George Sand

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George Sand. Photo by Nadar, 1864.
George Sand. Photo by Nadar, 1864.

Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, Baronne Dudevant (July 1, 1804 – June 8, 1876), best known by her pseudonym George Sand, was a French novelist and feminist.

Contents

[edit] Early life and family

Sand's father, Maurice Dupin, was the grandson of the Marshall General of France, Maurice, Comte de Saxe, as well as a distant relative of Louis XVI. Her mother, Sophie-Victorie Delaborde was a commoner. Sand was born in Paris but raised for much of her childhood by her grandmother, Marie Aurore de Saxe, Madame Dupin de Franceuil, at her grandmother's estate, Nohant, in the French region of Berry. She later used the setting in many of her novels. In 1822 she married Baron François Casimir Dudevant (1795–1871), the illegitimate son of [[Jean-François, Baron Dudevant and they had two children: Maurice (1823–1889) and Solange (1828–1899). In 1835 Sand was legally separated from her husband, which prompted her lifelong search for true liberty and independence.

[edit] Contemporary perception

Sand, by Auguste Charpentier, 1835.
Sand, by Auguste Charpentier, 1835.
Sand, after a portrait by Luigi Colamatta.
Sand, after a portrait by Luigi Colamatta.

Sand's reputation was questioned when she began sporting men's clothing in public (which she justified by the clothes' being far sturdier and less expensive than the typical dress of a noblewoman at the time). In addition to being comfortable, Sand's male dress also enabled her to circulate more freely about Paris than most of her female contemporaries were able, and gave her increased access to venues from which women were often barred — even women of her social standing. Also reasonably scandalous was Sand's tendency to smoke tobacco in public; neither peerage nor gentry had yet sanctioned the free indulgence of women in such a habit, especially in public. These behaviors (and others) were exceptional for a woman of the early/mid-19th century, when social codes—especially in the upper classes—were of the highest importance.

As a consequence of many unorthodox aspects of her lifestyle, Sand was obliged to relinquish many of the privileges attached to being a Baroness (although, interestingly, the mores of this period authorized wives of higher classes living physically separated from their husbands, without losing face, provided the estranged couple exhibited no blatant irregularity to the outer world).

The poet Charles Baudelaire is one example of a 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."[1]

[edit] Relationships

Sand sewing. Portrait by Delacroix, 1838. Originally part of painting showing both Sand and Chopin.
Sand sewing. Portrait by Delacroix, 1838. Originally part of painting showing both Sand and Chopin.
Stylized rendition of Delacroix's 1838 joint portrait of Sand and Chopin
Stylized rendition of Delacroix's 1838 joint portrait of Sand and Chopin

She was linked romantically with Jules Sandeau (1831), Alfred de Musset (summer 1833-March 1834) and Frédéric Chopin (1837-1847). Later in life, she corresponded with Gustave Flaubert; despite their obvious differences in temperament and aesthetic preference, they eventually became close friends.

She was engaged in an intimate friendship with actress Marie Dorval, which led to widespread but unconfirmed rumors of a lesbian affair.[2]

In Majorca one can still visit the (then abandoned) Carthusian monastery of Valldemossa, where she spent the winter of 1838–39 with Frédéric Chopin and her children.[3] This trip to Mallorca was described by her in Un Hiver à Majorque ("A Winter in Mallorca"), published in 1855.

Chopin left her shortly before he died from tuberculosis.

[edit] Writing career

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Her first published novel, Rose et Blanche (1831) was written in collaboration with Jules Sandeau, from whom she allegedly took her pen name, Sand.

Drawing from her childhood experiences of the countryside, she wrote the rural novels La Mare au Diable (1846), François le Champi (1847–1848), La Petite Fadette (1849), and Les Beaux Messieurs Bois-Doré (1857). A Winter in Majorca described the period that she and Chopin spent on that island in 1838-9.

Her other novels include Indiana (1832), Lélia (1833), Mauprat (1837), Le Compagnon du Tour de France (1840), Consuelo (1842–1843), and Le Meunier d'Angibault (1845).

Further 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.

In addition, Sand authored literary criticism and political texts. Her most widely used quote being, "There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved."

