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New York Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Literary ‘It' Girl Who Continues to Fascinate
'Childhood is an image, which we decorate,' Françoise Sagan wrote in her autobiography, 'Réponses.' Ms. Sagan, born Françoise Delphine Quoirez, was only 18 when her first novel, 'Bonjour Tristesse,' published in 1954, caused a sensation across the globe. But she was not just a literary wunderkind: The teenage author became an object of worldwide press fascination (Pope Paul VI denounced the novel as 'an example of irreligosity'), and the caricature of those years would haunt her. From the get-go, many recognized Ms. Sagan as a genuine talent, with critics likening her to the fellow literary enfant terrible Colette. In Le Figaro, the French novelist François Mauriac called her a 'charming monster,' but conceded that 'talent bursts on the first page. This book has all the ease, all the audacity of youth without having the slightest vulgarity.' The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre deemed her the real thing, and 'Bonjour Tristesse' went on to win the Prix des Critiques in 1954. While the author's own life encompassed the full spectrum of adult tragedies and pleasures — as well as 20 books — in the popular American imagination, her image seems curiously bound up with youth: 'it' girl; French girl. Today, we might add 'nepo baby' because of her parents' social connections — her father was a prosperous industrialist, her mother from an old landowning family. Naturally, this reputation conferred skepticism. (The fact that by age 21 her father had managed her earnings into a tidy fortune could not have helped.) There were those who were not shocked, yet unimpressed by what they regarded as a pampered daughter of the bourgeoisie, with middling talent and a great publicist. (This paper dismissed Ms. Sagan, calling 'Bonjour Tristesse' an 'immature little novel, mainly a catalogue of moods experienced under the strain of a father-complex by a fairly precocious French girl.' ) 'My feeling is that she represents something important in the French literary and cultural imagination,' said the novelist Tash Aw. 'There's also something about the setting of 'Bonjour Tristesse' that is so quintessentially French that it stays in the popular imagination even if people have never read the book.' The book is the story of a teenage girl and one eventful summer in the south of France, a coming-of-age novel that combines cleareyed insight with a vivid evocation of youth. The mixture of the well-educated bourgeois schoolgirl — Ms. Sagan took her pen name from Proust and her debut's title from Paul Valery — and frank discussion of adultery proved a potent combination. In a rapidly changing France, readers thrilled to a novel that expressed the ambivalence of generational shift; the rest of the world, long obsessed with a dynamic stereotype of French sophistication, was equally entranced by this prototypical, modern, politically engaged French girl. First adapted for the screen by Otto Preminger in 1958, the film starred David Niven and Jean Seberg, forever conflating the author in the public imagination with the artless allure — and iconic haircut — of Ms. Seberg. A new adaptation was released this month, helmed by Durga Chew-Bose in her directorial debut — with the blessing of the author's son, Denis. 'Some people told us we were adapting their national anthem,' Ms. Chew-Bose said. Throughout her career, Ms. Sagan was defiant, facing interviewers with a brittle sophistication. 'All my life, I will continue obstinately to write about love, solitude and passion among the kind of people I know,' she told an interviewer for The Transatlantic Review. 'The rest don't interest me.' These kinds of people would come to include louche luminaries like Truman Capote and Ava Gardner. Indeed, to her critics, the spigot of novels, plays, memoir, pop song lyrics and screenplays may have had more than a whiff of the dilettantish. 'I think that feeling of being very young and utterly world-weary is both a recipe for chic and, to use a word I hate, relatable,' said the writer and translator Leslie Cahmi. 'Of feeling one's way blindly and realizing that the adults are just as lost as you are. Sagan's postwar French prosperity is haunted by a faint perfume of existentialist desperation.' Ms. Sagan certainly seemed to capture something: the jaded French bourgeoisie, in love, surrounded by interiors and style. Her books paint a vivid picture of a milieu she knew intimately. And in a world before autofiction, her best writing had tight and disciplined plotting. 'Nothing is more unreal than certain so-called realist novels — they're nightmares,' she told The Paris Review. To the author Claire Messud, 'Bonjour Tristesse' — and the furor surrounding its young author — spoke to larger cultural tendencies: 'French culture's intense desire, tendency (at that time at least, in the '50s) to celebrate adolescent female brilliance, however briefly.' Car crashes, youthful divorces from playboys, multiple affairs of variable happiness and substance abuse took their toll. Ms. Sagan was, the critic Bertrand Poirot-Delpech commented with relish, 'a bird fallen from the nest on which modern cannibalism cut its teeth and won't give up.' She found contentment and stability with the fashion stylist Peggy Roche, but after Ms. Roche's death she once again struggled with substance abuse; she died at 69 from a pulmonary embolism. But somehow the timelessness of 'Bonjour Tristesse' — and perhaps, the legend of its author — endures, urgent and relevant. As Ms. Chew-Bose put it, 'I think any story told from the pod of a young woman trying to sort through the turmoil of coming-of-age will always feel modern to me.'
