Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime,
being more renowned than both
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
and
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...
in England in the 1830s and 1840s,
Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era, with more than 70 novels to her credit and 50 volumes of various works including
novels
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...
, tales, plays and political texts.
Like her great-grandmother,
Louise Dupin, whom she admired, George Sand stood up for women, advocated passion, castigated marriage and fought against the prejudices of a conservative society.
Personal life
Childhood
Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, the future George Sand, was born on 1 July 1804 in Paris on Meslay Street to Maurice Dupin de Francueil and Sophie-Victoire Delaborde. She was the paternal great-granddaughter of the Marshal of France
Maurice de Saxe
Maurice, Count of Saxony (german: Hermann Moritz von Sachsen, french: Maurice de Saxe; 28 October 1696 – 20 November 1750) was a notable soldier, officer and a famed military commander of the 18th century. The illegitimate son of Augustus I ...
(1696-1750), and on her mother's side, her grandfather was Antoine Delaborde, master paulmier and master birder. She was raised for much of her childhood by her grandmother
Marie-Aurore de Saxe
Marie-Aurore de Saxe (20 September 1748 – 26 December 1821), known after her first marriage as Countess of Horn and after the second as Madame Dupin de Francueil, was an illegitimate daughter of Marshal Maurice de Saxe and a grandmother of George ...
, Madame Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin de Francueil, at her
grandmother's house
Grandfather's House, also known as the Paul Curtis House, is a historic house in Medford, Massachusetts. It is claimed to be the original house named in the American poem "Over the River and through the Wood" by Lydia Maria Child. (Although ma ...
in the village of
Nohant
Nohant-Vic () is a commune in the Indre department in central France.
It is located near La Châtre, on the D943, approximately southeast of Châteauroux and consists of two villages, Vic and Nohant, extended along the road.
Geography
The com ...
, in the French province of
Berry
A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...
. Sand inherited the house in 1821 when her grandmother died, and used the setting in many of her novels.
Gender expression
![The strange story book color plate facing page 166](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/The_strange_story_book_color_plate_facing_page_166.jpg)
Sand was one of many notable 19th-century women who chose to wear male attire in public. In 1800, the police issued an order requiring women to apply for a permit in order to wear male clothing. Some women applied for health, occupational, or recreational reasons (e.g., horseback riding), but many women chose to wear pants and other traditional male attire in public without receiving a permit.
Sand was one of those women who wore men's clothing without a permit, justifying it as being less expensive and far sturdier than the typical dress of a noblewoman at the time. In addition to being comfortable, Sand's male attire enabled her to circulate more freely in Paris than most of her female contemporaries and gave her increased access to venues that barred women, even those of her social standing. Also scandalous was Sand's smoking tobacco in public; neither peerage nor gentry had yet sanctioned the free indulgence of women in such a habit, especially in public, although
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
's paramour
Marie d'Agoult
Marie Cathérine Sophie, Comtesse d'Agoult (née de Flavigny; 31 December 18055 March 1876), was a Franco-German romantic author and historian, known also by her pen name, Daniel Stern.
Life
Marie was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with th ...
affected this as well, smoking large cigars.
While some contemporaries were critical of her comportment, many people accepted her behaviour—until they became shocked with the subversive tone of her novels.
Those who found her writing admirable were not bothered by her ambiguous or rebellious public behaviour.
Victor Hugo commented, "George Sand cannot determine whether she is male or female. I entertain a high regard for all my colleagues, but it is not my place to decide whether she is my sister or my brother."
In 1831, at the age of twenty-seven, she chose her pseudonym George Sand, a feminine of the first name Georges unknown until then, and added "Sand", a diminutive of "Sandeau", the name of Jules, her lover at the time. This decision came from a desire to sow confusion about her identity and thus increase her chances of being published in a then resolutely male publishing world.
Notable relationships
![George Sand by Nadar, 1864](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/George_Sand_by_Nadar%2C_1864.jpg)
In 1822, at the age of eighteen, Sand married
(François) Casimir Dudevant, an out-of-wedlock son of Baron Jean-François Dudevant. She and Dudevant had two children:
Maurice Maurice may refer to:
People
* Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr
* Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor
*Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and ...
and
Solange
Solange (died 10 May, c. 880) was a Frankish shepherdess and a locally venerated Christian saint and cephalophore, whose cult is restricted to Sainte-Solange, Cher. Saint Solange was the patron of the traditional Province of Berry, of which C ...
