Aurora Dupin (George Sand): biography and work of the French writer. Great love stories

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 important role in her biography. The girl was born in Paris on July 1, 1804. Her grandmother, a countess, and her 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 the works of J.-J. Rousseau, who 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 is a need for 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. Georges Sand worked on “The Story of My Life,” which aroused considerable interest among readers. Last years The life of the writer, who was called the “good lady from Noan,” was 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 (18040701) - 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 has early age There was an attraction to military affairs, my father raised me. 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 a second time so that she would be allowed to be called “ illegitimate daughter 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 common child - Maurice had an illegitimate son, Hippolyte, and 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 it for a long time unequal marriage son, the birth of a 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, soon Madame Dupin decided that her mother could not give a decent upbringing to the heiress of Noan, 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 estate manager and former mentor of 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.”

Because men's clothing was more convenient for riding, walking and hunting, Aurora got used to wearing it since 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 social 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 her last words, Madame Dupin addressed 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 - to an honest man and a great 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 youth novel gets its continuation. 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 wanted 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 men's suit, 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 newspaper. 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 “Commissioner” (1830), “Rose and Blanche” (1831), which had a lot of readers big success, came out with 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: it became for her a symbol of liberation from the slavish position to which a woman was doomed modern society. Keeping the surname Sand, she added the name Georges.

Latouche believed that in Indiana Aurora copied Balzac’s style, 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 began around that time. famous actress romantic era.

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 love affair with Dorval, however, these rumors are not confirmed by anything. In 1833, the novel “Lelia” 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, according to appearance which 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, considering that she and Musset were too different people, between whom there can 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 devoted eight hours to 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 portrayed his former lover, in the epilogue expressing the hope that someday they would forgive each other. After Musset's death, Sand described their relationship in the novel She and He (1859), which caused negative reaction 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 in the southern provinces, Michel played a decisive role in the formation of Sand's political views.

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, when dividing property between ex-spouses disagreements arose. Dudevant appealed the court's decision and outlined his claims against his wife in a special memorandum. Michel was Sand's defender at the resumption in May 1836 divorce proceedings. 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 main reason 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 leanings, 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.

Last time Sand and Chopin met by chance 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.

With Solange, who married the sculptor Auguste Clesinger, the composer retained friendly relations 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 the 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 (drame 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

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(Sand, George, pseudonym; real name - Amandine Lucy Aurore Dupin, by marriage - Baroness Dudevant) (1804-1876), French writer. Born July 1, 1804 in Paris. Her father, the grandson of Marshal Maurice of Saxony, served as Murat's adjutant, her mother was a Parisian dressmaker. Early death father brought discord into the relationship between her plebeian mother and her aristocratic grandmother, in whose house in Nohant (Province of Berry) Aurora Dupin spent most of her childhood. She made up for the unsystematic education she received in the village with three years (1817-1820) of study at an English Catholic monastery in Paris. At the age of eighteen, she married Casimir Dudevant, an uncouth provincial nobleman who was not at all a match for the impulsive Aurora. In 1831, she achieved the right to live separately, receiving a very meager allowance, and moved to Paris. Here her relationship with the young writer Jules Sandeau began; together they composed a very uneven novel, Rose et Blanche (1831), releasing it under the name Jules Sandeau. IN next year She achieved great success by writing the novel Indiana (Indiana, 1832) and publishing it under the name George Sand. In 1833, George Sand made a famous trip to Italy with A. de Musset; their love story formed the basis of her book She and He (Elle et lui, 1859). Among other men who enjoyed the more or less platonic favor of George Sand were S. O. Sainte-Beuve, P. Mérimée, Dr. P. Pagello (a rival of Musset), M. de Bourges, F. Lamennais, P. Leroux, F. Liszt, O. Balzac, A. Dumas the father, G. Flaubert and Fr. Chopin.

Her extensive work is traditionally divided into four periods. The first is idealistic, marked by a lyrical and romantic style of writing; in those years, she passionately defended the rights of women oppressed by society and fought for freedom of love in the novels Indiana, Valentine (1832), Lélia (1833), etc. The second period was mystical-socialist. Under the influence of Lamennay, de Bourges and Leroux, Sand preached the mixing of classes through love and marriage; this phase is represented by such books as The Wandering Apprentice (Le Compagnon du tour de France, 1840), Consuelo (Consuelo, 1842), The Miller from Angibault (Le Meunier d "Angibault, 1845). In the novels of the third period, created mostly after the writer’s return to Berry as a result of difficult experiences associated with the collapse of the revolution of 1848, simple village plots are used: The Devil’s Puddle (La Mare au diable, 1846), Little Fadette (La petite Fadette, 1848), Francois the Foundling (Francois le champi, 1849) , The Masters of the Mosaic (Les Maîtres sonneurs, 1853) The works of the fourth period are mainly pure love stories, examples are the Marquis de Villemer (Le Marquis de Villemer, 1860) and Jean de la Roche (1860).

