George Sand (1804 – 1876), née Aurora Dupin, by husband Dudevant-author of famous novels that made a big splash in Europe and Russia around the middle of the 19th century. The loud, partly scandalous fame of George Sand was associated with her persistent, to the point of tedious preaching of the idea of “the liberation of women from the power of age-old prejudices, the destruction of bourgeois morality,” with her struggle “against the shackles imposed by society on the rights of the heart, on the free expression of love.” Following (not without major material benefit for herself) exactly in the flow of the social current that was then dominant in the West, George Sand deliberately fended off moralists - sometimes even “leftists”. At one time, the “free-thinking” Belinsky spoke with horror about her “outrageous and absurd novels”, which propose “to destroy any difference between the sexes, allowing a woman to do all the hard things and allowing her, on an equal basis with a man, to exercise civil positions, and most importantly, by providing she has the enviable right to change husbands based on her health.”
Churning out her books with extraordinary speed, George Sand was a kind of “female analogue” to her contemporary and compatriot Alexandre Dumas - with the difference that, in accordance with her gender, she chose for herself the theme of creativity not dangerous adventures, but sexual love. Her claims for deep insight into the heartfelt life of a woman, for a truthful portrayal of women’s suffering that arises from “the clash between the rights of the heart and age-old prejudices” were based on the fact that George Sand herself had a hard time surviving a number of love tragedies. The life of the writer passed under very diverse and dissimilar influences. The mother of her father, officer Maurice Dupin, was a noble aristocrat descended from King Augustus II of Saxony. Maurice Dupin died early. The grandmother-countess did not like the mother of George Sand, the daughter of a simple bird catcher, and soon took her granddaughter away from her. Little Aurora was brought up on her grandmother's estate Noan. There, the future “democratic” writer acquired a love for the way of life of the old regime French aristocracy, which constantly shines through in her works. However, at her mother’s, Aurora, on the contrary, became acquainted with democratic circles, heard ridicule of obsolete beliefs, of orthodox and legitimist ideas, of cutesy marquises and eloquent abbots.
George Sand at the age of 34. Portrait by O. Charpentier, 1838
From 1817 to 1820, the future George Sand was raised in a convent in Paris. Here she was at one time inclined towards mystical and religious sentiments. Aurore Dupin read voraciously and endlessly, easily being carried away in her youth by completely opposing doctrines. At first, Chateaubriand’s “Genius of Christianity” made a strong impression on her, with his ardent dreams of the revival of Catholicism. But then she met eighteenth-century philosophers, poets and moralists, read Locke, Condillac, Montesquieu, Pascal, Dante, Shakespeare, etc. and, finally, became interested in Rousseau. Confused among too dissimilar spiritual influences, Aurora experienced confusion and temporary pessimism.
In 1821, her grandmother died, leaving her granddaughter all her property. A year later, Aurora married Colonel Dudevant. Due to her characteristic lightness, she thought little about the personality of her future husband, and even about the marriage itself, having entered into it because in her circle it was supposed to get married sooner or later. Meanwhile, it was this unhappy marriage that served as the impetus for the creation of her most famous novels. Not finding satisfaction in family life, George Sand began to formulate the most daring ideas about the relationship between a man and a woman. In an insignificant, empty husband, protected by social views, the wife who dreamed of fame began to see “the living embodiment of social injustice.” Not disdainful of connections with servants, despotic and cynical, Dudevant caused a lot of suffering to Aurora, who finally left him in 1831 and settled in Paris.
Here she began a love affair with a certain Jules Sandot and, needing money, began writing novels with him. Soon taking the pseudonym George Sand, in 1832 she published an independent novel, Indiana, which marked the beginning of her fame. Following this first novel, “Valentina”, “Lélia” appeared, then “Jacques” (1835) and others. In her personal life, George Sand managed to experience new disappointments during this time. Her relationship with Sando turned out to be no happier than her marriage with her husband. Georges Sand soon understood the easy attitude towards love and women that reigned among the men around her. Deeply annoyed by him, she decided to take revenge for herself by preaching “free morality.”
Her new novels, the result of the turmoil she experienced, caused a storm of both admiration and hatred throughout Europe. Love is their only theme. A woman, given over to the power of an unloved person, paying with cruel suffering for the “free movement of the heart” is the main character of George Sand during this period of her activity. Her Indiana cannot come to terms with the dominance of her unloved husband, Delmar, a decent, businesslike and honest man, but full of “centuries-old male prejudices.” He demands from Indiana “an adaptation to her nature,” which, according to George Sand, is humiliating for “a woman with an awakened consciousness of her human dignity.” But proud and rebellious in front of her unloved husband, Indiana forgives all insults to her passionately beloved Raymond, who leaves her for a profitable marriage. This novel, typical of George Sand, fulfills her main requirement - a woman must love and choose her lover, following only the voice of her heart. The writer advocates that “a woman should not be forever chained to an unloved person, like a slave to a master.” But a woman’s relationship with her loved one is in many ways reminiscent of her relationship with her ruler. We can say that George Sand saw the salvation of women not so much in the abolition of slavery, but in the right of a slave to freely choose his master.
The same conflict is depicted in George Sand's novel "Valentine", where the heroine, having married at the insistence of her mother, dies as a victim of love for another person, whom society did not allow her to love. “Lelia” reflected the pessimism and despair of an insulted woman, convinced of the futility of “the best impulses, the cruelty of nature and life.” George Sand sees the way out of the difficult conflict not in the reform of the family and the institution of marriage, but in “self-sacrifice of the individual.” This is how she solves the problem in the novel “Jacques,” where the hero, through suicide, decides to free his wife, who has fallen in love with another man. This is a kind of advice from George Sand to all men.
In 1833, George Sand met the famous poet Alfred Musset and traveled with him to Italy. This novel was rich in all sorts of clashes and details, which occupy a lot of biographers of both writers and about which Georges Sand herself speaks in her “Letters of a Traveler” and “She and He” (1859).
By the 1840s, as the social situation changed, a new sharp turn was brewing in the soul of George Sand. Surrounded famous people– composer Chopin, socialist Lammen, Pierre Leroux and others - she, especially under the influence of the famous republican Michel Bourges, begins to seek satisfaction in “sympathy for one’s neighbor and in serving humanity.” Her rich estate in Nohant becomes a meeting place for prominent “democrats”. Conversations on philosophy and literature are held here, musical evenings and theatrical performances, excursions. The lawsuit between George Sand and her husband ends in a formal divorce.
George Sand's house in Nohant
Social issues began to occupy George Sand more and more, and in her novels that appeared in the 1840s. – “The Wandering Apprentice” (“Le compagnon du tour de France”), “The Miller from Angibeau”, “The Sin of Monsieur Antoine” - reflect her “search for social truth”. There is no slim one here social system. George Sand remains primarily a lyricist, a poet of the heartfelt life. Her social novels are boring and drawn out, but the writer tries to compensate for any deficiencies in content with fiery fervor. In these books, George Sand mixes the ideas of Lammene, Saint-Simon, Fourier and other utopian socialists. In response to the “demands of the times,” she becomes a preacher of socialist ideas, while continuing to live in a luxurious estate. Georges Sand paints stilted images of “ideal workers” and “soulless entrepreneurs”, although through new ideas she often breaks through a melancholy sadness about the old landowner-feudal way of life - that sympathy for the life of the estate, which is inspired by Nogan impressions. In his village stories like “Joan”, “The Devil’s Swamp”, “Little Fadette”, George Sand again prudently perceives all the trends of the time: the fading poetry of feudalism, and the cruel materialism of capitalist society, and the heroic enthusiasm of the coming force - the proletariat. Her love for the village was the feeling in which she found refuge from all the contradictions of her turbulent life.
George Sand at 60 years of age. Photo 1864
The autobiography of George Sand, “The Story of My Life” (1854 – 1855), provides drier material than one would expect from such a passionate nature. She died in Nohant in 1876 as “free from prejudice” as she had been all her life. Despite the relatively low artistic merits of George Sand's novels, their influence was very great. They sounded the revolutionary trumpet throughout Europe, becoming the banner of “liberals” and socialists in their attack on “prejudice.”
Literature about George Sand
Koro,"George Sand"
Amik,"My memories of George Sand"
Marieton,"Love Story: George Sand and Alfred de Musset"
Karenin,"George Sand: Her Life and Works"
Leroy,"George Sand and her friends"
(French George Sand, real name Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin - Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin; 1804 - 1876) - French writer.
Aurora Dupin was born on July 1, 1804 in Paris, in the family of nobleman Maurice Dupin (he was a descendant of the commander Count Moritz of Saxony). Her mother, Sophie-Victoria Delaborde, was the daughter of a bird catcher. Here's what George Sand later wrote:
She was already over thirty years old when my father saw her for the first time, and among what a terrible company! My father was generous! He realized that this beautiful creature was still capable of love...
