George Sand

One of the most celebrated French Romantic writers, George Sand (1804–76), born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dudevant, or simply Aurore, stood out as a controversial cultural figure and political agitator. Among the various aspects of her unorthodox lifestyle was that she wrote novels under a man's name and dressed as a man. When first hired by the newspaper Le Figaro, Aurore started sporting men's clothing in public, in part because male dress enabled her to move around Paris more freely. Sand's first novel, Indiana ( appeared during a turbulent period of French history, characterized by revolution, civil and labor unrest, and stringent social limits on women, themes that served as backdrop to the work. Drawing on recent French and English biographies of Sand and her writings, Reid (French literature, Lille-Nord de France Univ.) sketches a comprehensive portrait of the rebellious novelist in the context of the literature of the 19th century. Van Slyke's flowing and easy-to-read translation completes the illuminating study.