George Sand Biography and List of Works

French Romantic writer noted for her numerous love affairs with such prominent figures as Prosper Merimée, Alfred de Musset (1833-34), Frédéric Chopin, (1838-47), Alexandre Manceau (1849-65), and others. The painter Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) did not take her very seriously, but Alexander Herzen and Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand were inspired by her work. Widespread critical attention accompanied the publication of most of Sand's novels from INDIANA, (published in 1832 which tells the story of a naive, love-starved woman abused by her much older husband and deceived by a selfish seducer), onwards. Sand's works influenced among others Fedor Dostoevskii, Lev Tolstoi, Gustave Flaubert, and Marcel Proust. In 1842, the English critic George Henry Lewes wrote that Sand was ''the most remarkable writer of the present century.''

"We cannot tear out a single page of our life, but we can throw the whole book in the fire. "
(from Mauprat, 1837)

George Sand was born in Paris and brought up in the country home of her grandmother. She received her education at Nohant, her grandmother's estate, and at the Covent des Anglaises, Paris (1817-20). In 1822 she married the baron Casimir Dudevant, to whom she bore one son and one daughter. She inherited Nohant in 1821, but because of her unhappy marriage, she left her family in 1831 and returned to Paris.

In 1831 Sand started to write for Le Figaro. She contributed to Revue des Deux Mondes (1832-41) and La République (1848), and was a co-editor of Revue Indépendante (1841). During these years she made the acquaintance of several poets, artists, philosophers, and politicians, and wrote a novel under the pseudonym Jules Sand with her lover Jules Sandeau. A second novel Indiana (1832) was written solely by Sands and found immediate success. It was followed by VALENTINE (1832), and LÉLIA (1833).

In her early works Sand's writing bears the influence of the writers with whom she was associated. In the 1830s several artists responded to the call of the Comte de Saint-Simon to find a cure for the evils of the new industrial age, among them Franz Listz and Sand, who became friends, not lovers. Michel de Bourges, who preached revolution, was more important for Sands on a personal level. After de Bourges, came Pierre Leroux, who was against property, supported the equality of women, and wanted to rehabilitate Satan. From the 1840s Sand found her own voice in her novels. For the rest of her life, Sand was committed to the ideal of Socialism. After 1848 Sand settled at Nohant. From 1864 to 1867 she lived in Palaiseau, near Versailles.

Sand spent the rest of her life writing and travelling. "Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength, his glory and his pleasure." During her career she played an important, if long underestimated, role in the evolution of the novel. Her books, although popular, also provoked controversy: the French Senate recognized its opposition to the presence of Sand's works in public libraries. In her novels Sand questions the sexual identity and gender destinies in fiction. Sand herself was accused of lesbianism and nymphomania, partly because of her affairs with well-known celebrities. In CONSUELO (1843) the musically gifted heroine defies the tragic destiny depicted in Madame de Staël's Corinne (1807). In her mid-life autobiography, HISTOIRE DE MA VIE (1854-55, Story of My Life), Sand displaces conventional distinctions separating male from female, fact from fiction, and public from private life. "Life in common among people who love each other is the ideal of happiness."

Among Sand's best works are her countryside novels LA MARE AU DIABLE (1846), in which Germain, a young widow, must choose between a rich woman and a poor girl, FRANÇOIS LE CHAMPI (1847-48), LA PETITE FADETTE (1849), and LES MAÎTRES SONNEURS (1853). In LUCREZIA FLORIANI (1846) Sand depicted her relationship with Frederic Chopin (Prince Karol de Roswald in the book). HORACE (1842) was an examination of the young generation enthused by the ideals of Romanticism. She also wrote memoirs, short stories, essays and fairy tales. Sand died on June 8, 1876. Sand's literary reputation started to decline after her death, and by the beginning of the 20th century her work did not attract much attention. "The world will know and understand me someday," Sand once wrote to her critics. "But if that day does not arrive, it does not greatly matter. I shall have opened the way for other women."

For further reading: Family Romances: George Sand's Early Novels by Kathryn J. Crecelius (1987); George Sand: A Brave Man, the Most Womanly Woman by Donna Dickenson (1988); George Sand by David Powell (1990); Le Personnage sandien: Constantes et varitations by Anna Szabo (1991); George Sand: Writing for Her Life by Isabelle Hoog Naginski (1991); Poétiques de la parabole by Michèle Hecquet (1992); George Sand and Idealism by Naomi Schor (1993); Romantic Vision by Robert Godwin-Jones (1995); George Sand et l'écriture du roman by Jeanne Goldin (1996); De l'être en lettres by Anne McCall Saint-Saëns (1996); George Sand by Nicole Mozet (1997)

ROSE ET BLANCHE, (1831)