(1828–1899). In 1825, she had an intense but perhaps platonic affair with the young lawyer
Aurélien de Sèze
Jean-Pierre Aurélien de Sèze (11 September 1799 – 23 January 1870) was a French lawyer who represented Gironde in the National Assembly during the French Second Republic.
As a young man he had an intense but platonic affair with the future nov ...
.
In early 1831, she left her husband and entered upon a four- or five-year period of "romantic rebellion". In 1835, she was legally separated from Dudevant and took custody of their children.
Sand had romantic affairs with the novelist
Jules Sandeau
Léonard Sylvain Julien (Jules) Sandeau (; 19 February 1811 – 24 April 1883) was a French novelist.
Early life
Sandeau was born at Aubusson (Creuse), and was sent to Paris to study law, but spent much of his time in unruly behaviour with oth ...
(1831), the writer
Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...
, the dramatist
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...
(summer 1833 – March 1835), Louis-Chrysostome Michel, the actor
Pierre-François Bocage, the writer
Charles Didier
Charles Didier (15 September 1805 – 7 March 1864) was a Swiss writer, poet and traveller.
Charles Didier followed classic studies in Geneva, where he published two collections of poems, ''La Harpe helvétique'' (1825) and ''Mélodies helvétiqu ...
, the novelist
Félicien Mallefille
Jean Pierre Félicien Mallefille (May 3, 1813 – November 24, 1868) was a French novelist and playwright.
Mallefille was born in Mauritius. He wrote a number of plays, including ''Glenarvon'' (1835), ''Les sept enfants de Lara'' (1836), ''Le cœ ...
, the politician
Louis Blanc
Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc (; ; 29 October 1811 – 6 December 1882) was a French politician and historian. A socialist who favored reforms, he called for the creation of cooperatives in order to guarantee employment for the urban poor. Alth ...
, and the composer
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...
(1837–1847). Later in her life,
she corresponded with
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...
, and despite their differences in temperament and aesthetic preference, they eventually became close friends.
Sand also engaged in an intimate romantic relationship with actress
Marie Dorval
Marie Dorval (6 January 1798, Lorient, Morbihan – 20 May 1849) was a French actress in the Romantic style.
Early life and first marriage
Marie Thomase Amélie Delauney was born on 6 January 1798 to Marie Bourdais, who was sixteen yea ...
.
The two met in January 1833, after Sand wrote Dorval a letter of appreciation following one of her performances. Sand wrote about Dorval, including many passages where she is described as smitten with Dorval.
Only those who know how differently we were made can realize how utterly I was in thrall to her...God had given her the power to express what she felt...She was beautiful, and she was simple. She had never been taught anything, but there was nothing she did not know by instinct. I can find no words with which to describe how cold and incomplete my own nature is. I can express nothing. There must be a sort of paralysis in my brain which prevents what I feel from ever finding a form through which it can achieve communication...When she appeared upon the stage, with her drooping figure, her listless gait, her sad and penetrating glance...I can say only that it was as though I were looking at an embodied spirit.
Theater critic
Gustave Planche
Jean Baptiste Gustave Planche (16 February 1808 – 18 September 1857) was a French art and literary critic.
Life and career
Already in his time as a medical student, Planche frequented artistic circles. This did nothing to promote the success of ...
reportedly warned Sand to stay away from Dorval. Likewise, Count
Alfred de Vigny
Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (27 March 1797 – 17 September 1863) was a French poet and early French Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare.
Biography
Vigny was born in Loches (a town to which he never re ...
, Dorval's lover from 1831 to 1838, warned the actress to stay away from Sand, whom he referred to as "that damned
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
".
In 1840, Dorval played the lead in a play written by Sand, titled ''Cosima'', and the two women collaborated on the script. However, the play was not well-received, and was cancelled after only seven showings. Sand and Dorval remained close friends for the remainder of Dorval's lifetime.
