The Liberated George Sand

by Mewsette

I love to read about the really scandalous women of history. They are, by far, the most interesting, and usually had very good reasons for being scandalous or else became so through no fault of their own. It wasn't much easier to be a woman in ages past than it was to be a cat. George Sand was such a woman; yes, in spite of using a man's name. She scandalised 19th century Paris, and probably enjoyed it immensely! George Sand has been called the first modern, liberated woman. She wore men's clothing (more comfortable!), traveled widely, led an adventurous life, and became one of the most prolific - and best - writers of her day. She lived and wrote in the same time period of Dostoevkii, Tolstoi, Flaubert, Balzac and Proust. and her works influenced theirs. She was called "the most remarkable writer of the present century." That she certainly was. She wrote 70 novels, 24 plays, memoirs, essays, short stories, fairy tales, and over 40,000 letters that we know of. She took great pleasure in her work and, probably, also in the fact that some of her books were controversial. "My profession", she said, "is to be free." Who was this remarkable woman? She was born Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin in Paris in 1804, and she lived until 1876. She was surely one of the most accomplished and memorable women of the 19th century. But her real legacy is also her forceful personality and her lifetime search for ways to be a liberated woman. Even this far away from her time, her voice has never been stilled. She married young and had two children, but she didn't like the husband she was stuck with. So she left her family in Nohant, the serene chateau in central France that belonged to her, and went to seek the literary life in Paris in 1830. In the years that followed, she had several love affairs, including a long-time affair with her great love and the great composer, Frederic Chopin. She was a personal friend of Franz Listz, and many other famous writers, poets and composers of her time. George Sand played a very important role in the 19th century evolution of the novel. She was accused of many things, because of the controversial nature of some of her writing, but the accusations were not proven. It was common in that century to assume that a woman could only write from personal experience. That was wrong. She settled back in her home, Nohant, in her older years, but never stopped traveling and writing. "The world will know and understand me someday," she said. "But if that day does not arrive, it does not matter. I shall have opened the way for other women." If no man could own such a woman as George Sand, could a cat own her? Yes, and it seems that she did not mind. There may have been some discussion about who owned who, but the cat who shared her life was named Minou. I am sure Minou was there, and the one anecdote I found to prove it is that George Sand and Minou ate their breakfast from the same bowl. Does this sound like George Sand? It sure does to me.