And she 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, establishing a popular secular salon there.

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. Marie-Aurora turned to Moritz's niece, Dauphine Marie 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

Aurora Dupin

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 an officer's 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 common child - Maurice had an illegitimate son Hippolyte, Sophie-Victoria had a daughter Caroline.

George Sand's house in Nohant

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.

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 committing neither meanness nor 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 her last words, Madame Dupin addressed her granddaughter: “You are losing your best friend.”

Marriage

“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. .

Despite the mother's doubts, in September 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 noblemen like himself. 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.

Solange Dudevant

At the end of 1825, the Dudevant couple made a trip 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.

Beginning of literary activity

Auguste Charpentier. Portrait of George Sand

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 headed 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 contrast of a woman seeking ideal love with 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.

The beginning of 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 having a love affair with Dorval, but these rumors are unconfirmed. In 1833, the novel “Lelia” was published, causing a scandal. The main character (in many respects this is a self-portrait), in pursuit of happiness, which gives other women, but not her, physical love, passes 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

Alfred de Musset

In April 1835, he acted for 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, like George Sand, to mysticism, 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 Lamennais-founded newspaper Le Monde, 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 1838, 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

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 of a young man, a charming egoist, loved by Lucretia and who became the cause of 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...

...she hates her mother, slanderes her, denigrates her most sacred motives, desecrates her home with terrible speeches! 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 adversary who was 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 Clésenger, until his death.

Revolution and Second Empire

Last years

Georges Sand died from complications of intestinal obstruction on June 8 at her Nohant estate. Upon learning of her death, Hugo wrote: “I mourn the dead, I salute the immortal!”

Essays

Major Novels

Indiana (1832)
Valentine (1832)
Melchior (Melhior, 1832)
Lelia (Lélia, 1833)
Cora (1833)
Jacques (1834)
Metella (1834)
Leone Leoni (1835)
Mauprat (Mauprat, 1837)
The Masters of the Mosaic (Les Maîtres mozaïstes, 1838)
Orco (L’Orco, 1838)
Uskok (L'Uscoque, 1838)
Spiridion (1839)
The Traveling Apprentice (Le Compagnon du tour de France, 1841)
Horace (Horace, 1842)
Consuelo (1843)
Countess Rudolstadt (La Comtesse de Rudolstadt, 1843)
The Miller of Angibault (Le Meunier d’Angibault, 1845)
The Devil's Swamp (La Mare au diable, 1846)
The Sin of Monsieur Antoine (Le Péché de M. Antoine, 1847)
Lucrezia Floriani (1847)
Piccinino (Le Piccinino, 1847)
Little Fadette (La Petite Fadette, 1849)
François the Foundling (François le Champi, 1850)
Mont Revèche, 1853
The Story of My Life (Histoire de ma vie, 1855)
The Fair Gentlemen of Bois-Doré (Ces beaux messieurs de Bois-Doré, 1858)
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)
Pierre Tumbleweed (Pierre qui roule, 1870)
Nanon (Nanon, 1872)

