Sabine Bonnet-Melchior: ‘Loneliness offers a useful break’ The historian shows how, over the centuries, this form of isolation, once feared, has become an instrument for reconquering oneself. There is forced solitude (mourning, divorce, celibacy, etc.), chosen solitude (contemplative life, need for freedom, introspection, etc.) and, now, sad solitude, resulting from the false sociability of social networks.
‘With Covid and libraries closed, I found myself alone with my books!’