User:Jeandebeaumont

I have for some time been impressed by the wealth of useful information available at Wikipedia, which I often consult and use for various purposes. Now that I have started to make some editorial contributions here and there, I would like to thank the knowledgeable editors and users, whom I have met at the discussion pages since early March 2008, for their guidance and information and for their tolerance with my initial amateur formatting and bibliographical references.

My areas of interest include cultural personalities of the 19th century - notably Fryderyk Chopin, Jenny Lind and Oscar Wilde, but also Napoleon and his roots in the Age of Enlightenment. It is interesting to experience how a study of their lives and accomplisments leads to other fascinating but sometimes lesser known persons - for example, from Alexis de Tocqueville and his friend Nassau W. Senior to the influencial but now largely forgotten patrons of the Paris salons of La Belle Époque.

I should add, I also spend some time on writing letters to the editor on political and societal issues of today (e.g. the identity of Europe, transatlantic relations, and infectious diseases), on which the 19th century often provides a benchmark.

Oscar Wilde has taught me a lesson: "The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it" (The Critic As Artist).

Jean de Beaumont, 25 March 2008