ow retired, Gilbert Bonifas was Professor of English History and Civilization at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (now Université-Côte d’Azur). He has published George Orwell: l’engagement (1984) and has written several articles on Orwell and his time. With Martine Monacelli he has coauthored Pouvoir, classes et nation en Grande-Bretagne au XIXe siècle (1993) and Victorian and Edwardian England: Debates on Political and Social Issues (1994). Also in collaboration with Martine Monacelli, he has selected, edited and commented the French socialist Louis Blanc’s letters on England: Louis Blanc: Lettres d’Angleterre, 1861-1865 (2001). After that he mostly researched ultra- and radical Tory thought in the nineteenth century, writing articles on John Wilson Croker, Richard Oastler and the great Conservative periodicals.
A selection of Professor Bonifas's publications.
By reason of his initial interest, a considerable part of his teaching, research and book-reviewing has been devoted to the English utopia (and dystopia), and in particular to the thought of William Morris.
The location of the University of Nice as well as his own family origins led him to take an interest in the influence of the Mediterranean South on the imagination of British travellers and writers. In addition to a number of public lectures, he has organized two conferences on the subject, prefaced and edited their proceedings: "L’ Appel du Sud" (1991) and "Southern Horrors. Northern Visions of the Mediterranean World" (2013).
Created 9 June 2023