Customer Reviews (2)

Lelia The Life of George Sand
A fascination with George Sand was in every way satisfied by this book.Although much of it is a compilation of letters written to and from George Sand, it reads like a novel one can't put down.The genius and creativity of the characters emanates from every paragraph.The political climate as well as the 'every day existence' of that period is painted in vivid color by the author.

Andre Maurois Paints a Picture of George Sand--
Andre Maurois has great esteem for George Sand (the "nomme de plume" of Aurore Dupin de Dudevant), which he eloquently manifests in his biography of the great literary heroine of 19th Century France. I have been an avid fanatic of Madame Sand for quite a while, having read many of her novels (she was incredibly prolific, and so it must take many more years than the 25 which I have thus lived to read her entire oeuvre), as well as several biographies written about her.I read her "Histoire de Ma Vie" ("Story of My Life") a couple of years ago, for an Independent Study I was conducting during my years as an undergraduate, and I was absolutely fascinated by her life and her spirit, which she manifested in her novels.She led a life which many of her contemporaries considered "depraved," yet she always lived fearlessly and emotionally, according to her own inclinations and heart ("Never fear when your heart tells you what to do. . . the heart can never be wrong," she once wrote).I picked up Maurois' biography on George Sand recently, and I devoured it in a matter of days.His approach and style is somewhat antiquated (he wrote this book in the 50's, after all), but he nevertheless seems to have an uncanny understanding of Sand's life and ideas.I highly recommend his biography to anyone who is not too acquainted with Sand or her writings, but for the true Sand afficionado, I suggest that he or she read her autobiography before Maurois' biography. After all, who is most entitled and prepared to speak about her own life than Sand herself? Nevertheless, Maurois has written a good and thorough account of Sand's life.It is not one of those most commendable biographies, in which the reader believes that the writer must have known his or her subject personally, but it is a solid account of Sand's life, regardless.Although Maurois holds George Sand in high regard, he is not biased in his opinions regarding the authoress. . . in fact, at times he almost seems to pass judgement regarding her chaotic lifestyle and her tumultous liaisons.For example, he portrays De Musset as more of a victim of Sand's indiscretions (her affair with the doctor who sought to cure De Musset of his infirmities, for example), than his own penchant for a life of debauchery. I would not go so far as to proclaim that Maurois is sexist, but he does seem, at times, to allow more liberties to the men in Sand's life than he does to Sand herself.He sometimes depicts Sand as a sort of vampiress, who devours her male counterparts, while seemingly disregarding their own vices.Sand had a few jilted lovers, yes, but she too was wounded in several romantic liaisons.Nevertheless, and in summary, Maurois renders a pretty accurate portrait of George Sand, which will surely inspire the reader to learn more about this fascinating and mysterious author, truly so far ahead of her time. . . George Sand lived the sort of life, both as a woman and as an artist, which was not generally not embraced during her lifetime.She paved a literary path for future female writers, such as Colette, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Austen, among countless others, who have carried on her legacy. . . Maurois acknowledges such, if we read between the lines. . . Well, it was not his intent to present his readers with a literary feminist treatise, but he wrote a really good biography about a woman who would influence future female authors to follow her example. . . ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1922.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
An Excerpt from the book-

Tu gagnerais ta pauvre vie.
Après long travail et usaige,
Voicy la mort qui te convie._ *

THIS quaint old French verse, written under one of Holbein's pictures,
is profoundly melancholy. The engraving represents a laborer driving his
plow through the middle of a field. Beyond him stretches a vast horizon,
dotted with wretched huts; the sun is sinking behind the hill. It is the
end of a hard day's work. The peasant is old, bent, and clothed in rags.
He is urging onward a team of four thin and exhausted horses; the
plowshare sinks into a stony and ungrateful soil. One being only is
active and alert in this scene of toil and sorrow. It is a fantastic
creature. A skeleton armed with a whip, who acts as plowboy to the old
laborer, and running along through the furrow beside the terrified
horses, goads them on. This is the specter Death, whom Holbein has
introduced allegorically into that series of religious and philosophic
subjects, at once melancholy and grotesque, entitled "The Dance of
Death."

* In toil and sorrow thou shalt eat
The bitter bread of poverty.
After the burden and the heat,
Lo! it is Death who calls for thee.