Relationship with Chopin
Sand spent the winter of 1838–1839 with Chopin in
Mallorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...
at the (formerly abandoned)
Carthusian
The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its ...
monastery of
Valldemossa
Valldemossa is a village and municipality on the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is famous for one landmark: the Royal Charterhouse of Valldemossa, built at the beginning of the 14th cent ...
. The trip to Mallorca was described in her ''Un hiver à Majorque'' (''
A Winter in Majorca
''A Winter in Majorca'' (whose original title in French is ''Un hiver à Majorque'') is an autobiographical travel novel written by George Sand, at the time in a relationship with Frédéric Chopin. Although published in 1842, it appeared for t ...
''), first published in 1841. Chopin
was already ill with incipient tuberculosis at the beginning of their relationship, and spending a cold and wet winter in Mallorca where they could not get proper lodgings exacerbated his symptoms.
Sand and Chopin also spent many long summers at
Sand's country manor in Nohant from 1839 to 1846, skipping only 1840. There, Chopin wrote many of his most famous works, including the
Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49,
Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 58, and the
Ballade No. 3 Op. 47.
![George Sand en Madeleine par Louis Boulanger](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/George_Sand_en_Madeleine_par_Louis_Boulanger.jpg)
In her novel ''Lucrezia Floriani'', Sand is said to have used Chopin as a model for a sickly Eastern European prince named Karol. He is cared for by a middle-aged actress past her prime, Lucrezia, who suffers greatly through her affection for Karol. Though Sand claimed not to have made a cartoon out of Chopin, the book's publication and widespread readership may have exacerbated their later antipathy towards each other. After Chopin's death, Sand burned much of their correspondence, leaving only four surviving letters between the two.
Three of the letters were published in the "Classiques Garnier" series in 1968.
Another breach was caused by Chopin's attitude toward Sand's daughter, Solange. Chopin continued to be cordial to Solange after Solange and her husband
Auguste Clésinger
Jean-Baptiste Auguste Clésinger (22 October 1814 – 5 January 1883) was a 19th-century French sculptor and painter.
Life
Auguste Clésinger was born in Besançon, in the Doubs department of France. His father, Georges-Philippe, was a scu ...
fell out with Sand over money. Sand took Chopin's support of Solange to be extremely disloyal, and confirmation that Chopin had always "loved" Solange.
Sand's son Maurice disliked Chopin. Maurice wanted to establish himself as the "man of the estate" and did not wish to have Chopin as a rival. Maurice removed two sentences from a letter Sand wrote to Chopin when he published it because he felt that Sand was too affectionate toward Chopin and Solange.
Chopin and Sand separated two years before his death for a variety of reasons. Chopin was never asked back to Nohant; in 1848, he returned to Paris from a tour of the United Kingdom, to die at the
Place Vendôme
The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is ...
in 1849. George Sand was notably absent from his funeral.
In December 1849 Maurice invited the
engraver Alexandre Manceau to celebrate Christmas in Nohant. George Sand fell passionately in love with Manceau, he became her lover, companion and secretary and they stayed together for fifteen years until his death.
Last years and death
George Sand had no choice but to write for the theater because of financial difficulties. In Nohant, she even exercised the functions of village doctor, having studied anatomy and herbal remedies with a Doctor Deschartres. But she was not confined to Nohant, and travelled in France, and in particular with her great friend
Charles Robin-Duvernet at the Château du Petit Coudray, or abroad. In 1864, Sand took residence in
Palaiseau
Palaiseau () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Palaiseau is a sub-prefecture of the Essonne department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Palaiseau.
Inhabitants of Palaiseau are ...
together with her beloved Manceau for a couple of months, where she tended him in his decline.
Sand died at Nohant, near Châteauroux, in France's
Indre
Indre (; oc, Endre) is a landlocked department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administ ...
''
département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...
'' on 8 June 1876, at the age of 71. She was buried in the private graveyard behind the chapel at
Nohant-Vic
Nohant-Vic () is a commune in the Indre department in central France.
It is located near La Châtre, on the D943, approximately southeast of Châteauroux and consists of two villages, Vic and Nohant, extended along the road.
Geography
The co ...
. In 2003, plans that her remains be moved to the
Panthéon
The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...
in Paris resulted in controversy.
