Art et Littérature

Portrait of Giacomo Casanova

Giacomo Casanova

STEFANOVSKA Malina
Casanova’s sociability was the result of his personality, and his life, most of which – at least the part recounted – was spent as a wanderer throughout Europe, an adventurer seeking fortune. Casanova made his living by such varied means as organizing a royal lottery, gambling, and at times acting as a confidence man.
Helen Maria Williams

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

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.
Horace Walpole (and the English garden)

Horace Walpole (and the English garden)

LE PAPE Isabelle
Par la richesse de ses relations sociales dont on connaît les retentissements grâce aux correspondances échangées avec ses compatriotes et des personnalités françaises influentes, comme Madame Du Deffand, Horace Walpole contribua largement à la diffusion du modèle du jardin anglais en France durant la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle.
James Boswell

James Boswell

INGRAM Allan
After a restricted childhood, Boswell as a young man broke out to become a hard-drinking womaniser and dedicated socialiser. He also devoted considerable time to seeking out the company of great men, not least the famous Samuel Johnson.
Jane Austen

Jane Austen

DILLE Catherine

As a novelist of manners and an acute observer of human interactions, Jane Austen analysed the implications of late Georgian and Regency sociability with regard to gender and social rank. Critiquing earlier notions of polite sociability, her fictions recognise new sites of provincial recreation and explore the intersection between sociability and courtship while also probing sociability’s power to unify communities.