Prose

The Commissioner (Le Commissionnaire, 1830, with Jules Sandot).
Rose and Blanche (1831, with Jules Sandeau)
The Girl from Albano (La Fille d'Albano, 1831)
Aldo le Rimeur (1833)
Conspiracy in 1537 (Une conspiration en 1537, 1833)
Intimate diary (Journal intime, 1834)
The Private Secretary (Le Secrétaire intime, 1834)
Marquise (La Marquise, 1834)
Garnier (1834)
Lavinia (1834)
André (1835)
Mattea (1835)
Simon (Simon, 1836)
The Last of Aldini (La Dernière Aldini, 1838)
Pauline from the Mississippi (Pauline. Les Mississipiens, 1840)
The Seven Strings of the Lyre (Les Sept Cordes de la lyre, 1840)
Mony Rubin (1842)
Georges de Guérin (1842)
Winter in Majorca (Un hiver à Majorque, 1842)
Dialogues on the poetry of the proletarians (1842, article)
The Younger Sister (La Sœur cadet, 1843)
Koroglou (Kouroglou, 1843)
Carl (1843)
Jan Zizka (1843)
Jeanne (1844)
Isidora (1846)
Teverino (Teverino, 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)
Castle of Solitude (Le Château des Désertes, 1851)
The story of a true simpleton named Gribouille (Histoire du veritable Gribouille, 1851)
La Fauvette du docteur (1853)
Goddaughter (La Filleule, 1853)
The Country Musicians (Les Maîtres sonneurs, 1853)
Adriani (1854)
Around the table (Autour de la table, 1856)
Daniella (La Daniella, 1857)
The Devil in the Fields (Le Diable aux champs, 1857)
Rural walks (Promenades autour d’un village, 1857)
Jean de la Roche (1859)
Narcissus (1859)
The Green Ladies (Les Dames vertes, 1859)
Constance Verrier (1860)
Country Evenings (La Ville noire, 1861)
Valverde (1861)
The Germand Family (La Famille de Germandre, 1861)
Tamaris (Tamaris, 1862)
Mademoiselle La Quintinie (1863)
Antonia (1863)
Laura (Laura, 1865)
Monsieur Sylvestre (1866)
Flavia (Flavie, 1866)
The Last Love (Le Dernier Amour, 1867)
Cadio (Cadio, 1868)
Mademoiselle Merquem, 1868
The Beautiful Laurence (Le Beau Laurence, 1870)
Despite everything (Malgré tout, 1870)
Cesarine Dietrich (1871)
Diary of a Wartime Traveler (Journal d'un voyageur pendant la guerre, 1871)
France (Francia. Un bienfait n’est jamais perdu, 1872)
Grandmother's Tales (Contes d'une grand'mère vol. 1, 1873)
My Sister Jeanne (Ma sour Jeanne, 1874)
Flemish (Flamarande, 1875)
Two Brothers (Les Deux Frères, 1875)
Tower of Percemont (La Tour de Percemont, 1876)
Grandmother's Tales (Contes d'une grand'mère vol. 2, 1876)
Marianne (1876)
Rural legends (Légendes rustiques, 1877)

Notes

George Sand. Story of my life. Quoted from: A. Maurois. Lelia, or the life of George Sand. - M.: Pravda, 1990. p. 33
Hippolyte Shatiron (1798-1848). Subsequently the owner of the castle of Montgievre near Nohant. Was married to Emilia de Villeneuve
George Sand. Story of my life. Quoted from: A. Maurois. Lelia, or the life of George Sand. - M.: Pravda, 1990. p. 41
A. Maurois. Lelia, or the life of George Sand. - M.: Pravda, 1990. p. 41
Quote by: A. Maurois. Lelia, or the life of George Sand. - M.: Pravda, 1990. p. 44
George Sand. Story of my life. Quoted from: A. Maurois. Lelia, or the life of George Sand. - M.: Pravda, 1990. p. 50
George Sand, Histoire de ma vie, I, p. 1007
A. Maurois. Lelia, or the life of George Sand. - M.: Pravda, 1990. p. 61

French literature

George Sand

Biography

Sande Georges (real name and surname - Aurora Dudevant, Dudevant; née Dupin, Dupin) - French writer. Born July 1, 1804 in Paris. Father Maurice Dupin belonged to a noble family descended from Duke Moritz of Saxony. The mother was from a peasant family, which is why the aristocratic family of the father did not like George Sand.

She spent her childhood in Nohant in Berry, in a rural environment. George Sand studied at the English Catholic Institute-Monastery in Paris. After completing her education, she returned to Nogan. At the age of 18 she married Baron Dudevant and gave birth to two children. In 1831, having separated from her husband after 8 years of marriage, Georges Sand settled in Paris. To support herself and her children, she took up painting on porcelain and quite successfully sold her elegant works, then took up literary creativity.

The first independent novel (“Indiana”), published under the pseudonym George Sand, appeared in 1832. The stories of George Sand’s many hobbies, some of whose heroes were Alfred de Musset and Frederic Chopin, were no less famous than her literary novels. Journey of George Sand and Alfred de Musset to Venice, their romantic love, which did not last long, but brought a lot of grief to both of them, was subsequently reflected in the writer’s work and in Musset’s poems, and appeared in letters and memoirs.

Her passion for Chopin, with whom George Sand traveled to the island of Majorca to cure him of consumption, was equally short-lived. In the 40s, she took part in the publication of social-utopian, left-wing republican magazines and newspapers, and supported worker poets. Was a representative romantic school, supporter socialist ideas. She took part in the February Revolution of 1848. June 1848 shattered the utopian illusions of George Sand, and she stopped social activities. She spent the end of her life very peacefully on her estate in Nogan, devoted to caring for her grandchildren - the children of Maurice Sand. Georges Sand died on June 8, 1876, Nohant, Indre department.

Sande Georges was born in Paris on June 1, 1804. Her father was a descendant of the Duke from a noble family, Maurice Dupin, and her mother was an ordinary peasant woman. Because of her mother's roots, her father's relatives did not love the girl very much. The writer spent her childhood in the village of Nogane, Berre. I went to get an education in Paris. She studied at the institute - a monastery. At the end she returns as a lady and marries the baron. Sande Georges was married to Baron Dudevant for 8 years, giving birth to two children. After the divorce, the poetess and her children return to Paris again with the goal of starting a new life. But nothing worked out, and in order to feed herself and her children, she begins to paint porcelain. Her work began to be in demand and things gradually began to improve. Soon Sand Georges began to study literature.

