ABSTRACT
During the eleven years spent in England, Ugo Foscolo's thorough immersion in the British cultural milieu was instrumental to his acquisition of the status both of iconic figure in the cultural community of European expatriates in London and of its most prominent Italian intellectual and scholar. Although the critical analysis of specific aspects of Foscolo's poetry and prose often touches upon his connections with late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European culture, since the publication of Eugenio Donadoni's work on the relationship between Foscolo and European writers and thinkers there has been no other comprehensive attempt in this direction. A few indications of Foscolo's first-hand knowledge of English writers can be deduced from a series of letters written during the years 1801-03, at the time of his tempestuous love affair with Antonietta Fagnani Arese. Foscolo, however, is not always partial to the literary, cultural, and political manifestations of the English world.