Maurice's mother did not want to admit the unequal marriage for a long time, but the birth of her granddaughter softened her heart. However, after the death of Aurora's father in an accident, the countess mother-in-law and commoner daughter-in-law broke off their relationship. Aurora's mother, not wanting to deprive her of her large inheritance, left her daughter in Nohant (Indre department) in the care of her grandmother. Aurora Dupin received her education at the Augustinian Catholic convent in Paris. Aurora is interested in philosophical and religious literature: Chateaubriand, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Aristotle, Pascal - the young monastery student reads them.
However, it seemed to her that she found true Christianity, which requires absolute equality and brotherhood, only in Rousseau. To love and sacrifice oneself - this was, according to her conviction, the law of Christ
In 1822, Aurora married Casimir, the illegitimate son of Baron Dudevant. In this marriage she gave birth to two children: a son, Maurice, and a daughter, Solange (presumably not from Casimir). Very different people, the Dudevant couple actually separated in 1831, Aurora went to Paris, receiving a pension from her husband and promising to maintain the appearance of marriage. Later in Aurora’s life there were many love affairs. To earn a living (as a married woman, she lost the right to dispose of her inheritance - her husband remained the owner of the estate in Nohant), she began to write. The writer Henri de Latouche offered her cooperation in the newspaper Le Figaro, but a short journalistic style was not her element; she was more successful in lengthy descriptions of nature and characters. In 1831, her first novel, Rose et Blanche, was published, which she wrote together with her lover Jules Sandot. It was his last name that became the basis of the writer’s pseudonym.
Preferring men's suits to women's ones, George Sand traveled to places in Paris where aristocrats, as a rule, did not go. For the upper classes France XIX century, such behavior was considered unacceptable, so she actually lost her status as a baroness.
From 1833 to 1834 her relationship with Alfred de Musset lasted. Then Dr. Pagelot, Charles Didier, and composer Frederic Chopin successively became her companions - for nine years, Georges was not so much a lover as a faithful friend and nurse for him. Sand was credited with having an affair with Liszt, but Georges and Liszt always denied this. Her friends were the critic Sainte-Beuve, the writers Merimee, Balzac, Dumas the father, Dumas the son, Flaubert, and the singer Pauline Viardot.
In 1836, the Dudevant couple divorced, Georges received the right to live on her estate in Nohant and raise her daughter, Casimir was entrusted with raising her son, but since 1837 Maurice has lived permanently with his mother.
Georges Sand died on June 8, 1876 in Nohant. Upon learning of her death, Hugo wrote: “I mourn the dead, I salute the immortal!”
In the 30-40s, France itself continued to develop romantic literature. Except romantic dramas Victor Hugo, most of which occurred in the 30s; during this period such major romantic writers as J. de Nerval and A. Musset came to French literature. In line with the romantic worldview, he begins his creative path Théophile Gautier.
One of the most significant phenomena of this stage in the development of French romanticism was the work of Georges Sand. We can say that an entire era in the development of French literature and the spiritual life of France in general is associated with the name of this woman, especially since her fame during her lifetime far exceeded the borders of this country. The very circle of J. Sand's acquaintances speaks for itself: her close friends were the most brilliant minds of France - Balzac, Flaubert, Gautier; A Musset and F. Chopin loved her; in her house on Pigalle Street, Heinrich Heine and Franz Liszt were frequent guests; Adam Mickiewicz read his poems there; there Eugene Delacroix often sat at his easel, Pauline Viardot sang, whose fate served in many ways as the basis for the image of the famous heroine J. Sand - Consuelo; Turgenev was her friend, Belinsky and Herzen admired her. She was truly the ruler of the thoughts of educated Europe in the middle of the last century.
Biography of George Sand
The real name of the writer is Aurora Dupin. She was born in 1804 into a noble family on the Nohant estate in the French province of Berry. Until 1817, she was raised by her grandmother, an old aristocrat who was hostile to the revolution and the order established after it. Subsequent upbringing in a monastery boarding school influenced the future writer in the same direction - girls were raised there in reverence for the “martyr king” and the “Vendeen saints.” It would seem that everything contributed to Aurora Dupin becoming a convinced monarchist and opponent of the revolution.
But, in addition to these influences, other impressions turned out to be quite strong in her life. Aurora Dupin spent her childhood and youth in the village, played with peasant children, and deeply and sincerely experienced the charm of rural nature. Even those monarchical and religious sentiments that both her religious grandmother and the monastery boarding school nurtured in her turned out to be directed not so much against the revolution as against bourgeois reality, against bourgeois mercenaryism and prudent practicality. Being already conscious person, she began to read the works of Rousseau, and to her, who grew up in the bosom of patriarchal rural nature, Rousseau’s criticism of bourgeois civilization seemed like a true revelation. Rousseau's works strengthened her love for patriarchal nature, hostility towards the bourgeoisie, and at the same time instilled in her soul the dream of equality and brotherhood of all people.
The next decisive impression was reading romantic writers - Chateaubriand, Byron. At the same time, Byron seemed to neutralize Chateaubriand from her - from the latter she took not his apology for Catholicism and the monarchy, but romantic sadness, longing for the lost uncivilized childhood of man. Reading Byron gave birth in the girl’s receptive soul to a longing for a bright and strong, active, active personality. Finally, a subsequent introduction to ideas utopian socialism- with the activities of Saint-Simon, Fourier, the dream of women's equality - was completed by the “education of feelings” of the future writer, and Aurora Dupin became that George Sand, before whom the most brilliant and progressive minds of that time bowed.
Marriage of George Sand
However, the first immediate impetus for her writing came from events in her purely private life. In 1822, 18-year-old Aurora Dupin was married to a neighbor of the Dupin family on the estate of Casimir Dudevant. Dudevant was an aristocrat by birth, but a bourgeois by character. More precisely, he was a nobleman who had firmly adapted to the new bourgeois order and knew how to benefit from them. A very limited and practical man, he first began to treat the literary aspirations of his young wife with condescending disdain, and then with open hostility. For him, these dreams were a whim, which he, as a husband, did not intend to reckon with. Therefore, the very impressionable and passionate Aurora felt like a stranger in the Dudevan estate. And she decided to take a step unusual and outrageous for the prevailing moral concepts of that time - she simply left her husband, went to Paris, took a lover - the writer Jules Sandeau - and began writing novels. These novels were first published under the male pseudonym Georges Sand. And they immediately became the center of attention of the reading public and became the subject of fierce debate. The writer's pseudonym was very soon discovered, and interest in the novels of George Sand increased even more - still, these novels, in which wives rebel against their husbands and, with full consciousness of their rightness, break the sacred bonds of marriage, these novels were written by a woman who herself broke up with her husband and was not afraid to further openly defend her right to interpret marriage and love morality.
In 1836, Paris was agitated by the divorce proceedings of Madame Aurora Dudevant, the writer George Sand. The offended husband argued that someone who wrote as many immoral works as his wife did was not worthy to raise his children. He accused her of being “initiated into the most shameful secrets of debauchery,” and lawyer J. Sand read excerpts from her novels, proving the genius of the writer.
First novels
The divorce proceedings seemed to sum up not only the unsuccessful marriage of J. Sand, but also her early creativity. The first novels of J. Sand appeared in the interval between her break with her husband and this process - in 1831-1834. They all vary in artistic form The writer's first everyday experience was "Indiana" (1831), "Valentine" (1832), "Lelia" (1833), "Jacques" (1834).
At first glance, it may seem that these novels are so chamber and intimate that it is not clear why the democratic forces of France of that period immediately and unconditionally enrolled the young writer into their ranks. However, upon closer examination, it turns out that using this chamber material, George Sand solves problems that are extremely important for the development of a democratic worldview in French society of that time.
At the center of these novels is formally the problem of love and marriage. These are stories of failed marriages and broken love affairs. But behind this formal plot lies a fiery defense of human spiritual freedom, freedom of feelings, especially female feelings. Hardly ever before in literature has a woman appeared with such a sovereign consciousness of her right to love and to freedom in choosing the object of her feelings.
Creativity of the second half of the 30s
In 1835, Sand became closer to the Republicans, to the utopian socialists. She begins to be interested not only in the spiritual freedom of a person in the sphere of feelings, but also in social freedom. This is how it is determined main topic Sand's novels of the next decade.
