dies
Best-selling French novelist Francoise Sagan has died in the north-western town of Honfleur aged 69.
She died of heart and lung failure a few days after being admitted to a local hospital.
Sagan published her first and best-known work Bonjour Tristesse - an anthem to disillusioned youth - in 1954 at the age of just 18.
She produced more than 40 novels and plays, including A Certain Smile, Incidental Music and The Painted Lady.
She had been ill for several years and was taken to the hospital earlier this week, hospital officials said.
She had been staying in the Normandy town of Honfleur, and passed away with a close friend and her son by her side, a hospital official told French radio.
French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin immediately paid her emotional tributes.
Mr Chirac called Sagan "a leading figure in her generation" who helped raise the status of women in France.
"With her passing, France loses one of its most brilliant and sensitive authors...
"With finesse, emotion and subtlety, Francoise Sagan explored the spirit and passions of the human heart," he said in a statement issued by his office.
Mr Raffarin called Sagan "a smile - one that was melancholy, enigmatic, distant, and yet joyous".
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