For publication, the poetess takes a pseudonym - Georges Sand - and begins to create. In 1832, she wrote her first creation, the novel Indiana. Sand Georges blossomed. She has fans. One of these were Frederic Chopin and Alfred de Musset. Sand Georges goes to travel to Venice with Alfredo de Musset, whose affair brought her only grief, which is soon reflected in the works of the author, poured out in his poems by Musset.

Sand Georges often had short-term relationships. One of these was her connection with Chopin on the island of Mallorca. The couple went there to cure his illness - consumption. Since the 40s, George Sand was very active social life: publishing newspapers and magazines, to which she directly contributed, and supported local authors and poets. In 1848, she was involved in the revolution, but the events of June 1948 brought her great disappointment, which put an end to her activities.

Before his death, Sand Georges returns to Nogan, to his estates. She is engaged in raising her grandchildren and, on June 8, 1876, she dies.

She was born on July 1, 1804 in Paris, in the family of the nobleman Maurice Dupin (he came from the family of the commander Moritz of Saxony).

Her father, gifted in both literary and musical abilities a young aristocrat, during the Revolution of 1789 he joined the ranks of the revolutionary army, carried out a series of Napoleonic campaigns and died young. His wife Sophia Victoria Antoinette Delaborde was the daughter of a Parisian bird seller, a true daughter of the people. The future writer visited with her mother during the Napoleonic campaign in Spain, then found herself in a quiet village environment with her grandmother, who raised her according to the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Living in constant close contact with the peasants, the girl early learned the life of both the village poor and the village rich, got used to taking the interests of the former to heart and had a negative attitude towards the village kulaks. She received her education in a monastery, like many girls from her environment. Upon leaving the monastery, Aurora became passionately interested in reading and re-read the entire library of the old woman Dupin. She was especially fascinated by the works of Rousseau, and his influence was reflected in all her work. After the death of her grandmother, Aurora soon married Casimir Dudevant. Dudevant turned out to be a completely unsuitable companion for an intelligent, inquisitive, dreamy and peculiar woman. He was a typical bourgeois money-grubber. In 1830, she separated from him, went to Paris and began to lead there, on the one hand, a completely student, free life, and on the other, a purely professional, working life of a writer.

Aurora Dupin's literary talent showed itself very early. Literary activity it started with collaboration with Jules Sandot. The fruit of this “collective creativity” - the novel “Rose and Blanche”, or “The Actress and the Nun” was published in 1831 under the pseudonym of Jules Sand (half of Sandeau’s name - Sandeau) and was a success. The publishers wished to immediately publish a new work by this author. Aurora in Nogan wrote her part, and Sando wrote only one title. The publishers demanded that the novel be published with the name of the same, successful Sando, and Jules Sandot did not want to put his name under someone else's work. To resolve the dispute, Sando was advised to henceforth write under his own full name and surname, and Aurora should take half of this surname and put in front of it the name Georges, common in Berry. This is how the pseudonym George Sand was born. 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 of 19th-century France, such behavior was considered unacceptable, so she effectively lost her status as a baroness.

Contemporaries considered Sand fickle and heartless, called her a lesbian and wondered why she chose men younger than herself.

Georges Sand met Frederic Chopin at a reception with a countess. The composer was not amazed by her beauty - he did not even like the famous writer. It is all the more surprising that after some time the gentle, subtle, vulnerable Chopin fell in love with a woman who smoked tobacco and spoke openly on any topic. The place where they lived together was Mallorca. The scene is different, but the story is the same and with the same sad ending. Chopin, burning with passion, fell ill (as Alfred de Musset once did). When the composer showed the first signs of consumption, George Sand began to feel burdened by him. It is difficult to love a sick, capricious and irritable person. George Sand herself admitted this. Chopin did not want a break. A woman experienced in such matters tried all means, but in vain. Then she wrote a novel in which, under fictitious names, she portrayed herself and her lover, and endowed the hero with all imaginable weaknesses, and exalted herself to the skies. It seemed that the end was now inevitable, but Chopin hesitated. He still thought that it was possible to return the irrevocable. In 1847, ten years after their first meeting, the lovers separated. A year after their separation, Chopin and George Sand met at the house of their mutual friend. Full of remorse, she approached her former lover and extended her hand to him. But Chopin left the hall without saying a word...

Georges Sand spent the last years of her life on her estate, where she enjoyed universal respect and earned the nickname “the good lady from Nohant.” She died there on June 8, 1876.