The altruistic moralizing principle in the work of George Sand received a special incentive from the mid-30s, when the writer began to actively master the social reform ideology of her time. “Socialism” by George Sand, especially at this stage, is far from class certainty, it is sympathy for the poor and oppressed in general, the dream of the unity of all people and classes as a counterbalance to individualism and selfishness; that is why it responds primarily to Christian socialism (Lamennais) and utopian socialism (Saint-Simonism). The problematic of class and class inequality still frightens her with its explosiveness (“Andre”, 1835), and at first she prefers to confine herself to the sphere of feeling, turning primarily to the theme of love, which destroys class barriers. Here unity, even in spite of all obstacles, is most imaginable for her sensitive heart, for even if lovers die (as in “Valentine”), their love does not die, it remains an uncontested covenant. The appeal to the idea of human unity on a broader scale gives rise to still vague and artistically unconvincing mystical-spiritualistic visions in the spirit of Christian socialism of Lamennais ("Spyridion", 1839).
Moving away from romantic egocentrism
There was no speculative thinking at all strong point George Sand - "Lelia" and "Spiridion" remained a kind monumental monuments unfruitful passion for romantic and Christian-spiritualist philosophy. But on the other hand, George Sand felt very keenly the moral aspect of philosophical and ideological teachings - the point where words can be translated into deeds, where an abstract idea comes into contact with real life practice. That is why she very soon moved away from romantic egocentrism.
In her "Letters of a Traveler" (1834-1837) and novels of the second half of the 30s and 40s, individualism appears as a fatal flaw of the soul, destructive not only for others, but also for the person most affected by it ("Mauprat"; "Horace ", 1842; "Lucrezia Floriani", 1847). The writer reworks the novel "Lelia", and in its second edition (1839) the egocentric position is also questioned. The destinies of George Sand's heroes are increasingly being linked with social movements of a progressive liberation nature; such is the role of the Carbonara theme in the novel “Simon” (1836), an American episode in the life of the hero of the novel “Mauprat”. And the theme of the people is becoming increasingly important in the writer’s novels.
The theme of the people
The people appear first of all as the source and guarantee of moral renewal, as “the healthiest force in every nation.” This is the image of the wise peasant philosopher Solitaire in the novel “Moira,” folk characters and the novels "Simon", "The Wandering Apprentice" (1840), "The Miller from Anjibo" (1845), "The Sin of Monsieur Antoine" (1845). As a rule, the plots in such novels are based on the fact that the wisdom of people from the people helps the heroes - people from higher classes - not only to arrange their personal destiny, but also to determine their place in life in general, to bring their existence in accordance with the sublime principles of humanity and altruism. Even the most vital theme for romantics - the theme of art - is decisively connected with the folk theme. The people are the basis and soil of all genuine art ("Mosaicists", 1837), and the highest duty of the artist is to maintain this connection with the people's origins ("Consuelo", 1843).
"Consuelo"
The dilogy "Consuelo" and its continuation - the novel "Countess Rudolstadt" - occupy a special place in the writer's work. This is perhaps the most striking manifestation of her genius. The main character, the singer Consuelo, has a wonderful voice and studies music with Maestro Porpora, and among other characters there is also composer Joseph Haydn. The atmosphere of the novel is in many ways reminiscent of E.T.A.'s Kreisleriana. Hoffmann, however, Consuelo’s love story develops against a moving, adventurous background: fate throws her either into an ancient castle in Bohemia, where the secret brotherhood of the “Invisibles” operates, or to the court of the Prussian Empress Maria Theresa, and in the end Consuelo chooses the fate of a gypsy and wanders the roads Europe. Her lover, the prophetic madman Count Albert Rudolstadt, preaches the utopian and mystical ideas of Jan Hus; The prototype for his image was, according to some interpretations, the poet Adam Mickiewicz. The activities of the “Invisibles” are recreated on the basis of descriptions of Masonic societies of the 18th century, however, in the epilogue, when George Sand puts philosophical arguments about social justice into the mouth of his heroes, this utopia is framed in an allegorical vein as a secret open to everyone: “They move away along the strewn golden sand path, along a forest path that belongs to everyone."
The role of educational elements in the works of George Sand
The significant role of educational elements in the worldview and work of George Sand, like that of Hugo, is expressed not only in the general ideas of enlightening the people and society, in the didactic and educational setting, but also in the very artistic structure of the works. If in the abstract reasoning of the writer and her characters questions of social relations can be raised very sharply and insightfully, then in the plots of the novels themselves, in their figurative system, these relations are, as a rule, elevated above the real state of affairs, idealized in an educational-utopian spirit.
For example, George Sand's folk characters not only have a natural and unmistakable moral sense, the ability to deeply love and suffer, but also display a very high aesthetic and mental culture, already acquired in the process of self-education. The gallery of such images was already begun in “Valentine” (Benedict) and continued in the image of Solitaire, who knows Homer, Dante, Tasso and Ossian (“Mauprat”), in the image of Pierre Huguenin in “The Wandering Apprentice”. At the same time, portraying the prodigal sons and daughters of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, George Sand makes them painfully burdened by their high position, yearn for “simplification”, a return to patriarchal existence; This ideological tendency underlies the constant George Sandov theme of love between a man and a woman belonging to different classes. The theme of the “curse of wealth”, which has a high moral and objectively sharp anti-bourgeois meaning (as in “The Sin of Monsieur Antoine”), sometimes appears completely illusory and naive in its exaggeration, as in the novel “The Miller of Anjibo”, the heroine of which considers herself entitled respond to the love of a poor person only after she herself has gone bankrupt.
In other novels, criticism of society sometimes becomes very specific, as in the sociological arguments of the characters in the novel “The Sin of Monsieur Antoine.” In the preface to the collected works of 1842, polemicizing against “the arguments of conservatives that you should not talk about a disease if you have not found a cure for it,” George Sand, in fact, resorts to the artistic logic of realism with its emphasis on the “diagnosis” of the disease modern society.
But at its core, George Sand’s work remains, of course, romantic: in any case, she herself more willingly and more often recognized it as such, setting art the task of “searching for the ideal truth”; She fully recognized the right of her realist contemporaries - Balzac, Flaubert - to depict people “as they are,” but she resolutely reserved the right to depict people “as they should be.”
What is natural for George Sand is precisely the tone taken in “Indiana”, “Valentine”, “Consuelo”, “Jacques”; knowledge of the life of the heart, sympathy for the persecuted and suffering, whether in a purely personal or social sense, comprehensive and unabashed responsiveness, an active dream of an ideal person and humanity - this is what raised this writer - with all the haste and accident of many of the countless things she wrote - to the heights of the spiritual culture of the century, made her the ruler of thoughts and forced even the most skeptical minds bring her - sometimes as if involuntarily - tribute of respect and admiration.
George Sand - French writer XIX century. This woman knew how to surprise with her bold ideas about women's emancipation and equality - this can be seen both in her work and in her pseudonym, which is a man's name. The biography of George Sand is both a fascinating and tragic story.
The writer's bibliography includes about two dozen novels. The most popular works of George Sand:
- "Eme."
- "Horace."
- "Countess Rudolstadt".
- "Lucrezia Floriani".
Childhood
Sand's real name is Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin. Father Georges Sand was a creative person and was fond of music, but despite this he became a military man. Maurice Dupin began his career with simple soldier and became an officer during the campaign in Italy.
In 1800 he met his future wife Sophie-Victoria Delaborde. Maurice is inspired by a new acquaintance and gives her his heart, not paying attention to her far from young age (she was about 33 years old) and dubious reputation (at that time she was the mistress of his boss).
After another 4 years, the family went to Spain - Maurice was invited there to participate in the Spanish company. At this time, his wife was expecting their second child together, and on June 12, George Sand’s brother Auguste was born. In September 1808, the family returned back to France, and then difficulties began. On the way, the small children fell ill: Aurora managed to recover, and her little brother died. However, the troubles did not end there: Maurice himself soon died during an unsuccessful horseback ride.
The women had to live under the same roof. The peace in their house did not last long: Maurice's mother began to understand that Sophie Victoria could not provide a proper education for her granddaughter. In addition, she did not like the fact that her daughter-in-law’s first child from another man lived with them. Aurora's mother, caring about her future, decided to leave her mother-in-law's house, leaving the girl with her grandmother. Later, the writer recalled this period as one of the most difficult in her life.
The girl rarely saw her mother, and even these infrequent meetings Madame Dupin tried to reduce. That is why Aurora decided to leave her grandmother’s house, but her plan was not destined to come true: Madame Dupin sent her granddaughter to a monastery.
Surprisingly, Aurora’s mother agreed with her mother-in-law’s opinion. The girl began to notice the growing coldness on her mother’s part; she understood that Sophie-Victoria was not interested in her fate, since she was keen on building a relationship with a new man. Aurora gradually gets used to living without her mother.
