Skip to main content

No one knows who George Sand is, so let's fix that

Okay, so what my last post proved is that no one knows shit about George Sand. We're about to change all that. GATHER ROUND ME, CHILDREN, FOR I HAVE JUST DONE INTERNET RESEARCH.



George Sand was born in 1804 with the EXTREMELY FRENCH ladyname of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin. Good. Job. So she was born right when Napoleon was all 'KABOOM! I am your emperor' and as far as I know, the French were like 'Hey, we just killed a whole bunch of people trying to end that, but ok.' So she's born when that's going on, and also the same year that the Napoleonic Code is adopted, which is basically all "I'm gonna be an asshole to women." 

She eventually has something to say regarding that. But as a baby she was probably pretty chill about it.

When she's 18 (let's skip all those formative years), she marries a guy called "Baron Casimir Dudevant," making her (in my mind) Baroness Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin-Dudevant. Which is awesome.

Nine years later (1831) she leaves her husband, because, according to one thing I read, she found his will and he was a total dick to her in it in a name-calling way, and bounces about until ACTUALLY separating from him four years later. At this point, Napoleon's been imprisoned, the Bourbon monarchy restored, then the Bourbons overthrown by the Orléans family, and the July Monarchy's in power for a while. If you've never studied French history, the 19th century's a shit show and about ten billion different people are in power.

Indiana, the novel I mentioned the other day, was written in 1832, so the year after she left her husband. There's a lot in there about how awful the Napoleonic Code is and how women have no rights and maybe someone's in a terrible marriage and would like to leave it please.
The husband's adultery was still no ground for divorce unless he brought his mistress home. However, the wife's adultery could land her in jail for up to 3 months and was certainly a ground for divorce. (x)


So Sand's boppin' around after the July Monarchy's in control, and she's havin' affairs with basically all the young French writer gentlemen, including Prosper Mérimée (who wrote the story the opera Carmen is based on) and Alfred de Musset, who was an overly dramatic poet who wrote a book about their relationship after it ended. She wrote a novel in response years later ("THIS IS HOW IT REALLY WENT DOWN") but that is beside the point.

The point is that she adopted the name George Sand and had a ten year affair with Chopin. The pseudonym seems to be because...y'know. It was the 1830s and ladies weren't published so much. Also, after she left her husband and was off in the Latin Quarter in Paris, she started dressing like a dude, because greater freedom and the like. Plus...


plus there's that.

She once said "Chopin coughs most gracefully." 

Which I think we should all love her for. 

Sand was an important figure in the 19th century French literary scene, which we might not pay a TON of attention to in 21st century English-speaking countries, but we should. Because Balzac and Zola and Stendhal and Hugo and Dumas and Flaubert. Hurrah for all of them. 

Especially Balzac, 'cause he is awesome.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar

How to Build a Girl Introductory Post, which is full of wonderful things you probably want to read

Acclaimed (in England mostly) lady Caitlin Moran has a novel coming out. A NOVEL. Where before she has primarily stuck to essays. Curious as we obviously were about this, I and a group of bloggers are having a READALONG of said novel, probably rife with spoilers (maybe they don't really matter for this book, though, so you should totally still read my posts). This is all hosted/cared for/lovingly nursed to health by Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) because she has a lovely fancy job at an actual bookshop ( Odyssey Books , where you can in fact pre-order this book and then feel delightful about yourself for helping an independent store). Emily and I have negotiated the wonders of Sri Lankan cuisine and wandered the Javits Center together. Would that I could drink with her more often than I have. I feel like we could get to this point, Emily INTRODUCTION-wise (I might've tipped back a little something this evening, thus the constant asides), I am Alice. I enjoy