Indiana (novel)
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| Indiana | |
| Author | George Sand |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | Romantic |
| Publication date | 1831 |
| Pages | 344 |
Indiana is the first novel of George Sand, published in April 1832. It was Amandine Aurore Dupin's first novel published under the pseudonym George Sand. The novel blends the conventions of romanticism, realism, and idealism. The novel is about love and marriage.
The novel set partly in France, partly in the French colony of L'Ile Bourbon (L'Ile de la Réunion). Sand based her descriptions of the colony, where she had never been, on the travel writing of friend Jules Néraud.
In the story an attractive, young Creole from Réunion named Indiana is married older ex-army man named Colonel Delmare. Indiana does not love him, and searches for someone who will love her passionately. When her young, handsome, and well-spoken neighbor, Raymon de Ramiere declares his interest in her, she falls in love with him. Raymond has already seduced Indiana's maid, Noun, who is pregnant with his child. When Noun finds out what is going on, she drowns herself.
Indiana's husband decides that they will move to the Ile Bourbon. Indiana faithfully presents herself at her lover's house in the middle of the night. He rejects her, but then writes her a letter once she has moved to the island. She escapes once again to France, where the Trois Glorieuses Revoution of 1830 is taking place. In the meantime, Raymond has made an advantageous marriage and bought Indiana's house. Her stoic, "egoist" cousin, Ralph, comes to rescue her and tell her that Captain Delmare is dead. They decide to commit suicide together by jumping into a waterfall at the Ile de Reunion. But on the way home they fall in love. Just before the suicide, they declare their love for one another and believe they will be married in Heaven. At the end of the novel comes a conclusion, a young adventurer's account of finding a man and woman, Ralph and Indiana, living on an isolated plantation. This conclusion has been subject to much scrutiny.
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