In her new place of study, Aurora became interested in religion. She read religious books with passion and felt merging with divine powers. The young lady decided to devote herself completely to God and become a nun, but the girl’s confessor dissuaded her from this, saying that closeness with divine powers can be maintained in ordinary secular life.
The girl is interested in philosophy, she especially likes the teachings of Rousseau. Every day Aurora could be seen riding her horse Colette. Many people condemned her for her free life, but the words of censure did not touch the heart of George Sand. Aurora calmly communicated with men. Already at a young age, she had a short affair, the hero of which was the son of her father’s friend, Stefan Azhasson de Grandsan.
Official marriage and birth of children
In 1821, Aurora's grandmother died. According to her will, custody of her granddaughter was to go to Count Villeneuve, but the girl’s mother opposed this and took custody of her daughter herself. The mother aggravates the already tense relationship with her daughter by demanding that Aurora marry a man who is unpleasant to her. Due to stress, George Sand began to develop illnesses nervous soil– her stomach often cramped.
After 3 years, the first son appeared in the family, who was named Maurice. At the same time, the spouses begin to realize their differences: Casimir was not interested in art, he was interested in hunting and politics, while Aurora dreamed of a relationship in the style of Rousseau. Attacks of melancholy occur in a young wife and mother more and more often, which leads to quarrels in marriage.
At the same time, Aurora met Aurelien de Sez, with whom she began a platonic romance. Later, she again began communicating with her first love Stefan. In 1828, a daughter, Solange, appeared in the family, but the likelihood that Casimir was her father was negligible. Soon the couple separated, agreeing that outwardly they would maintain the appearance of their union for society. The husband gave some money to his wife every month, and she went to Paris.
Creativity and love
Their first books, “The Commissioner”, “Rose and Blanche” were published under the same surname Sando. The works were a success among readers, and then Aurora begins to work independently. She writes her novel "Indiana" and signs it with a pseudonym - George Sand. Using a man's name, she gets rid of her low position and from that moment gains financial independence.
In their best years Aurora met actress Marie Dorval. An affair was attributed to these ladies, but this fact has not yet been confirmed. In 1833, the novel “Lelia” was written, which tells about a girl who cannot find happiness in love and therefore changes men like gloves. The work caused a lot of both positive and negative reviews.
Afterwards, Aurora had an affair with the attending physician Musso. However, after some time, correspondence begins again between Musso and Sand, they converge, but again realize that their union brings pain to both. They break up for the second time, and as a result, two famous books are born: Musso writes his novel “Confession of a Son of the Century,” and Aurora creates the work “She and He.”
In 1835, Georges Sand decides to officially separate from his husband. In order to win the trial, she turns to Louis Michel, a famous lawyer who later becomes her lover until 1837. By court decision, Aurora's ex-husband Casimir took over the upbringing of their son and received management of the Narbonne Hotel in Paris, and the writer George Sand took over the upbringing of their daughter.
After 1835, Aurora wrote innovative works about the equality of men and women. During this period, she collaborated with Pierre Leroux, who adhered to the same ideas. Under the influence of their friendship, the novels “Countess Rudolstadt”, “Horace”, “Consuelo” appeared.
George Sand and Chopin heard a lot of negative reviews about their relationship from the outside; many acquaintances of this couple believed that this union only made both of them suffer. After some time, Georges Sand and Frederic Chopin became just friends. This love story was captured by the writer in the novel “Lucrezia Floriani”.
In his mature years, George Sand's work acquired anti-religious sentiments. She was not satisfied with the policies of Louis Napoleon, in addition, she was against the Catholic religion. The newspaper in which her texts were published was soon closed.
On June 8, 1876, George Sand died from complications of intestinal disease. Her body was buried in Nohant. This is a short biography of the world famous writer, filled with unexpected turns fate and relationships with famous men. Author: Ekaterina Lipatova
George Sand(creative pseudonym of Amandine Aurora Lucille Dupin, after marriage - Dudevant) was the daughter of a noble nobleman and a commoner. This circumstance played an important role in her biography. The girl was born in Paris on July 1, 1804. Her countess grandmother and mother, who was the daughter of a simple bird catcher, had difficulty finding mutual language, and as a result, Aurora remained to live with the first one, practically not seeing her mother. Young Aurora suffered greatly, but the result of this everyday drama was a cooling of the kindred feelings of mother and daughter for each other.
On January 12, 1818, Aurora was assigned to the Augustinian Catholic monastery, where she received a standard education for that time. Having left its walls, the girl plunged headlong into reading, giving preference to works that left a noticeable imprint on her future work.
When her grandmother died, young Aurora, left alone, became interested in Casimir Dudevant. They were married in a Parisian temple in September 1822, after which they moved to the Nohan estate. However, the family life of people so different in spirit and interests did not work out, although two children were born to him - a son, Maurice, and a daughter, Solange, whose paternity biographers unanimously attribute to another man, Azhasson de Grandsan. The marriage quickly turned into a formality and did not keep the spouses from cheating.
Following her new lover, Jules Sandot, on January 4, 1831, Aurora leaves for Paris, having concluded an agreement with her husband. She took up writing to earn a living. Her first work, the novel “Rose and Blanche” (1831), was written in collaboration with Jules Sandot, and was well received by the public. Soon, at the request of the publishers, a second book was written, in which Sando wrote only the title. There was a need for a creative pseudonym - from then on, the signature “George Sand” appeared under the works of Aurora Dudevant.
Independent, active Aurora, who since childhood preferred to wear men's clothing, shocked ordinary people not only with her appearance, but also with her lifestyle. She behaved so freely and visited places in the French capital that in no way corresponded to her gender, age, or status. Having the status of a baroness, she actually lost it in the eyes of the upper class. The novel Indiana, written in 1832, dedicated to the equal rights of women in the context of the problem of human freedom, was fully consistent with its spirit. During 1832-1834. The novels “Valentina”, “Jacques”, “Lelia” were written, and the latter caused a real scandal in society.
In 1836, Aurora and Casimir officially divorced, thanks to which she gained the right to live in Nohant and raise her daughter. The son was supposed to be raised by the ex-husband, but since 1837 Sand has lived with both children. Mid-30s In her biography, she was marked by a passion for the ideas of utopian and Christian socialism, the ideology of left-wing republicans, which was also reflected in a number of her novels of this period. Throughout 1842-1843. Sand worked on the novel Consuelo, which is considered her best work.
Sand treated the revolution as a surprise, but when she arrived in Paris, she became infected with its ideas and even edited the “Bulletin of the Republic” and campaigned for the Republicans. In May 1848, the threat of arrest hung over her, but she returned to the estate without hindrance. When Louis Napoleon came to power, the fearless writer defended the disgraced Republicans. Published in 1857, the novel “Daniella” again caused a real scandal, because of it the newspaper “La Presse” was closed. During 1854-1858. George Sand worked on “The Story of My Life,” which aroused considerable interest among readers. The last years of the life of the writer, who was called the “good lady from Noan,” were spent in the estate, where she died on June 8, 1876.
Biography from Wikipedia
George Sand(French George Sand, real name - Amandine Aurora Lucille Dupin(French: Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin), married to Baroness Dudevant; July 1, 1804 - June 8, 1876) - French writer.
Family
Aurora Dupin's great-grandfather was Moritz of Saxony. In 1695, Maria Aurora von Königsmarck (1662-1728), the sister of Philip von Königsmarck, who was killed on the orders of the Elector of Hanover, while finding out the reasons for the death of her brother, met the Elector of Saxony, the future king of Poland, Augustus the Strong, and became his mistress. In 1696, she gave birth to a son, Moritz; the lovers separated even before the birth of the child. Maria Aurora settled in Quedlinburg Abbey, creating a popular secular salon there.
Moritz of Saxony, who had an attraction to military affairs from an early age, was raised by his father. At his insistence, Moritz traveled on foot through Europe in the harshest conditions: he carried military equipment with him and ate only soup and bread. At the age of thirteen, he already took part in the battle and received the rank of officer. Having begun his military career with his father, Moritz of Saxony served in Russia and France, distinguishing himself in the War of the Austrian Succession.
