Sex is not absent from Aimez-vous Brahms…. But although the love affairs in which its characters are involved lie at the very heart of the book, one can hardly construe their lovemaking as hedonistic frolic…. [It] is clear that Françoise Sagan, unlike a Roger Vailland, has never been interested in the erotic schemes of sexual play: what love, or lovemaking, represents in her books is the cravings and despairs of the human heart. In Brahms as in the earlier novels, but more clearly than ever before, we see that love (whether it be sentimental or sensual, and the two are not always distinguishable) is nothing but a tentative answer to human solitude, an abortive, hopeless attempt that never quite fulfills its promises and that will ultimately bring pain and distress…. [In] the case of Brahms' heroine, one can hardly fail to see that the whole book revolves...