Hans India
10-05-2025
- Health
- Hans India
Happiest Health Hosts Second Edition of ‘Happiest Her' Summit in Bengaluru
Bengaluru: Health and wellness platform Happiest Health successfully concluded the second edition of its flagship women's wellness summit, Happiest Her 2025, on Saturday at Pope Paul VI Auditorium, St. John's Campus, Bengaluru. The event brought together over 250 participants, including healthcare professionals, fitness experts, and mental health advocates, to spotlight the health and well-being of working women in India. The summit was inaugurated by Davis Karedan, Co-Chairman of Happiest Health, alongside NIMHANS Director Dr. Pratima Murthy, and Co-CEOs Raghu Krishnan and Ravi Joshi. Dr. Murthy, in her keynote address on "Empowering Young Working Women", stressed the role of lifestyle choices in shaping long-term health. "Genes load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger," she remarked, underlining the importance of exercise and balanced nutrition in preventing chronic diseases. A panel on Metabolism and Poor Lifestyle Choices featured leading voices in women's health, including gynaecologist Dr. Vidya V Bhat, psychologist Dr. Paras Sharma, and athlete-entrepreneur Saraswathi Anand. Anand spoke of her journey from a busy professional and mother to an international powerlifting champion, urging women to find time for fitness despite packed schedules. Nutritionist Ryan Fernando, founder of Qua Nutrition, conducted a high-energy session on common diet mistakes, advising women to focus on building muscle. 'Muscle is the hero in your body,' he said, calling for a systematic investment in strength training for lifelong health. The summit, through its expert-led discussions, highlighted challenges such as PCOS, stress, and metabolic disorders, while offering practical pathways to better health. As part of its ongoing efforts, Happiest Health announced that its current magazine issue focuses on strength training, and its diagnostics wing is now offering a gut microbiome test across India.
Telegraph
08-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Let us heed the call of the new Pope for ever greater unity
Pope Leo, the first ever American Pope, began his ministry by laying before the world a vision of peace and explaining how humanity needs the good things and the peace that God gives us in Jesus Christ: and also calling for unity; unity within and between the churches, in our world and with all people of goodwill. Announced at the same time as we were celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, this call for peace and unity is as timely as it urgent. It is a vision that all of us can unite around and I hope and pray not just for God's blessing upon Pope Leo's ministry as Bishop of Rome, but that he may by kindness, witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and generous prophetic gesture continue the journey towards that unity that Jesus desires for his church in the way of his most recent predecessors. What a gift that would be! A gift, well chosen and well timed, can bring any of us to tears. Such gifts can be rare, but we value them all the more for it. Today, as we mark the election of Pope Leo XIV, I have also been thinking about one particular gift, given by Pope Paul VI to Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, back in 1966. Ramsey was in Rome for the first official meeting between a Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury in more than 400 years. They led an ecumenical service together, they signed a Common Declaration, expressing desire for Christian unity and dialogue – but what brought Ramsey to tears was something he had never expected. The Pope took his hand, and placed on it his own episcopal ring, in effect recognising him as a fellow member of the episcopate. Ramsey wept, and they embraced, brothers in Christ. Never caught on camera, this was one of the most quietly consequential moments in ecumenical history. And it came not in the form of words, but gesture. Gestures, symbols, can often say more than words could ever hope to – the late Pope showed us, through his 'pequeños gestos', that small gestures can carry great meaning – and this particular gift began a long process of rapprochement that has lasted, and flourished, to this day. Gesture has remained at the heart of its success. In 2016, the 50th anniversary of this meeting was commemorated in Rome. Pope Francis gave Justin Welby a crozier, modelled on the crozier of St Gregory the Great, the Pope who sent Augustine to be the Apostle to the English, and first Archbishop of Canterbury. Evoking our common origin and shared history, it was a gift that helped weave the threads of our stories back together. The archbishop gave Pope Francis a Coventry Cross of Nails, a symbol of reconciliation between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, after centuries of division and conflict. He did so wearing Pope Paul's ring, as Archbishops of Canterbury now do whenever they meet the Pope. And together, on the spot where Pope Gregory sent Augustine out to the English, they sent out pairs of Anglican and Catholic bishops to minister alongside each other across the world – a demonstration of how the Church can act as one in God's service. It is in gestures like these that the path to unity lies. Though we have undoubted divisions and disagreements, these gestures demonstrate that they are not insurmountable. They allow us to show our intentions to one another, bare our heart to one another, and to recognise that, despite our differences, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. For ecumenism is not something we simply talk about – it is something we show, something we do. As the late Pope said to me when we met, it is about working together, walking together, and praying together. And so we welcome Pope Leo XIV as our brother in Christ. We hope that this relationship may continue to flourish over his pontificate, and that we may continue to work, walk, and pray together, and find our way along the path to unity. As the Pope reminded us yesterday, we must build bridges, show the light of Jesus Christ, live in his peace and share the good news of his love with all people. We hold out our hand to Pope Leo in a gesture of friendship, and echo the words of his predecessor: 'Let us never grow tired of asking the Lord, together and insistently, for the gift of unity'.