In 1748, one of Moritz's mistresses Marie de Verrieres ( real name Rento) gave birth to a daughter, Maria Aurora (1748-1821). Since Marie de Verrieres was not faithful to Moritz, the marshal did not include her and her daughter in his will. Maria Aurora turned to Moritz's niece, Dauphine Maria Josephine, for protection. She was placed in the Saint-Cyr convent and given an allowance of eight hundred livres. Maria Aurora was considered the daughter of unknown parents; her position scared off potential suitors for her hand. She appealed to the Dauphine for the second time so that she would be allowed to be called “the illegitimate daughter of the Marshal of France, Count Moritz of Saxony and Marie Rento.” Paternity was confirmed by an act of the Parliament of Paris. At the age of 18, Marie-Aurora married infantry captain Antoine de Horne. He received the position of commandant of the Alsatian town of Celeste. The couple arrived at de Orne's destination five months after the wedding; the next day, forty-four-year-old de Orne fell ill and died three days later. Maria Aurora settled in a monastery, and later, due to lack of funds, she moved to the house of her mother and aunt. At the age of thirty, she married a second time to a representative of the main tax farmer in Berry, Louis-Claude Dupin de Frankeuil, the former lover of her aunt Genevieve de Verrieres. The house of the Dupin couple was built on a grand scale; they spent a lot on charity and were interested in literature and music. Widowed in 1788, Marie-Aurora moved to Paris with her son Maurice. In 1793, believing that life was safer in the provinces, Marie-Aurora bought the Nohant-Vic estate, located between Chateauroux and La Chatre. At first, Madame Dupin, who called herself a follower of Voltaire and Rousseau, sympathized with the revolution. Her attitude to events changed when the terror began, she even signed up for 75 thousand livres to a fund to help emigrants. Due to her membership of the nobility in December 1793, Madame Dupin was arrested and placed in the monastery of the English Augustinians. She was released after the events of 9 Thermidor, and in October 1794 she left with her son for Nohant.
Childhood and youth
Maurice Dupin (1778-1808), despite his classical education and love of music, chose a military career. Having begun his service as a soldier during the Directory, he received his officer rank during the Italian campaign. In 1800, in Milan, he met Antoinette-Sophie-Victoria Delaborde (1773-1837), the mistress of his boss, the daughter of a bird catcher, and a former dancer.
She was already over thirty years old when my father saw her for the first time, and among what a terrible company! My father was generous! He realized that this beautiful creature was still capable of love...
They registered their marriage at the mayor's office of the 2nd arrondissement of Paris on June 5, 1804, when Sophie Victoria was expecting their first child together - Maurice had illegitimate son Hippolyte, Sophie-Victoria had a daughter, Caroline.
On July 1, 1804, in Paris, Sophie Victoria gave birth to a girl named Aurora. Maurice's mother did not want to admit her son's unequal marriage for a long time; the birth of her granddaughter softened her heart, but the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law remained cold. In the spring of 1808, Colonel Maurice Dupin, Murat's adjutant, took part in the Spanish Campaign. Pregnant Sophie Victoria followed him with her daughter. Here on June 12, Sophie-Victoria gave birth to her son Auguste. On September 8 of the same year, the family left the country along with the retreating troops and returned to Nohant. On the way, the children fell ill: Aurora recovered, the boy died. Four days after his return, Maurice died in an accident while riding: his horse ran into a pile of stones in the dark.
After the death of Aurora's father, the countess mother-in-law and the commoner daughter-in-law became close for a while. However, Madame Dupin soon decided that her mother could not give the heiress Noan a decent upbringing, and besides, she did not want to see Sophie-Victoria's daughter Caroline in her house. After much hesitation, Aurora’s mother, not wanting to deprive her of her large inheritance, left her with her grandmother, moving with Caroline to Paris. Aurora was having a hard time with the separation. “My mother and grandmother tore my heart to shreds.”
The teacher of Aurora and her half-brother Hippolyte was Jean-François Deschartres, the manager of the estate, former mentor Maurice Dupin. In addition to teaching her reading, writing, arithmetic and history, her grandmother, an excellent musician, taught her to play the harpsichord and sing. The girl also adopted her love for literature from her. No one was involved in Aurora’s religious education - Madame Dupin, “a woman of the last century, recognized only the abstract religion of philosophers.”
Since men's clothing was more convenient for riding, walking and hunting, Aurora became accustomed to wearing it from childhood.
The girl saw her mother only occasionally, when she came to Paris with her grandmother. But Madame Dupin, trying to reduce Sophie-Victoria's influence to a minimum, tried to shorten these visits. Aurora decided to run away from her grandmother; her intention was soon discovered, and Madame Dupin decided to send Aurora to a monastery. Upon arrival in Paris, Aurora met with Sophie Victoria, and she approved of her grandmother’s plans for her daughter’s further education. Aurora was struck by the coldness of her mother, who at that time was once again arranging her personal life. “Oh my mother! Why don’t you love me, me who loves you so much?” Her mother was no longer a friend or an adviser to her; subsequently Aurora learned to do without Sophie-Victoria, however, without breaking with her completely and maintaining purely external respect.
At the Augustinian Catholic monastery, where she entered on January 12, 1818, the girl became acquainted with religious literature and was overcome by mystical moods. “I perceived this complete merging with the deity as a miracle. I literally burned like Saint Teresa; I didn’t sleep, I didn’t eat, I walked without noticing the movements of my body...” She decided to become a nun and do the hardest work. However, her confessor, Abbot Premor, who believed that a person can fulfill his duty without leaving secular life, dissuaded Aurora from this intention.
Her grandmother survived the first blow and, fearing that Aurora might remain under the care of “her unworthy mother,” decided to marry the girl off. Aurora left the monastery, which became for her “paradise on earth.” Soon the grandmother decided that her granddaughter was still too young for family life. Aurora tried to reconcile her mother and grandmother, but was defeated. She invited her mother to stay with her, but Sophie-Victoria did not agree to this. In 1820, Aurora returned with her grandmother to Nohant. A wealthy heiress, Aurora was nevertheless not considered an enviable match due to a series of illegitimate births in the family and the low origin of her mother.
As a result of the second blow, Madame Dupin was paralyzed, and Deschartres transferred to the girl all rights to manage the estate. Deschartres, who was the mayor of Nohant, also acted as a pharmacist and surgeon, Aurora helped him. At the same time, Aurora became interested in philosophical literature, studied Chateaubriand, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Aristotle, Pascal, but most of all she admired Rousseau, believing that only he had true Christianity, “which requires absolute equality and fraternity.”
She went on long rides on her horse Colette: “We had to live and ride together for fourteen years.” Those around her reproached Aurora for her lifestyle; the freedom she enjoyed was unthinkable at that time for a person of her gender and age, but she did not pay attention to it. At La Chatre, Aurora was friends with her peers, the sons of her father’s friends: Duvernay, Fleury, Pape. An affair began with one of them, Stefan Azhasson de Gransany, a student who taught her anatomy. But youthful love did not lead to anything: for Gransan’s father, the count, she was the daughter of a commoner, but her grandmother would not agree to this marriage because of Stefan’s poverty.
Aurora's grandmother died on December 26, 1821, agreeing, to the surprise of her believing granddaughter, to receive unction and receive communion before her death. “I am convinced that I am not committing either meanness or lies by agreeing to a ritual that, in the hour of separation from loved ones, serves as a good example. May your heart be at peace, I know what I am doing.” The grandmother insisted that Aurora be present at her confession. WITH last words Madame Dupin turned to her granddaughter: “You are losing your best friend.”
Marriage
According to Madame Dupin's will, custody of the seventeen-year-old girl was transferred to Count René de Villeneuve, and Aurora herself was to live in Chenonceau, in the count's family. However, the girl's mother insisted on guiding her. The Villeneuves withdrew from guardianship - they did not want to deal with an “adventurer” of low origin. Aurora obeyed her mother “out of a sense of duty” and justice - class prejudices were alien to her. Soon a conflict arose between mother and daughter: Sophie-Victoria forced Aurora to marry a man for whom she did not have the slightest inclination. Aurora rebelled. Her mother threatened her with imprisonment in a monastery.
“You will be better here. We will warn the community about you; here they will be wary of your eloquence. Get ready for the idea that you will have to live in this cell until you come of age, that is, three and a half years. Don’t even think about appealing to the laws for help; no one will hear your complaints; and neither your defenders nor you yourself will ever know where you are...” But then - either they were ashamed of such a despotic act, or they were afraid of the retribution of the law, or they simply wanted to scare me - they abandoned this plan.
Aurora realized that a lonely woman without protection is doomed to face difficulties at every turn. Due to nervous overstrain, she fell ill: “she began to have stomach cramps, which refused to take food.” For a while, Sophie-Victoria left her daughter alone. In 1822, Aurora stayed with the family of her father's friend, Colonel Rethier du Plessis. Through the du Plessis spouses she met Casimir Dudevant (1795-1871), the illegitimate son of Baron Dudevant, owner of the Guillery estate in Gascony. Suffering from loneliness, she “fell in love with him as the personification of masculinity.” Casimir proposed not through his relatives, as was customary then, but personally to Aurora, and thus conquered her. She was sure that Casimir was not interested in her dowry, since he was the only heir of his father and his wife.
