Page 48 - DIVA_3_2009

GEORGE SAND (1804-1876)

vemacular and learned the
The famous Frencli
popular names of wild ani-
romantic novelist George
mals and plants, which she
Sand stayed in Geneva in
later put to good use in her
1836. Despite haviiig the
novels. Her grandmother
name of a man, this was a
was opposedto religion and
lady. Why was it that a
Aurore grew rip to be very
woman wrote books iii the
hostile to Catholicism.
name of a man?
Neveitheless, as a teenager
she was educated at an
Apart from her novels,
English-speaking convent
George Sand is also noto-
in Paris. Despite subse-
rious for her emotional
quently becoining one of
private life, where an
France's leading intellechi-
astonishing succession of
als, George Sand contiiuied
yormg and handsome
to participate in the rituals
lovers succeeded each
of the harvest season at
other, the most famous of
Nohant all her life.
whom were the poet
Alfred de Musset, the
In December 1821, when
writer Prosper M6rim6e
she was 17, the graiidmoth-
and the pianist and com-
er died and within a year
poser Fr6d6ric Chopin.
Arirore had mari'ied Baron
Although she acquired tlie
Casimir Dudevant, an
popular image of a
not aproblemrintilAurore's transcending social conven- uncouth local squire. A son
C pl'OlIliSCuOuS WOITlan father was killed in a riding tion: wealthy famier falls in called Maui'ice was born in
(would she, had she been a love with peasant girl;
E man?), it is clear from her accident. She was four 1823. Her husband's ambi-
novels tliat she craved h'ue years old when he took out upper-class lady is attracted tion was to tiu'n the Noliant
his temperamental black to poor-but-honest rustic. estate into an efficient
love, stability and fidelity.
stallion on the family's They are set iii the bucolic fariniiig business witli hiin-
In fact, Chopin did not fit
o tlie mould of tlie virile estate at Nohant for a last counti'yside of the Beriy, a self as the rindisprited mas-
fateful tide. There followed i'ich agricultural area in tlie ter. She soon tired of her
o young lover. since his three years of quatrelling very centre of France. husband's coarse manners
ardoir was diininislied by
aborit liow Aurore should and the marriage
tuberculosis. George Sai'id
be brought up between her Tluis, Aurore Dupin was formdered. During the
nursed her "dear skeleton"
underprivileged mother brouglit up by her gra+id- divorce process, she came
o for eight years in a quasi Sophie and lier noble motlier at Nohant, with its close to losiiig tlie estate. To

mother/child relationship
o grandinother. Was the latter cMteau, tiny church and console lierself slie staited
before the final nipture
not Maiie Aurore Dupin de surrounding cottages deep writing and entered iiito a
resulting from a family
Franceuil, the (illegitimate) in the French counhyside. series of passionate
squabble.
daughter of the Compte de Here, something of a liaisons. There was a rather
ai She was boi'ii Ainandiiie Saxe and the (illegitiinate) "tomboy", she was taught rinorthodox neighborir
granddaugliter of the King to ride horses and shoot called St6pliane de
CIO Aurore Lucile Dupin de of Poland? Finally, the game like a man. Slie was Grandsagne by whom she
Franceuil in 1804 in Paris.
grandinother lfft on the idea also involved in the fari'n- had a darighter called
As a child she was latown
of paying Airore's motlier iiig cycle of sowing and Solange. Under the tenns
as Arirore Dupin. Her
an allowance if she worild reaping, the l'iai'vesting of of an ainicable agreement
fatlier, Maurice, was an
only go and live elsewhere. fiuit and vegetables and the witli lier husband, who con-
officer in Napoleon's ai'iny.
Sopliie accepted and care of fan'n aiinals. Her tinried to nin the Noliant
Maurice came from a i'icli
retiirned to her native Paris. early education was along- estate, Arirore left for Paris
fainily; her mother Sophie
side the peasant children, in in 1831 with her latest
did not-the couple haviiig
Reflecting the situation of whose homes she listened lover, Jules Sandeari. She
been mai'i'ied in secret tlu'ee
her parents, George Sand's to the local legends. In the was 27 and lier life now
weeks before Aurore's
stories are often about love process she picked up tlie took on its h'iie direction.
biith. This social gulf was
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