Sky News
08-05-2025
- General
- Sky News
Conclave live: Black smoke signals no new pope yet; the seven cardinals most discussed last night
What's in a pope's name? Much of the world probably hasn't heard of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio - you knew him as Pope Francis. Newly elected popes choose a papal name after their election - and the Argentinian took the name of the 13th-century St Francis of Assisi. This was a man who had rejected wealth and wanted to care for the poor, so choosing his name was no coincidence. Francis's successor will face a similar question: what name will he choose and what signal could it send? John John is the most common name chosen by past popes. It is also a name Francis often suggested for his successor. It would evoke Pope John XXIII (who led the church from 1958 to 1963), a man often referred to as "the good pope". John helped work behind the scenes to de-escalate the Cuban Missile Crisis among his work as the pontiff. Paul The name Paul could honour Pope Paul VI (pontiff from 1963 to 1978). He is generally seen as a more cautious figure and a careful consolidator. Some cardinals say, quietly, that after Francis, a new Pope Paul is what is needed. A Gregory, Clement, Benedict or Pius? Other names previous pontiffs have landed on include Gregory, Clement, Leo and Pius. There is also Benedict, Francis's conservative predecessor. Or a new pope could even decide to be called Francis II, which would be taken as a clear signal of the continuation of the late pope's agenda. Cardinal Albino Luciani, elected pope in 1978, decided he could not pick just one name. He chose John Paul, to honour both of his immediate predecessors. However, he died 33 days later. The next pope, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, chose John Paul II, honouring all three of the popes before him.
Reuters
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
What's in a papal name? An agenda for the Catholic Church
VATICAN CITY, May 6 (Reuters) - When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica after the conclave of March 2013, few outside his native Argentina knew who he was or what kind of pope he might be. When his papal name was announced, things became much clearer. here. Taking the name of the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi, Bergoglio laid out a plan for his papacy. St. Francis had rejected wealth and wanted to care for the poor. He had taken care of animals and the environment and appealed movingly against the wars of his time. These traits would become key themes of the 12-year papacy of Pope Francis. With 133 Catholic cardinals due to start their conclave on Wednesday to elect Francis' successor, the world awaits the moment when the new pontiff emerges onto that balcony. What name will be announced? What signal will it send? John, the most common name chosen by past popes and a name Francis often suggested as one for his successor, would evoke a major figure of the 1960s. Pope John XXIII (1958 to 1963) was known as a gregarious, smiling man, often referred to as "The Good Pope". He helped work behind the scenes to de-escalate the Cuban Missile Crisis and called the Second Vatican Council, a three-year assembly of the world's Catholic bishops that led to major reforms for the global institution. Choosing the name Paul could honour Pope Paul VI (1963 to 1978), who came after John XXIII and was widely seen as a more cautious figure. He is generally seen as a careful consolidator, who firmed up some of John's reforms but also gave clear doctrinal answers. Paul VI, for instance, was the author of a 1968 letter that broadly banned Catholics from using birth control. Some cardinals say quietly that after Pope Francis, a new Pope Paul is exactly what is needed. Francis, the first pope from the Americas, was not always focused on clear doctrine and even made controversial decisions like allowing priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis. ANOTHER DOUBLE PAPAL NAME? Other popular papal names have included Gregory, Clement, Leo and Pius. There is also Benedict, which could honour Francis' conservative predecessor, Benedict XVI. Or it could honour Benedict XV (1914 to 1922), who spent his papacy pleading with European leaders to end the bloodshed of World War One. A new pope could decide to be called Francis II, which would be taken as a clear signal that the new pontiff planned to continue with a similar agenda to the late pope. Cardinal Albino Luciani, elected pope in 1978, decided he could not pick just one name. He chose John Paul, to honour both of his immediate predecessors. When Luciani died only 33 days later, the next pope, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, chose John Paul II (1978-2005), honouring all three most recent popes. The new pope could also choose a double name. Something like John Francis would evoke the reforms of the 1960s and the global attraction of Francis, whose funeral and burial procession brought out crowds in Rome of some 400,000.