Despite her mother's doubts, in September 1822, Aurora and Casimir got married in Paris and left for Nohant. Casimir replaced Deschartres as manager of Noan, and the couple began to lead the life of ordinary landowners. On June 30, 1823, Aurora gave birth to a son, Maurice, in Paris. The husband was not interested in books or music; he hunted, was involved in “local politics” and feasted with local nobles like him. Soon Aurora was overcome by attacks of melancholy, which irritated her husband, who did not understand what was going on. For the romantically inclined Aurora, who dreamed of “love in the spirit of Rousseau,” the physiological side of marriage turned out to be a shock. But at the same time, she remained attached to Casimir, an honest man and an excellent father. She was able to regain some peace of mind by communicating with her mentors at the English Catholic monastery, where she moved with her son. But Maurice fell ill, and Aurora returned home.
The time comes when you feel the need for love, exclusive love! Everything that happens needs to be related to the object of love. I wanted you to have both charm and talents for him alone. You didn't notice this about me. My knowledge turned out to be unnecessary, because you did not share it with me.
Aurora felt unwell; her husband believed that all her illnesses existed only in her imagination. Disagreements between spouses have become more frequent.
At the end of 1825, the Dudevant couple traveled to the Pyrenees. There, Aurora met Aurélien de Sez, a fellow prosecutor at the Bordeaux court. The affair with de Sez was platonic - Aurora felt happy and at the same time reproached herself for changing her attitude towards her husband. In her “Confession,” which she wrote to her husband on the advice of de Seza, Aurora explained in detail the reasons for her action, by saying that her feelings did not resonate with Casimir, that she changed her life for his sake, but he did not appreciate it. Returning to Nohant, Aurora maintained correspondence with de Sez. At the same time, she meets again with Stéphane Azhasson de Grandsan, and the youthful romance continues. On September 13, 1828, Aurora gives birth to a daughter, Solange (1828-1899); all Sand's biographers agree that the girl's father was Azhasson de Gransagne. Soon the Dudevant couple actually separated. Casimir began to drink and started several love affairs with Noan's servants.
Aurora felt that it was time to change the situation: her new lover, Jules Sandot, went to Paris, she wished to follow him. She left the estate to her husband in exchange for rent, stipulating that she would spend six months in Paris, the other six months in Nohant, and maintain the appearance of marriage.
Beginning of literary activity
Aurora arrived in Paris on January 4, 1831. A pension of three thousand francs was not enough to live on. To save money, she wore a men's suit, and besides, it became a pass to the theater: ladies were not allowed into the stalls - the only seats that she and her friends could afford.
To earn money, Aurora decided to write. She brought a novel (“Aimé”) to Paris, which she intended to show to de Keratry, a member of the Chamber of Deputies and a writer. He, however, advised her not to study literature. On the recommendation of her friend from La Chatre, Aurora turned to the journalist and writer Henri de Latouche, who had just taken charge of Le Figaro. The novel “Aimé” did not make an impression on him, but he offered Madame Dudevant cooperation in the newspaper and introduced her to the Parisian literary world. A brief journalistic style was not her element; she was more successful in lengthy descriptions of nature and characters.
More decisively than ever, I choose a literary profession. Despite the troubles that sometimes happen there, despite the days of laziness and fatigue that sometimes interrupt my work, despite my more than modest life in Paris, I feel that from now on my existence is meaningful.
At first, Aurora wrote together with Sando: the novels “The Commissioner” (1830), “Rose and Blanche” (1831), which had great success among readers, were published under his signature, since Casimir Dudevant’s stepmother did not want to see her name on the covers of books. In “Rose and Blanche,” Aurora used her memories of the monastery, notes about her trip to the Pyrenees, and stories from her mother. Already on her own, Aurora began a new work, the novel “Indiana”, the theme of which was the juxtaposition of a woman seeking perfect love, a sensual and vain man. Sando approved the novel, but refused to sign someone else's text. Aurora chose a male pseudonym: this became for her a symbol of deliverance from the slavish position to which modern society doomed women. Keeping the surname Sand, she added the name Georges.
Latouche believed that in Indiana Aurora copied the style of Balzac, however, after reading the novel more carefully, he changed his mind. The success of Indiana, which was praised by Balzac and Gustave Planche, allowed her to sign a contract with the Revue de Deux Mondes and gain financial independence.
Sand's friendship with Marie Dorval, the famous actress of the romantic era, dates back to that time.
To understand what power she (Dorval) has over me, one would have to know to what extent she is not like me... She! God put in her a rare gift - the ability to express her feelings... This woman, so beautiful, so simple, has not learned anything: she guesses everything...<…>And when this fragile woman appears on stage with her seemingly broken figure, with her careless gait, with a sad and soulful look, then you know what seems to me?... It seems to me that I see my soul...
Sand was credited with a love affair with Dorval, but these rumors are unconfirmed. In 1833, the novel Lélia was published, which caused a scandal. The main character (in many ways this is a self-portrait), in pursuit of the happiness that physical love gives to other women, but not to her, moves from lover to lover. Later, regretting that she had given herself away, George Sand corrected the novel, removing confessions of impotence and giving it greater moral and social overtones. Jules Janin in the Journal de Debats called the book “disgusting”; the journalist Capeau de Feuilde “demanded a ‘flaming coal’ to cleanse his lips of these base and shameless thoughts...” Gustave Planche published a positive review in the Revue de Deux Mondes and challenged Capo de Feuillide to a duel. Sainte-Beuve noted in a letter to Sand:
The general public, demanding in the reading room to be given a book, will refuse this novel. But on the other hand, he will be highly appreciated by those who will see in him the most vivid expression of the eternal thoughts of humanity... To be a woman who has not yet reached thirty years of age, from whose appearance one cannot even understand when she managed to explore such bottomless depths; to carry this knowledge within yourself, a knowledge that would make our hair fall out and our temples turn gray - to carry it with ease, ease, maintaining such restraint in expression - this is what I admire most about you; really, madam, you are an extremely strong, rare nature...
George Sand and Alfred de Musset
Sainte-Beuve, who admired Musset, wanted to introduce the young poet Sand, but she refused, believing that she and Musset were too different people between whom there could be no understanding. However, having accidentally met him at a dinner hosted by the Revue de Deux Mondes, she changed her mind. A correspondence began between them, and soon Musset moved to Sand's apartment on the Malaquay embankment. Sand was sure that now she would definitely be happy. The crisis came during their joint trip to Italy, when Musset's nervous and fickle nature made itself felt. Quarrels began, Musset reproached Sand for her coldness: every day, no matter what, she spent eight hours literary work. In Venice, he announced to Sand that he was mistaken and did not love her. Sand becomes the mistress of Dr. Pagello, who treated the sick Musset. In March 1834, Alfred de Musset left Venice; George Sand remained there for another five months, working on the novel Jacques. Both Sand and Musset regretted the break, and correspondence continued between them. Sand returned to Paris with Pagello, who wrote to his father: “I am at the last stage of my madness... Tomorrow I leave for Paris; there we will part with Sand...” At the first meeting, Sand and Musset resumed their relationship. However, after some time, tired of scenes of jealousy, a series of breaks and reconciliations, Sand left Musset. Alfred de Musset carried with him throughout his life the memory of this painful connection for both. In his “Confession of the Son of the Century” (1836), under the name of Brigitte Szpilman, he depicted ex-lover, in the epilogue expressing the hope that someday they will forgive each other. After Musset's death, Sand described their relationship in the novel She and He (1859), which caused a negative reaction from Alfred's brother Paul, who responded to her with the novel He and She.
Divorce. Louis Michel
In 1835, Georges Sand decided to get a divorce and turned for help to the famous lawyer Louis Michel (1797-1853). A republican, a brilliant orator, the undisputed leader of all liberals of the southern provinces, Michel played a decisive role in the formation political views Sand.
Forward! Whatever the color of your banner, as long as your phalanx marches towards a republican future; in the name of Jesus, who has only one true apostle left on earth; in the name of Washington and Franklin, who could not complete everything and left this matter to us; in the name of Saint-Simon, whose sons, without hesitation, perform a divine and terrible task (God bless them...); If only good prevails, if only those who believe prove it... I'm just a little soldier, accept me.
In April 1835, he acted on the defense at the trial of the Lyon insurgents. Sand followed him to Paris to attend the meetings and take care of Michel, “who did not spare himself in the defense of the April accused.”
In January 1836, Sand filed a complaint against her husband in the La Chatre court. After hearing witnesses, the court entrusted the upbringing of the children to Mrs. Dudevant. Casimir Dudevant, fearing to lose his rent, did not defend himself and agreed to a sentence in absentia. However, soon disagreements arose between the former spouses during the division of property. Dudevant appealed the court's decision and outlined his claims against his wife in a special memorandum. Michel was Sand's lawyer in the divorce proceedings that resumed in May 1836. His eloquence impressed the judges; their opinions, however, were divided. But the next day, Casimir Dudevant went to peace: he had to raise his son and received the use of the Narbonne Hotel in Paris. Madame Dudevant was entrusted with the daughter, Nohan remained behind her.