Career and politics
![George Sand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/George_Sand.jpg)
Sand's first literary efforts were collaborations with the writer
Jules Sandeau
Léonard Sylvain Julien (Jules) Sandeau (; 19 February 1811 – 24 April 1883) was a French novelist.
Early life
Sandeau was born at Aubusson (Creuse), and was sent to Paris to study law, but spent much of his time in unruly behaviour with oth ...
. They published several stories together, signing them Jules Sand. Sand's first published novel ''Rose et Blanche'' (1831) was written in collaboration with Sandeau. She subsequently adopted, for her first independent novel, ''Indiana'' (1832), the pen name that made her famous – George Sand.
By the age of 27, Sand was Europe's most popular writer of either gender,
more popular than both
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
and
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...
in England in the 1830s and 1840s,
and she remained immensely popular as a writer throughout her lifetime and long after her death. Early in her career, her work was in high demand; by 1836, the first of several compendia of her writings was published in 24 volumes.
In total, four separate editions of her "Complete Works" were published during her lifetime. In 1880, her children sold the rights to her literary estate for 125,000 Francs
(equivalent to 36 kg worth of gold, or 1.3 million dollars in 2015 USD).
Drawing from her childhood experiences of the countryside, Sand wrote the pastoral novels ''
La Mare au Diable'' (1846), ''François le Champi'' (1847–1848), ''
La Petite Fadette
''La Petite Fadette'', also published in English under the titles ''Little Fadette. A Domestic Story'' (1849), ''Fadette. A Domestic Story'' (1851) and ''Little Fadette'' (1967), is an 1849 in literature, 1849 novel written by French novelist Geor ...
'' (1849), and ''
Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois-Doré
''Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois-Doré'' is an 1857 French historical novel by George Sand.
History
The work was first published as a serial in ''Le Progrès Illustré'' in 1857, then was revived in volume by A. Cadot in 1858.
The novel tells a s ...
'' (1857). ''A Winter in Majorca'' described the period that she and Chopin spent on that island from 1838 to 1839. Her other novels include ''
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
'' (1832), ''Lélia'' (1833), ''
Mauprat'' (1837), ''Le Compagnon du Tour de France'' (1840), ''
Consuelo'' (1842–1843), and ''Le Meunier d'Angibault'' (1845).
Theatre pieces and autobiographical pieces include ''Histoire de ma vie'' (1855), ''Elle et Lui'' (1859, about her affair with Musset), ''Journal Intime'' (posthumously published in 1926), and ''Correspondence''. Sand often performed her theatrical works in her small private theatre at the Nohant estate.
Political views
Sand also wrote
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
and political texts. In her early life, she sided with the poor and working class as well as championing
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
. When the
1848 Revolution began, she was an ardent republican. Sand started her own newspaper, published in a workers' co-operative.
Politically, she became very active after 1841 and the leaders of the day often consulted with her and took her advice. She was a member of the provisional government of 1848, issuing a series of fiery manifestos. While many Republicans were imprisoned or went to exile after Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte's coup d’état of December 1851, she remained in France, maintained an ambiguous relationship with the new regime, and negotiated pardons and reduced sentences for her friends.
Sand was known for her implication and writings during the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
of 1871, where she took a position for the Versailles assembly against the
communards
The Communards () were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.
After the suppression of the Commune by the French Army in May 1871, 43,000 Communards ...
, urging them to take violent action against the rebels. She was appalled by the violence of the Paris Commune, writing, "The horrible adventure continues. They ransom, they threaten, they arrest, they judge. They have taken over all the city halls, all the public establishments, they’re pillaging the munitions and the food supplies."
Criticism
Sand's writing was immensely popular during her lifetime and she was highly respected by the literary and cultural elite in France.
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
, in the eulogy he gave at her funeral, said "the lyre was within her."
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...
was a close friend and respected her literary gifts.
Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...
was an unabashed admirer.
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...
, who knew Sand personally, once said that if someone thought she wrote badly, it was because their own standards of criticism were inadequate. He also noted that her treatment of imagery in her works showed that her writing had an exceptional subtlety, having the ability to "virtually put the image in the word."
Alfred de Vigny
Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (27 March 1797 – 17 September 1863) was a French poet and early French Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare.
Biography
Vigny was born in Loches (a town to which he never re ...
referred to her as "
Sappho
Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
".