She was known well in far reaches of the world, and her social practices, her writings and her beliefs prompted much commentary, often by other luminaries in the world of arts and letters. A few excerpts demonstrate much of what was often said about George Sand:

"She was a thinking bosom and one who overpowered her young lovers, all Sybil — a Romantic."
V.S. Pritchett (writer)
"What a brave man she was, and what a good woman."
Ivan Turgenev (novelist)
"The most womanly woman."
Alfred de Musset (poet)

[edit] Death

George Sand died at Nohant, near Châteauroux, in the Indre département of France on June 8, 1876 at the age of 72 and was buried in the grounds of her home there. In 2004, controversial plans were suggested to move her remains to the Panthéon in Paris.

[edit] Works

  • Voyage En Auvergne (1827, Autobiographical sketch)
  • Compagnon Du Tour De France (1840)
  • La Petite Fadette (1848)
  • Château Des Désertes (1850)
  • Histoire De Ma Vie (1855, Autobiography up to the revolution of 1848)

[edit] Novels

  • Rose Et Blanche (1831, with Jules Sandeau)
  • Indiana (1832)
  • Valentine (1832)
  • Lélia (1833)
  • Andréa (1833)
  • Mattéa (1833)
  • Jacques (1833)
  • Kourroglou / Épopée Persane (1833)
  • Leone Leoni (1833)
  • Simon (1835)
  • Mauprat (1837)
  • les Maîtres Mosaïtes (1837)
  • l'Oreo (1838)
  • l'Uscoque (1838)
  • Un Hiver À Majorque (1839)
  • Pauline (1839)
  • Horace (1840)
  • Consuelo (1842)
  • la Comtesse De Rudolstady (1843, a sequel to Consuelo)
  • Jeanne (1844)
  • Teverino (1845)
  • Pêche de M Antoine (1845)
  • Le Meunier D'Angibault (1845)
  • La Mare Au Diable (1846)
  • Lucrezia Floriani (1846)
  • François Le Champi (1847)
  • Les Maîtres Sonneurs (1853)
  • La Daniella (1857)
  • Elle Et Lui (1859)
  • Jean De La Roche (1859)
  • L'Homme De Neige (1859)
  • La ville Noire (1860)
  • Marquis De Villemer (1860)
  • Mademoiselle La Quintinie (1863)
  • Laura, Voyage Dans Le Cristal (1864)
  • Le Dernier Amour (1866, dedicated to Flaubert)

[edit] Plays

  • Gabriel (1839)
  • François Le Champi (1849)
  • Claudie (1851)
  • Le Mariage De Victorine (1851)
  • Le Pressoir (1853, Play)
  • French Adaptation of As You Like It (1856)
  • Le Marquis De Villemer (1864)
  • L'Autre (1870, with Sarah Bernhardt)

[edit] Legacy

[edit] In literature

Frequent literary references to George Sand can be found in "Possession," by A.S. Byatt. The great American poet Walt Whitman cited her novel Consuelo as a personal favorite and the sequel to this novel La Comtesse De Rudolstady contains at least a couple of passages that appears to have had a very direct influence on him. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), English poet, produced two poems entitled " To George Sand: A Desire" and "To George Sand: A Recognition." The character, Stepan Verkhovensky, in Dostoevsky's novel The Devils took to translating the works of George Sand in his periodical, before the periodical was subsequently seized by the ever-cautious Russian government of the 1840s. George Sand is referenced a number of times in the play "Voyage", the first part of Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia trilogy. And, in the first episode of the "Overture" to Swann's Way--the first work in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time--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 birthday package from his grandmother which also included La Mare au Diable, La Petite Fadette, and Les Maîtres Sonneurs. As with many episodes involving art in the Rememberances, this reminiscence includes commentary on the work.

[edit] In music, film and television

  • In 2007, Céline Dion recorded a song based on a love letter sent from George Sand to Alfred de Musset for her album D'Elles.
  • The band Meg & Dia have a song based on Sand's novel Indiana

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Baudelaire, Charles; Ed. Peter Quennell. Trans. Norman Cameron (1975). My Heart Laid Bare. Haskell House, 184. ISBN 0-8383-1870-3. 
  2. ^ George Sand by Belinda Jack - Books - Random House
  3. ^ museoin.htm

[edit] General references

[edit] See also

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[edit] External links