Sand broke up with Michel in 1837 - he was married and had no intention of leaving his family.
Christian socialism
Prone to mysticism, like George Sand, Franz Liszt introduced the writer to Lamennais. She immediately became an ardent supporter of his views and even went to some extent to cool relations with Sainte-Beuve, who criticized the abbot for inconsistency. For the newspaper Le Monde, founded by Lamennais, Sand offered to write for free, giving herself freedom to choose and cover topics. “Letters to Marcy,” correspondence in the form of a novel, included Sand’s actual messages to the poor dowry-less Elisa Tourangin. When Sand touched upon the equality of the sexes in love in The Sixth Letter, Lamennais was shocked, and upon learning that the next one would be devoted to “the role of passion in a woman’s life,” he stopped publishing.
...he (Lamennais) does not want them to write about the divorce; He expects from her (Sand) those flowers that fall from her hands, that is, fairy tales and jokes. Marie d'Agoux - Franz Liszt
However, the main reason for the break between Lamennais and Sand was that she was a faithful follower of the philosophy of Pierre Leroux. Most of Leroux's ideas were borrowed from Christianity, Leroux only did not allow the immortality of the individual. He also advocated gender equality in love and the improvement of marriage as one of the conditions for the emancipation of women. According to Sand, Leroux, “the new Plato and Christ,” “saved” her, who found “peace, strength, faith, hope” in his teaching. For fifteen years, Sand supported Leroux, including financially. Under Leroux's influence, Sand wrote the novels Spyridion (co-authored with Leroux) and The Seven Strings of the Lyre. In 1848, after leaving the conservative publication Revue de Deux Mondes, she founded the newspaper Revue Independent with Louis Viardot and Leroux. Sand published her novels “Horace”, “Consuelo” and “Countess Rudolstadt” in it. She supported poets from the proletarian environment - Savignen Lapointe, Charles Mague, Charles Poncey and promoted their work (“Dialogues on the Poetry of the Proletarians”, 1842). In her new novels (“The Wandering Apprentice”, “The Miller from Anjibo”) the virtue of the proletarians was contrasted with the “selfishness of the noble rich.”
George Sand and Chopin
At the end of 1837, Sand began a relationship with Chopin, who by that time had separated from his fiancée Maria Wodzinska. Hoping that the climate of Mallorca will have a beneficial effect on Chopin's health, Sand decides to spend the winter there with him and his children. Her expectations were not met: the rainy season began, Chopin began to have coughing attacks. In February they returned to France. Sand recognizes himself as the head of the family. From now on, she tries to live only for children, Chopin and her work. To save money, they spent the winter in Paris. Differences in character, political preferences, and jealousy for a long time could not prevent them from maintaining affection. Sand quickly realized that Chopin was dangerously ill and devotedly took care of his health. But no matter how his situation improved, Chopin’s character and illness did not allow him to remain in a peaceful state for a long time.
This is a man of extraordinary sensitivity: the slightest touch to him is a wound, the slightest noise is a clap of thunder; a person who recognizes conversation only face to face, who has gone into some mysterious life and only occasionally manifests himself in some uncontrollable antics, charming and funny. Heinrich Heine
Some of Sand's friends pitied her, calling Chopin her "evil genius" and "cross." Fearing for his condition, she reduced their relationship to purely friendly ones. Chopin suffered from this state of affairs and attributed her behavior to other hobbies.
If any woman could inspire complete confidence in him, it was me, and he never understood this... I know that many people blame me - some because I exhausted him with the unbridledness of my feelings, others because that I drive him into despair with my foolishness. It seems to me that you know what's going on. And he, he complains to me that I’m killing him with refusals, whereas I’m sure that I would kill him if I did otherwise... From a letter from George Sand to Albert Grzimala, a friend of Chopin.
The relationship with Chopin was reflected in Sand's novel Lucrezia Floriani. Subsequently, she denied that she had based Lucretia on herself and Karol on Chopin. Chopin did not recognize or did not want to recognize himself in the image young man, a charming egoist who was loved by Lucretia and caused her premature death. In 1846, a conflict arose between Chopin and Maurice, as a result of which the latter announced his desire to leave home. Sand took her son’s side:
This could not have happened, it should not have happened, Chopin could not stand my intervention in all this, although it was necessary and legal. He lowered his head and said that I stopped loving him. What blasphemy after eight years of maternal dedication! But the poor offended heart was not aware of its madness...
Chopin left in November 1846, at first he and Georges exchanged letters. Chopin's daughter Sand pushed him to the final break. Solange, having quarreled with her mother, came to Paris and turned Chopin against her.
...she hates her mother, slanderes her, denigrates her most sacred motives, defiles her with terrible speeches native home! You like to listen to all this and maybe even believe it. I will not enter into such a fight, it terrifies me. I prefer to see you in a hostile camp than to defend myself from an opponent who is fed by my breasts and my milk. George Sand to Frederic Chopin.
The last time Sand and Chopin met by chance was in March 1848:
I thought that a few months of separation would heal the wound and restore peace to friendship and justice to memories... I shook his cold, trembling hand. I wanted to talk to him - he disappeared. Now I could tell him, in turn, that he stopped loving me.
The composer maintained friendly relations with Solange, who married the sculptor Auguste Clesinger, until his death.
Revolution and Second Empire
The revolution came as a complete surprise to Sand: the campaign of electoral banquets, which ultimately led to the fall of the regime, seemed to her “harmless and useless.” Worried about the fate of her son, who was living in the capital at that time, she came to Paris and was inspired by the victory of the republic. Ledru-Rollin assigned her to edit the Bulletin of the Republic. Convinced of the conservatism of the province, on the eve of the general elections, Sand spared no effort in trying to win the people over to the side of the republican government. In April Bulletin No. 16 she wrote:
Elections, if they do not allow social truth to triumph, if they express the interests of only one caste that has betrayed the gullible straightforwardness of the people, these elections, which were supposed to be the salvation of the republic, will become its death - there is no doubt about it. Then for the people who built the barricades there would be only one way of salvation: to demonstrate their will a second time and postpone the decisions of the pseudo-people's government. Will France want to force Paris to resort to this extreme, regrettable means?... God forbid!...
After the events of May 15, 1848, when a crowd of demonstrators tried to seize the National Assembly, some newspapers held her responsible for inciting the riot. There were rumors that she would be arrested. Sand remained in Paris for two more days in order to “be at hand for justice if it decided to settle scores with me,” and returned to Nohant.
After the December coup of 1851, she obtained an audience with Louis Napoleon and gave him a letter calling for an end to the persecution of political opponents. With the help of Napoleon-Joseph Sand, the fate of many Republicans was softened. From the moment Louis Napoleon was proclaimed emperor, she no longer saw him, turning to the Empress, Princess Mathilde or Prince Napoleon for help.
Last years
During the years of the Second Empire, anti-clerical sentiments appeared in Sand's work as a reaction to the policies of Louis Napoleon. Her novel Daniella (1857), which attacked Catholic religion caused a scandal, and the newspaper La Presse, in which it was published, was closed.
She became friends and had an active correspondence with Alexandre Dumas, son, who freely remade her novel “The Marquis de Vilmer” (1861-1862) for the stage.
Georges Sand died from complications of intestinal obstruction on June 8, 1876 at her Nohant estate. Upon learning of her death, Hugo wrote: “I mourn the dead, I salute the immortal!” She was buried at her estate in Noan. Proposals were put forward to transfer her ashes to the Pantheon (Paris).