Not all of her contemporaries admired her or her writing: poet
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
was one contemporary critic of George Sand: "She is stupid, heavy and garrulous. Her ideas on morals have the same depth of judgment and delicacy of feeling as those of janitresses and kept women ... The fact that there are men who could become enamoured of this slut is indeed a proof of the abasement of the men of this generation."
Influences on literature
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
"read widely in the numerous novels of George Sand" and translated her ''La dernière Aldini'' in 1844, only to learn that it had already been published in Russian. In his mature period, he expressed an ambiguous attitude towards her. For instance, in his novella ''
Notes from Underground
''Notes from Underground'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform Russian: ; also translated as ''Notes from the Underground'' or ''Letters from the Underworld'') is a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in the journal ''Epoch'' in 1864. ...
'', the narrator refers to sentiments he express as, "I launch off at that point into European, inexplicably lofty subtleties a la George Sand".
The English poet
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.
Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...
(1806–61) wrote two poems: "To George Sand: A Desire" (1853) and "To George Sand: A Recognition". The American poet
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
cited Sand's novel ''Consuelo'' as a personal favorite, and the sequel to this novel, ''La Comtesse de Rudolstadt'', contains at least a couple of passages that appear to have had a very direct influence on him.
In addition to her influences on English and Russian literature, Sand's writing and political views informed numerous 19th century authors in Spain and Latin America, including
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga (March 23, 1814 – February 1, 1873) was a 19th-century Cuban-born Spanish writer. Born in Puerto Príncipe, now Camagüey, she lived in Cuba until she was 22. Her family moved to Spain in 1836, where s ...
, the Cuban-born writer who also published and lived in Spain.
Critics have noted structural and thematic similarities between George Sand's
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, published in 1832, and Gómez de Avellaneda's anti-slavery novel
Sab, published in 1841.
In the first episode of the "Overture" to ''Swann's Way''—the first novel in
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...
's ''
In Search of Lost Time
''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...
'' sequence—a young, distraught Marcel is calmed by his mother as she reads from ''François le Champi'', a novel which (it is explained) was part of a gift from his grandmother, which also included ''La Mare au Diable'', ''La Petite Fadette'', and ''Les Maîtres Sonneurs''. As with many episodes involving art in ''À la recherche du temps perdu'', this reminiscence includes commentary on the work.
Sand is also referred to in
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
's book-length essay ''
A Room of One's Own
''A Room of One's Own'' is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in September 1929. The work is based on two lectures Woolf delivered in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's colleges at the University of C ...
'' along with
George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...
and
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.
She enlisted i ...
as "all victims of inner strife as their writings prove, sought ineffectively to veil themselves by using the name of a man."
Frequent literary references to George Sand appear in ''
Possession
Possession may refer to:
Law
* Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance
* Drug possession, a crime
* Ownership
* ...
'' (1990) by
A. S. Byatt and in the play ''Voyage'', the first part of
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
's ''The Coast of Utopia'' trilogy (2002). George Sand makes an appearance in
Isabel Allende
Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...
's ''
Zorro
Zorro (Spanish language, Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed a ...
'', going still by her given name, as a young girl in love with Diego de la Vega (Zorro).
Chopin, Sand and her children are the main characters of the theater play by Polish writer
Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz
Jarosław Leon Iwaszkiewicz, also known under his literary pseudonym Eleuter (20 February 1894 – 2 March 1980), was a Polish writer, poet, essayist, dramatist and translator.Bartłomiej Szleszyński, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. 2003 Culture.plJaros ...
"A Summer in Nohant", which premiered in 1930. The play, presenting the final stage of the writer-composer's relationship, was adapted five times by
Polish Television
Telewizja Polska S.A. (; "Polish Television"; TVP), also known in English as the public Polish Television is a Polish state media corporation. It is the largest Polish television network, although viewership has been declining in the 2010s.
Sinc ...
: in 1963 (with Antonina Gordon-Górecka as Sand and
Gustaw Holoubek
Gustaw Teofil Holoubek (21 April 1923 – 6 March 2008) was a Polish actor, director, member of the Polish Sejm, and a senator.
