Maria Ménégaki
Arthur de Gobineau, French diplomat, sculptor and writer, was one of the most talented letter writers of the 19th century. He left us a rich correspondence with personalities from all over Europe, distinguished in literature and the arts. From this ocean of letters, sent from all the places where the hazards of his career took him, stands out a series of 290 missives addressed to two Athenian women belonging to a family that has played an important role in the political and cultural life of Greece since its constitution as a free state until today. These letters are a vivid and direct testimony of the very important events, which marked the history of both countries. They reveal, moreover, an unpublished aspect of the author of the Essay on the inequality of human races, often accused of racism. We discover a feminist before the letter: he advocates the education of girls and declares without ambiguity that women have exactly the same qualities as men; only women of value interest him, while he constantly stimulates his friends to cultivate their talents, because, in his eyes, work and creation give life its true meaning.
