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Famous Women: George Sand By: Bertha Thomas |
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GEORGE SAND. BY BERTHA THOMAS. BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
1883. Copyright, 1883 ,
BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. UNIVERSITY PRESS:
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
PREFATORY NOTE.
The authentic materials available for an account of the life of George
Sand, although lately increased by the publication of a large part of
her correspondence, are still incomplete. Her memoirs by her own hand,
dealing fully with her early life alone, remain unsupplemented by any
entire and detailed biography, for which, indeed, the time seems hardly
yet come. Hence one among many obvious difficulties in the way of this
attempt to prepare for English readers a brief sketch that shall at
least indicate all the more salient features of a life of singularly
varied aspect. Much, though of interest in itself, must here be omitted, as beyond the
scope of the present study. There are points again into which, as
touching persons still living or quite recently deceased, it would be
premature to enter. But none seem of such importance as to forbid the
endeavor, by a careful review of those facts in the life of George Sand
which most justly represent her character as a whole, and were the
determining influences on her career and on her work, to arrive at truth
and completeness of general outline, the utmost it is possible to hope
to accomplish in this little volume. BERTHA THOMAS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS CHAPTER II. GIRLHOOD AND MARRIED LIFE CHAPTER III. DÉBUT IN LITERATURE CHAPTER IV. LÉLIA ITALIAN JOURNEY CHAPTER V. MENTAL DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER VI. SOLITUDE, SOCIETY AND SOCIALISM CHAPTER VII. CONSUELO HOME LIFE AT NOHANT 149 CHAPTER VIII. NOVELIST AND POLITICIAN 170 CHAPTER IX. PASTORAL TALES CHAPTER X. PLAYS AND LATER NOVELS CHAPTER XI. ARTIST AND MORALIST CHAPTER XII. LATER YEARS
GEORGE SAND.
CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS.
In naming George Sand we name something more exceptional than even a
great genius. Her rise to eminence in the literature of her century, is,
if not without a parallel, yet absolutely without a precedent, in the
annals of women of modern times. The origin of much that is distinctive in the story of her life may be
traced in the curious story of her lineage. George Sand was of mixed national descent, and in her veins ran the
blood of heroes and of kings. The noble and the artist, the
bourgeoisie and the people, all had their representatives among their
immediate ancestors. Her grandmother, the guardian of her girlhood, was
the child of Maurice, Marshal Saxe, that favorite figure in history and
romance, himself son of the famous Augustus II., Elector of Saxony, and
King of Poland, and the Swedish Countess Aurora von Königsmark. The
Marshal's daughter Aurore, though like her father of illegitimate
birth her mother, who was connected with the stage, passed by her
professional name of Mlle. Verrieres obtained after the Marshal's death
the acknowledgment and protection of his relatives in high places,
notably of his niece, the Dauphin of France, grand daughter of Augustus
of Poland, and mother of the three kings Louis XVI., Louis XVIII., and
Charles X. Carefully educated at St. Cyr, Mlle. de Saxe was married, when little
more than a child, to the Count de Horn, who was also of partly royal
but irregular origin. He very shortly afterward fell in a duel. His
widow, at thirty, became the wife of M. Dupin de Franceuil, an old
gentleman of good provincial family and some fortune. Maurice, their
only child, was the father of George Sand. Madame Dupin (the suffix de Franceuil was afterwards dropped by her
husband) appears to have inherited none of the adventurous and erratic
tendencies of her progenitors. Aristocratic in her sympathies,
philosophic in her intellect, and strictly decorous in her conduct,
throughout the whole of her long and checkered life she was regarded
with respect. Left a widow again, ten years after her second marriage,
she concentrated her hopes and affections on her handsome and amiable
son Maurice... Continue reading book >>
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