George sand biography paris commune

The year just ended marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Sand. After Joan of Arc, Sand is probably the most famous Frenchwoman who wasn’t a queen or mistress to a king. In 2004, her native country came up with a record number of commemorative manifestations, that wonderfully elastic word that can mean anything from street fight to symposium. In Sand’s case, the more sedate events prevailed, but one is tempted to regret the unruly possibilities that she herself would likely have preferred.

High or low, Sand has always led biographers a merry chase. Hers seems more like several lives, literary, amorous and political, whose out-sized subject has proved a moving target. The dynamic momentum of her story has inspired numerous biopics and serial TV productions, in which she has been played by such stars as Merle Oberon, Juliette Binoche and Judy Davis. Much of her appeal has to do, of course, with the company she kept. Her lovers included Frederic Chopin, the poet Alfred de Musset, the writer and cultural bureaucrat Prosper Merimee and Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, the redoubtable literary critic. But there were scores of others -- actors, jurists, journalists, politicians -- men (and at least one woman) celebrated in their day but now of interest mainly to historians or those committees that get to choose Paris street names. And there were many lesser lights.

Despite her well-publicized affairs, devoted friendships (most notably with the much younger Gustave Flaubert) and passionate involvement with family and community in her home province of Berry, Sand’s most faithful commitment was, first and always, to writing. Disappointed in love, in her marriage and children, in political engagements, she defined herself by her writing, as a successful independent woman but also as a highly conscious participant-observer of her times and of timeless human nature. In 88 novels, 25 plays, plus journals, travel pieces, political comm

French novelist and memoirist (1804–1876)

Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (French:[amɑ̃tinlysiloʁɔʁdypɛ̃]; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen nameGeorge Sand (French:[ʒɔʁʒ(ə)sɑ̃d]), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. She has more than 50 volumes of various works to her credit, including tales, plays and political texts, alongside her 70 novels.

Like her great-grandmother, Louise Dupin, whom she admired, George Sand advocated for women's rights and passion, criticized the institution of marriage, and fought against the prejudices of a conservative society. She was considered scandalous because of her turbulent love life, her adoption of masculine clothing, and her masculine pseudonym.

Personal life

Childhood

Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, the future George Sand, was born on 1 July 1804 on Meslay Street in Paris to Maurice Dupin de Francueil and Sophie-Victoire Delaborde. She was the paternal great-granddaughter of the Marshal of France Maurice de Saxe (1696–1750), and on her mother's side, her grandfather was Antoine Delaborde, master paumier and master birder. For much of her childhood, she was raised by her grandmother Marie-Aurore de

Born: July 1, 1804
Paris, France
Died: June 9, 1876
Nohant, France
French author

The French novelist George Sand was one of the most successful female writers of the nineteenth century.