A rich baroness, born to preserve centuries-old traditions, but who despised the opinion of society and all her life openly rebelled against his foundations, that was Amandine Aurora Lucille Dupin, who firmly entered world history under the modest pseudonym Georges Sand.
The prerequisites for such a life position were formed long before the birth of Aurora and were aggravated by the events that occurred in her early childhood.
Noble ancestors
It just so happened that the morals of the XVIII century ordered the representatives of the nobility to marry exclusively with parties worthy of the light of the world, and then make countless love affairs on the side. Subsequently, some of the extramarital offspring received legal recognition. On one of the branches of such an ambiguous family tree, the fresh shoot of young Amandine Aurora blossomed - that was the real name Georges Sand given to her at birth.
Among her great-grandfathers is the king of Poland, who broke up with his mistress Maria Aurora before the birth of his son Moritz, but took an active part in his upbringing and contributed to his career. In turn, Moritz of Saxony had many lovers, one of whom gave birth to Maria Aurora. However, he was in no hurry to call her his daughter. The girl obtained official recognition only after the death of her father. She twice married very successfully and soon became a widow with her son in her arms and an impressive fortune. It was this son who became the father of the future world-famous writer.
Parents
To the great displeasure of his mother, Maurice Dupin connected his life with a woman of a philistine origin. Sophia Victoria Delabord used to be a dancer and had a nasty reputation. For a long time, Maria Aurora refused to recognize this marriage and did not even want to see her grandchildren. Sophia Victoria gave birth to two children Maurice - Aurora and Auguste. But the boy died of the disease in infancy.
The sudden death of Maurice as a result of the accident forced the adamant Maria Aurora to reconsider her attitude to the little granddaughter, so similar to her son. Ms. Dupin decided to raise the girl as a real lady and presented her daughter-in-law with an ultimatum - either she leaves the estate, providing guardianship to her mother-in-law, or Aurora is left without an inheritance.
Sophia Victoria chose the first and went to Paris to arrange her personal life. This gap was a trauma for the little girl. She was only four years old when she lost her father, and now she was also separated from her mother, whom she loved dearly. And although they continued to occasionally see each other, Sophia-Victoria did not become for her daughter either a friend, a defender, or an adviser. So from a young age, Aurora had to learn to rely on herself and make her own decisions.
Youth
When the girl was 14 years old, her grandmother, as was customary then, sent her to a boarding house at the monastery to study. Here, the impressive Aurora was imbued with interest in the unknown spiritual world. She had a tenacious mind, and she delightedly read the books available in the monastery.
Meanwhile, her grandmother suffered a first blow. Frightened that in the event of her death, the young heiress will follow in the footsteps of her mother, Maria Aurora decides to urgently marry her and takes her from the monastery.
However, no matter how young this child was, she calculatedly opposed her marriage to marriage, and soon Maria Aurora abandoned her plans. Since then, the biography of George Sand was written in the vastness of history already in her own firm handwriting.
Thus, the sixteen-year-old rich heiress returned to her estate in Noan, where she spent time reading books of the then fashionable Chateaubriand, Pascal, Aristotle and other philosophers.
Young Aurora loved riding. She put on a man’s dress and took long walks in the vicinity of Noan. In those days, this was considered outrageous behavior, but the girl did not care about idle gossip.
Independent life
At eighteen, after the death of her grandmother, Aurora married Casimir Dudevan. She did not succeed in building a happy marriage - she and her husband had too different interests. She bore him a son, but after a while she began to make lovers for herself.
In 1831, Aurora moved for another passion, Jules Sando, to Paris. It is he who will become responsible for her pseudonym - George Sand. To support herself in Paris, the lady decides to begin serious literary activity.
The first novels - “The Commissioner” and “Rose and Blanche” were co-written with Jules Sandot and signed by his name, as noble relatives did not want to see the name Dudevan on the cover of the book. The works were successful, and Aurora decided to try her hand at independent work. So the novel “Indiana” was born.
Sando refused to accept undeserved laurels. And the publishers, on the contrary, insisted that the book should be sold only with the signature of the author's favorite audience. And then Aurora decided to remove one letter from the surname and add a masculine name. So the pseudonym Aurora Dupin, so recognizable today, appeared - George Sand.
Extravagant habits
Having moved to Paris, the young writer at first was somewhat constrained in her means. Perhaps this was the first explanation for her manner of wearing a man’s dress. It was warmer, more comfortable and suitable for different occasions. However, later, already being famous and rich, Aurora did not refuse such dresses.
In addition, she soon began to give preference to the pseudonym Georges in private conversations, instead of the female name Aurora. This gave rise to a lot of gossip about her sexual orientation.
Literary recognition
From the work of Indiana to the last line written, George Sand’s novels invariably provoked a mixed reaction from readers. One thing is for sure - they did not leave anyone indifferent. Many admired them, even more criticized.
The writer raised burning topics on the pages of her books. She wrote about the oppression of women shackled by outdated social norms. She called on to fight and win, which could not but find a response in a society excited by revolutionary ideas ...
Star romance
The popular writer had many lovers. However, the most famous was the young talented pianist. Frederic Chopin and George Sand have lived together for more than nine years. However, this relationship can hardly be called happy. Frederick, constantly ill and immersed in his work, needed a nurse rather than a lover. And soon Sand began to play for him the role of a caring mother, and not her life partner.
With this alignment, these relationships were doomed. However, according to critics, both Chopin and Sand wrote their best works during the period of their life together.
Literary heritage
The contribution of the hardworking writer to literature is hard to overestimate. For several decades of her creative activity, she wrote more than a hundred novels and short stories, a huge number of journalistic articles, composed a multi-volume autobiography and composed 18 dramas. In addition, more than 18 thousand personal letters of George Sand have been preserved. Books written by her are still popular.
However, the matter is not only in quantity. At the very beginning of his career, Sand independently developed a completely new literary genre - a romantic psychological novel. It is characterized in that it minimizes the number of actors and events, and focuses on the experiences of the characters.
Vivid examples of this genre are Consuelo, Countess Rudolstadt, She and He.
Epilogue of life
The last 25 years of life, George Sand spent in his estate in Noans. She continues to write, however, the novels that came out of her pen during this period no longer shine with the arrogance and desire for struggle that characterized the works of the 1830s. Age and isolation from social life make themselves felt.
Now Sand writes more about the charms of rural life, about quiet pastoral love in the lap of nature. She leaves aside her previously beloved complex social problems and focuses on the small inner world of her heroes.
Georges Sand died in 1876 at the age of 72. By this time, her literary fame was already firmly established not only in France, but also far beyond its borders. Along with Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens, George Sand is called the greatest humanist of his era. And not without reason, because she was able to carry through all her works the ideas of mercy and compassion.