Essays
Works translated into Russian
- Indiana (1832)
- Valentine (1832)
- Melchior (Melhior, 1832)
- Lelia (Lélia, 1833)
- Cora (1833)
- Jacques (1834)
- Marquise (La Marquise, 1834)
- Metella (1834)
- Leone Leoni (1835)
- Mauprat (Bernard Mauprat, or the Reformed Savage) (Mauprat, 1837)
- The Masters of the Mosaic (The Mosaists) (Les Maîtres mozaïstes, 1838)
- Orco (L’Orco, 1838)
- Uskok (L'Uscoque, 1838)
- Spiridion (1839)
- The Wandering Apprentice (Pierre Huguenin; Countryman Villepre (Comrade of Circular Tours in France); Castle of Villepre) (Le Compagnon du tour de France, 1841)
- Winter in Majorca (Un hiver à Majorque, 1842)
- Horace (Horace, 1842)
- Consuelo (1843)
- Countess Rudolstadt (La Comtesse de Rudolstadt, 1843)
- The Miller of Angibault (Le Meunier d’Angibault, 1845)
- Devil's swamp (Devil's puddle; Damned swamp) (La Mare au diable, 1846)
- The Sin of Monsieur Antoine (Le Péché de M. Antoine, 1847)
- Lucrezia Floriani (1847)
- Piccinino (Le Piccinino, 1847)
- François the Foundling (Foundling, or Hidden Love; Adopted) (François le Champi, 1850)
- Mister Rousset (excerpt from the novel) ( Monsieur Rousset, 1851)
- Mont Revèche (Mont Revèche Castle) (Mont Revèche, 1853)
- Daniella (La Daniella, 1857)
- The Fair Gentlemen of Bois-Doré (The Beauties of Bois-Doré) (Les beaux messieurs de Bois-Doré, 1858)
- Green Ghosts (Les Dames vertes, 1859)
- She and He (Elle et lui, 1859)
- The Snowman (L'Homme de neige, 1859)
- Marquis de Villemer (Le Marquis de Villemer, 1861)
- Confession of a Young Girl (La Confession d’une jeune fille, 1865)
- The Last Love (Le Dernier Amour, 1867)
- Pierre Tumbleweed. Handsome Laurence (Pierre qui roule. Le Beau Laurence, 1870)
- France (Francia. Un bienfait n’est jamais perdu, 1872)
- Nanon (Nanon, 1872)
- Castle of Percemont (La Tour de Percemont, 1876)
Works translated into Russian in the 19th - early 19th century. XX centuries (not reprinted)
- Lavinia (1834)
- Her Ladyship's Private Secretary (Quintilia; House Secretary) (Le Secrétaire intime, 1834)
- André (1835)
- Mattea (1835)
- Flemish (Flamarande) (Flamarande, 1875)
- Simon (Simon, 1836)
- Pauline (1839)
- Cosima, or hatred in love (Cosima ou la Haine dans l "amour, 1840)
- Mississippians (Les Mississipiens, 1840)
- Moony Roubin (1842)
- Carl (1843)
- Jan Zizka (1843)
- Jeanne (1844)
- Teverino (Teverino, 1846)
- Little Fadette (Fanchon Fadette; Little Witch; Imp; Enchantress) (La Petite Fadette, 1849)
- Castle in the Desert (Le Château des Désertes, 1851)
- Claudie (1851)
- Molière (1851)
- Victorine's Wedding (Le Mariage de Victorine, 1851)
- The Grape Vise (Le Pressoir (drame en trois actes), 1853)
- The Pipers (Les Maîtres sonneurs, 1853)
- Goddaughter (La Filleule, 1853)
- The Doctor's Robin (La Fauvette du docteur, 1853)
- Adriani (Laura; Inconsolable) (Adriani, 1854)
- The Story of My Life (Histoire de ma vie, 1855)
- Jean de la Roche (1859)
- Narcissus (1859)
- Constance Verrier (1860)
- The Black City (La Ville noire, 1861)
- Valvèdre, 1861
- Tamaris (Tamaris, 1862)
- What does the stream say? (Ce que dit le ruisseau, 1863)
- Laura. Voyage into Crystal (Laura. Voyage dans le cristal, 1864)
- Sylvester (Monsieur Sylvestre, 1866)
- Flavia (Flavie, 1866)
- Cadio (Soldier of the Revolution) (Cadio, 1868)
- Mademoiselle Merquem, 1868
- Despite everything (Malgrétout; Two sisters) (Malgrétout, 1870)
- Cesarine Dietrich (1871)
Cycles
- Village stories (Little Fadette, Francois the Foundling, Devil's Swamp)
- Grandmother's Tales (Contes d'une grand'mère vol. 1, 1873; vol. 2, 1876)
- Talking Oak (Enchanted Oak) (Le Chêne parlant)
- The Dog and the Sacred Flower (Le Chien et la fleur sacrée)
- Titan Organ (Extraordinary Organ; Shantgyur Vision) (L"Orgue du Titan)
- What do flowers say (Ce que disent les fleurs)
- Red Hammer (Le Marteau rouge)
- Fairy of Dust (La Fée Poussière)
- The Gnome Oyster (Le Gnome des huîtres)
- The Bug-Eyed Fairy (La Fée aux gros yeux)
- The Giant Yeous (Le Géant Yeous)
- Queen Kvakusha (La Reine Coax)
- Pictordu Castle (Le Château de Pictordu)
- Pink Cloud (Le Nuage Rose)
- The story of a true simpleton named Griboul (The Adventures of Griboul; Griboul)
Prose
- The story of a dreamer (L"Histoire du rêveur, 1924)
- The Commissioner (Le Commissionnaire, 1830, with Jules Sandot).
- Rose and Blanche (1831, with Jules Sandeau)
- The Girl from Albano (La Fille d'Albano, 1831)
- La Reine Mab (poésie), 1832
- Le Toast, 1832
- Aldo le Rimeur (1833)
- Intimate diary (Journal intime, 1834)
- Garnier (1834)
- The Last of Aldini (La Dernière Aldini, 1838)
- The Seven Strings of the Lyre (Les Sept Cordes de la lyre, 1840)
- Georges de Guérin (1842)
- Dialogues on the poetry of the proletarians (1842, article)
- The Younger Sister (La Sœur cadet, 1843)
- Koroglou (Kouroglou, 1843)
- Isidora (1846)
- Champagne Holidays (Les Noces de campagne, 1846)
- Evenor and Lesippus. Love in the Golden Age (Evenor et Leucippe. Les Amours de l'Âge d'or, 1846)
- Around the table (Autour de la table, 1856)
- The Devil in the Fields (Le Diable aux champs, 1857)
- Rural walks (Promenades autour d’un village, 1857)
- The Germand Family (La Famille de Germandre, 1861)
- Antonia (1863)
- Mademoiselle La Quintinie (1863)
- Diary of a Wartime Traveler (Journal d'un voyageur pendant la guerre, 1871)
- My Sister Jeanne (Ma sour Jeanne, 1874)
- Two Brothers (Les Deux Frères, 1875)
- Marianne (1876)
- Rural legends (Légendes rustiques, 1877)
Plays
- Théâtre complet de George Sand: première série (Préface de l'auteur)
- Conspiracy in 1537 (Une conspiration en 1537, 1831)
- Le Roi attend, 1848
- The Demon of the Hearth (Le Démon du foyer (comédie en deux actes), 1852)
- Les Vacances de Pandolphe (comédie en trois actes), 1852
- Flaminio (comédie en trois acts et un prologue), 1854
- Maître Favilla (drama en trois actes), 1855
- Lucie (comédie en un acte), 1856
- Françoise (comédie en quatre actes), 1856)
- Comme il vous plaira (comédie en trois actes), 1856
- Marguerite de Sainte-Gemme (comédie en trois actes), 1859
- Théâtre de Nohant (rêverie Le Drac, étude Plutus, nouvelle dialoguée Le pavé, fantaisie La nuit de Noël, comédie Marielle), 1864
- Les Don Juan de village (comédie en trois actes), 1866
- Le Lis du Japon (comédie en un acte), 1866
- Cadio (avec Paul Meurice, drame en cinq actes), 1867
- Lupo Liverani (drama en trois actes), 1869
- L "autre (comédie en quatre acts et un prologue), 1870
- Un bienfait n"est jamais perdu (proverbe), 1872
Film adaptations
- Fanchon, the Cricket (novel)
- Leone Leoni (1917) / Leone Leoni (novel)
- Indiana (1920) / Indiana (novel)
- The Devil's Swamp (1923) / Mare au diable, La (novel)
- Mauprat (1926) / Mauprat (novel)
- Lachende Grille, Die (1926) / Lachende Grille, Die
- Jutrzenka (1969) / Jutrzenka (novel)
- Mauprat (TV) (1972) / Mauprat (novel)
- The Devil's Swamp (TV) (1972) / Mare au diable, La (novel)
- François the Foundling (TV) (1976) / François le Champi (novel)
- The Fair Gentlemen of Bois-Doré (TV series) (1976) / Beaux messieurs de Bois-Doré, Les (novel)
- Petite Fadette (TV) (1979) / Petite Fadette, La (novel)
- Ville noire, La (TV) (1981) / Ville noire, La (novel)
- Les amours romantiques (TV series) (1983) / Les amours romantiques
- Little Fadette (TV) (2004) / La petite Fadette (novel)
Audio performances
Cycle "Grandma's Tales" 2011, ArMir publishing house, translation and production by Irina Voskresenskaya
What a sign: a bird flew into the window (a tit flew in)
Apricot jam in syrup for the winter
Why do you dream about red hair?
Zucchini like milk mushrooms - recipes for preparing for the winter
I dreamed of light - what could this mean?