Holoubek participated in the September Campaign and was a prisoner of war during the Nazi German Occupation of P ...
as Chopin), in 1972 (with Halina Mikołajska and
Leszek Herdegen), in 1980 (with
Anna Polony
Anna Polony (born January 21, 1939, Kraków) is a Polish Theatre, stage, film and television actress, as well as the Stage Director, stage director and former ''Prorector'' of Cracow's AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków, Academy of Dra ...
and Michał Pawlicki), in 1999 (with
Joanna Szczepkowska
Joanna Szczepkowska (Polish pronunciation: ; born 1 May 1953) is a Polish film and theatre actress and writer. She appeared in more than thirty films since 1975.
Life and career
She made her debut on televion in 1975 by appearing in episode 1 of ...
, who portrayed Solange in the 1980 version and Piotr Skiba) and in 2021 (with
Katarzyna Herman
Katarzyna Herman (born 13 August 1971 in Mrągowo) is a Polish actress.
Filmography
* The Lure (2015)
* 2013 Oszukane
* 2012: In a Bedroom (pol: W sypialni)
* Magda M.
* Ekipa (TV series)
* Kryminalni
*M jak miłość
*Miasteczko
A ( or ...
and Marek Kossakowski).
In film
George Sand is portrayed by
Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 191123 November 1979) was a British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933). After her success in ''The Scarle ...
in ''
A Song to Remember'', by
Patricia Morison
Eileen Patricia Augusta Fraser Morison (March 19, 1915 – May 20, 2018) was an American stage, television and film actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood and mezzo-soprano singer. She made her feature film debut in 1939 after several years on ...
in ''
Song Without End
''Song Without End'', subtitled ''The Story of Franz Liszt'', is a 1960 biographical film romance made by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Charles Vidor, who died during the shooting of the film and was replaced by George Cukor. It was produ ...
'', by
Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Ann Harris (born 19 September 1927) is an English actress. She is the recipient of such accolades as a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. In ...
in ''
Notorious Woman
''Notorious Woman'' is a 1974 BBC television serial based on the life of the French author George Sand. It starred Rosemary Harris in the title role. The seven episodes were written by Harry W. Junkin and directed by Waris Hussein.
In the United ...
'', by
Judy Davis
Judith Davis (born 23 April 1955) is an Australian actress in film, television, and on stage. With a career spanning over 40 years, she has been commended for her versatility and regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation. Frequen ...
in James Lapine's 1991 British-American film ''
Impromptu
An impromptu (, , loosely meaning "offhand") is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ''ex tempore'' improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano. According to ''Allgeme ...
''; and by
Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress and dancer.
She has appeared in more than sixty feature films and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Silver Bear, ...
in the 1999 French film ''
Children of the Century (Les Enfants du siècle)''.
Also in ''
George Who? ''George Who?'' (French: ''George qui?'') is a 1973 French biographical film directed by Michèle Rosier and starring Anne Wiazemsky, Alain Libolt and Denis Gunsbourg. Philosopher Gilles Deleuze also featured in the film. The film depicts the li ...
'' (French: ''George qui?''), a 1973 French biographical film directed by
Michèle Rosier
Michèle Lazareff Rosier (; 3 June 1930 – 2 April 2017) was a French fashion journalist and designer who founded the V de V sportswear label. In addition to this, she worked as a film director and screenwriter since 1973.
Early life and educat ...
and starring
Anne Wiazemsky
Anne Wiazemsky (14 May 1947 – 5 October 2017) was a French actress and novelist. She made her cinema debut at the age of 18, playing Marie, the lead character in Robert Bresson's ''Au Hasard Balthazar'' (1966), and went on to appear in several ...
as George Sand, Alain Libolt and Denis Gunsbourg. In the 2002 Polish film ''
Chopin: Desire for Love'' directed by
Jerzy Antczak
Jerzy Antczak (born 25 December 1929, in Włodzimierz Wołyński) is a Polish film director. His film ''Nights and Days'' was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was entered into the 26th Berlin International Film Fes ...
George Sand is portrayed by
Danuta Stenka
Danuta Stenka (born 10 October 1961 in Sierakowice, Poland) is a Polish actress. She is one of the leading Polish film and theatre actresses.
Life and career
From 1991, she spent a decade working at Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw, then at TR Wars ...
