
Arab discovery of European sociability
DIANA Elvira
The encounter between East and West from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards is considered as one of the historical events that fostered the cultural Arab Renaissance and led to the Arab discovery of European sociability.

Dositej Obradović
LAZAREVIC Persida
Dositej Obradović (1739/41-1811), Serbia’s foremost enlightener, was able to carry out reforms thanks to his circle of friends and the ties he established among Serbs were a direct consequence of his stay in London.

Helen Maria Williams
LEONARD-ROQUES Véronique
‘In every country it is social pleasure that sheds the most delicious flowers which grow on the path of life’ (H.M. Williams, Letters, 1790, 140 ). This British author, who settled in Paris in 1792, contributed greatly to the circulation of ideas between France and England through her intellectual and political circles as well as through her publications. She was a tireless chronicler of social practices and historical events from the Revolution to the Restoration.

Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi
HANSEN Mascha
Often considered a contradictory character herself, Hester Thrale Piozzi, now best remembered as a Bluestocking hostess and biographer of Samuel Johnson, embodies some of the contradictions of eighteenth-century sociable lives.