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Sand George
(1804–1876)

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 of her work. Widespread critical attention accompanied the publication of most of Sand's novels from INDIANA (1832), a story of a naive, love-starved woman abused by her much older husband and deceived by a selfish seducer. 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.''

George Sand was born in Paris and brought up in the country home of her grandmother. She received education at Nohant, her grandmother's estate, and at Couvent 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 Revue des Deux Mondes (1832-41) and La République (1848), and was a coeditor of Revue Indépendante (1841). During these years she mad acquaintance with several poets, artists, philosophers, and politicians, and wrote in a few weeks with her lover Jules Sandeau a novel, ROSE ET BLANCHE, under the pseudonym Jules Sand. The second novel Indiana (1832) was written by herself and gained an immediate fame. It was followed by VALENTINE (1832), and LÉLIA (1833). After reading Indiana the poet Alfrted de Musset wrote an admiring letter to Sand which marked the beginning of their passionate affair. At the age of 33 she started an affair with Chopin. The composer, however, did not first consider her attractive. "Something about her repels me," he said to his family. Their relationship ended in 1847 when Sand started to suspect that the composer had fallen in love with her daughter, Solange. It is also possible, that behind the breakup was Sand's treatment of Solange.

In her early works Sand's writings show 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 of cure the evils of the new industrial society, among the Franz Listz and Sand who became friends, not lovers. On a personal level, Michel de Bourges, who preached revolution, was more important. After de Bourges came Pierre Leroux, who was against property and supported the equality of women, and wanted to rehabilitate Satan. From the 1840s Sand found her own voice in novels, which had roots in her childhood's peasant milieu. For the rest of her life, Sand was committed to ideal of Socialism, which his friend Flaubert rejected in their dispute. After the 1848 revolution in France failed, Sand settled disappointed at Nohant. From 1864 to 1867 she lived in Palaiseau, near Versailles.

Sand spend 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, awoke also controversy: the French Senate recognized its opposition to the presence of Sand's works in public libraries. In her novels Sand questioned the sexual identity and gender destinies in fiction. Sand herself was accused of lesbianism and nymphomania, partly because of 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 widower, 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 Frédéric 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 in 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."

Ajman, 1972, George Sand

France, 1957, George Sand

France, 1999, Chopin (after George Sand)

France, 2004, George Sand

Grenada, 2010, George Sand

Guinea Bissau, 2010, George Sand

Guyana, 1998, George Sand

Poland, 1999, Frederic Chopin by George Sand

Rumania, 2004, George Sand

France, 1937, Chateauroux. Lands of George Sand