. In the French film ''
Flashback (2021 film)'' directed by
Caroline Vigneaux, George Sand is portrayed by
Suzanne Clément
Suzanne Clément (born 12 May 1969) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her work in Xavier Dolan's arthouse films ''I Killed My Mother'' (2009), '' Laurence Anyways'' (2012), and '' Mommy'' (2014).
With Emilie DeQuenne, she shared the Un Ce ...
.
Works
* ''Voyage en Auvergne'' (autobiographical sketch, 1827)
* ''
Un hiver à Majorque'' (1842)
* ''
Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life)'' (autobiography up to the revolution of 1848; 1855)
Novels
* ''Rose et Blanche'' (1831, with Jules Sandeau)
* ''
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
'' (1832)
* ''
Valentine'' (1832)
* ' (1833)
* ''Andréa'' (1833)
* ''Mattéa'' (1833)
* ''
Jacques
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
'' (1833)
* ''Kouroglou / Épopée Persane'' (1833)
* ''Leone Leoni'' (1833)
* ''André'' (1834)
* ''La Marquise'' (1834)
* ''Simon'' (1835)
* ''
Mauprat'' (1837)
* ''Les Maîtres mosaïstes'' (''The Master Mosaic Workers'') (1837)
* ''L'Orco'' (1838)
* ''L'Uscoque'' (The Uscoque, or The Corsair) (1838)
* ' (1839)
* ' (1839)
* ''
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
'' (1840)
* ''Le Compagnon du tour de France'' (''The Journeyman Joiner, or the Companion of the Tour of France'') (1840)
* ''
Consuelo'' (1842)
* ''La Comtesse de Rudolstadt'' (''Countess of Rudolstadt'') (1843, a sequel to ''Consuelo'')
* ' (1844)
* ''Teverino'' (1845) (translated as ''Jealousy: Teverino'')
* ''Le Péché de M. Antoine'' (''The Sin of M. Antoine'') (1845)
* ''Le Meunier d'Angibault'' (''The Miller of Angibault'') (1845)
* ''
La Mare au Diable'' (''The Devil's Pool'') (1846)
* ''Lucrezia Floriani'' (1846)
* ''François le Champi'' (''The Country Waif'') (1847)
* ''
La Petite Fadette
''La Petite Fadette'', also published in English under the titles ''Little Fadette. A Domestic Story'' (1849), ''Fadette. A Domestic Story'' (1851) and ''Little Fadette'' (1967), is an 1849 in literature, 1849 novel written by French novelist Geor ...
'' (1849)
* ''Château des Désertes'' (1850)
* ''Histoire du véritable Gribouille'' (1851, translated as ''The Mysterious Tale of Gentle Jack and Lord Bumblebee'')
* ''Les Maîtres sonneurs'' (''The Bagpipers'') (1853)
* ''Isidora'' (1853)
* ''La Daniella'' (1857)
* ''Les Beaux Messiers de Bois-Dore'' (''The Gallant Lords of Bois-Dore'' or ''The Fine Gentlemen of Bois-Dore'') (1857)
* ''Elle et Lui'' (''She and He'') (1859)
* ''Narcisse'' (1859)
* ''Jean de la Roche'' (1859)
* ''L'Homme de neige'' (''The Snow Man'') (1859)
* ''La Ville noire'' (''The Black City'') (1860)
* ''Marquis de Villemer'' (1860)
* ''Valvedre'' (1861)
* ''Antonia'' (1863)
* ''Mademoiselle La Quintinie'' (1863)
* ''Laura, Voyage dans le cristal'' (''Laura, or Voyage into the Crystal'') (1864)
* ''Monsieur Sylvestre'' (1866)
* ''Le Dernier Amour'' (1866, dedicated to Flaubert)
* ''Mademoiselle Merquem'' (1868)
* ''Pierre Qui Roule'' (''A Rolling Stone'') (1870)
* ''Le Beau Laurence'' (''Handsome Lawrence'') (1870, a sequel to ''Pierre Qui Roule'')
* ''Malgretout'' (1870)
* ''Cesarine Dietrich'' (1871)
* ''Nanon'' (1872)
* ''Ma Sœur Jeanne'' (''My Sister Jeannie'') (1874)
* ''Flamarande'' (1875)
* ''Les Deux Frères'' (1875, a sequel to ''Flamarande'')
* ' (1876)
* ''La Tour de Percemont'' (''The Tower of Percemont'') (1876)
Plays
* ''Gabriel'' (1839)
* ''Cosima ou La haine dans l'amour'' (1840)
* ''Les Sept cordes de la lyre'' (translated as ''A Woman's Version of the Faust Legend: The Seven Strings of the Lyre'') (1840)
* ''François le Champi'' (1849)
* ''Claudie'' (1851)
* ''Le Mariage de Victorine'' (1851)
* ''Le Pressoir'' (1853)
* French adaptation of ''As You Like It'' (1856)
* ''Le Pavé'' (1862, "The Paving Stone")
* ''Le Marquis de Villemer'' (1864)
* ''Le Lis du Japon'' (1866, "The Japanese Lily")
* ''L'Autre'' (1870, with
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
)
* ''Un Bienfait n'est jamais perdu'' (1872, "A Good Deed Is Never Wasted")
Source:
See also
*
Elizabeth Ann Ashurst (translator)
*
Pauline Viardot
Pauline Viardot (; 18 July 1821 – 18 May 1910) was a nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue and composer of Spanish descent.
Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, her name appears in various forms. When it is not simply "Pauli ...
*
Saint-Benoît-du-Sault
References
Citations
General sources
* ''George Sand'' – Bicentennial Exhibition,
Musée de la Vie romantique
The Musée de la Vie romantique (Museum of Romantic Life, or ''Museum of the Romantics'') stands at the foot of Montmartre hill in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, 16 rue Chaptal, Paris, France in an 1830 ''hôtel particulier'' facing two twin-stu ...
, Paris, 2004, curated by Jérôme Godeau. Contributions by
Diane de Margerie
Diane Jacquin de Margerie (born 24 December 1927) is a French woman of letters and translator from English.
Biography
Diane de Margerie is the daughter of Jenny Fabre-Luce (1896–1991) and Roland de Margerie (1899–1990). Her father was the n ...
, Yves Gagneux, Françoise Heilbrun, Isabelle Leroy-Jay Lemaistre,
Claude Samuel
Claude Samuel (23 June 1931 – 14 June 2020) was a French music critic and radio personality.
Biography
Born in Paris, after medical studies and graduating as a dental surgeon, Samuel chose to devote himself to classical music journalism. He ...
, Arlette Sérullaz, , Nicole Savy & Martine Reid.
* .
* (see "Writings by George Sand").
* .
*
* In French:
**
**
**
* . Paintault, Micheline (Director); Cerf , Claudine (Author).
Further reading
* Harlan, Elizabeth (2004). ''George Sand''. New Haven: Yale University Press. .
* Jordan, Ruth, ''George Sand: a biography'', London, Constable, 1976, .
*
Parks, Tim, "Devils v. Dummies" (review of George Sand, ''La Petite Fadette'', translated by Gretchen van Slyke, Pennsylvania State, 2017, , 192 pp.; and Martine Reid, ''George Sand'', translated by Gretchen van Slyke, Pennsylvania State, 2019, , 280 pp.), ''
London Review of Books
The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews.
History
The ''London Review of ...
'', vol. 41, no. 10 (23 May 2019), pp. 31–32. The men that Sand loved,' Reid observes, 'all had a certain physical resemblance... fragile, slight and a bit reserved.' Unthreatening, in short. Above all, they were younger than her.
Sandeau,
Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...
and then, for the nine years between 1838 and 1847,
Chopin, were all six years her junior." (p. 32.)
* . Oscar Wilde dreams of George Sand and is invited to a ''soirée'' at Nohant.
External links
George Sand– a site in memory of the 200th anniversary of George Sand's birth
George Sand, her work in audio version![Speaker Icon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Speaker_Icon.svg)
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sand, George
1804 births
1876 deaths
19th-century French composers
19th-century French dramatists and playwrights
19th-century French novelists
19th-century French women writers
Bisexual writers
LGBT writers from France
Frédéric Chopin
French women novelists
French socialists
Légion d'honneur refusals
People from Indre
Pseudonymous women writers
Writers from Paris
19th-century letter writers
19th-century pseudonymous writers