In this collection, or rather this mighty composition, where Death, who
plays his part on every page, is the connecting link and predominating
thought, Holbein has called up kings, popes, lovers, gamesters,
drunkards, nuns, courtesans, thieves, warriors, monks, Jews, and
travelers,--all the people of his time and our own; and everywhere the
specter Death is among them, taunting, threatening, and triumphing. He
is absent from one picture only, where Lazarus, lying on a dunghill at
the rich man's door, declares that the specter has no terrors for him;
probably because he has nothing to lose, and his existence is already a
life in death.

Is there comfort in this stoical thought of the half-pagan Christianity
of the Renaissance, and does it satisfy religious souls? The upstart,
the rogue, the tyrant, the rake, and all those haughty sinners who make
an ill use of life, and whose steps are dogged by Death, will be surely
punished; but can the reflection that death is no evil make amends for
the long hardships of the blind man, the beggar, the madman, and the
poor peasant? No! An inexorable sadness, an appalling fatality brood
over the artist's work. It is like a bitter curse, hurled against the
fate of humanity.

Holbein's faithful delineation of the society in which he lived is,
indeed, painful satire. His attention was engrossed by crime and
calamity; but what shall we, who are artists of a later date, portray?
Shall we look to find the reward of the human beings of to-day in
the contemplation of death, and shall we invoke it as the penalty of
unrighteousness and the compensation of suffering?

No, henceforth, our business is not with death, but with life. We
believe no longer in the nothingness of the grave, nor in safety bought
with the price of a forced renunciation; life must be enjoyed in order
to be fruitful. Lazarus must leave his dunghill, so that the poor need
no longer exult in the death of the rich. All must be made happy, that
the good fortune of a few may not be a crime and a curse. As the laborer
sows his wheat, he must know that he is helping forward the work of
life, instead of rejoicing that Death walks at his side. We may
no longer consider death as the chastisement of prosperity or the
consolation of distress, for God has decreed it neither as the
punishment nor the compensation of life. Life has been blessed by Him,
and it is no longer permissible for us to leave the grave as the only
refuge for those whom we are unwilling to make happy.
... Read more

Product Description
L'Uscoque is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by George Sand is in the French language. If you enjoy the works of George Sand then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

unexpected surprise
This book surprised me. It was nothing like what I expected it to be. It was a good book and I enjoyed reading it wich was not something i expected to be able to say. The stories wereinteresting and intreaging. Goerge Sand is nothing less then a literary genuis, her stories reminded me of when I was younger.In her Story "What Flowers Say" I could definitly identify with the young girl since when I was that age I too wondered what the flowers talked about when I wasn't there. I would recomend this book to people of all ages it is simply a great book, writen by a truly awesome writer. ... Read more

Product Description
George Sand, écrivain française, est le pseudonyme d'Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin (1804-1876), plus tard baronne Dudevant. Elle écrivit des romans, des nouvelles, des contes, des pièces de théâtre, une autobiographie, des critiques littéraires et des textes politiques. Elle est née à Paris, mais a passé la plus grande partie de son enfance à Nohant dans l'Indre. En 1831 paraut son premier roman Rose et Blanche qu'elle a écrit en collaboration avec Jules Sandeau, de qui elle s'inspire pour son pseudonyme Sand. Dans ses premiers romans, autobiographies transposées, elle assimile la quête du bonheur personnel à une régénération sociale. Autres oeuvres comprennent: Indiana (qu'elle signe pour la première fois du pseudonyme de George Sand, 1832), Lélia (1833) et Elle et Lui (1859). ... Read more

Product Description
A prescient "protofeminist" dramatic treatment of gender, Gabriel makes a passionate plea for female equality in education and opportunity. Available for the first time in an English translation, the script is supplemented by an introductory essay that examines questions posed by the play with regard to conventional gender representations and how the protagonist contrasts with other cross-dressed heroines, such as Shakespeare's Rosalind in As You Like It. The introduction also recounts George Sand's struggle to get the play accepted for production on the Paris stage, and an appendix examines her 1850s revision, "Julia," in which the protagonist's role is greatly diminished. ... Read more

Product Description
Whereas the centrality of femininity to nineteenth-century French fiction has been the focus of widespread critical attention, masculinity has, until recently, received little sustained treatment in either the literary or socio-historical domains. In this book, Nigel Harkness uses the fiction of George Sand (1804-1876), the pre-eminent woman writer of the period, to explore questions of masculinity as they pertain to the nineteenth-century French novel, and to map out new approaches to the study of literary masculinity. Drawing on contemporary theories of gender and narrative, Harkness reveals how Sands novels repeatedly focus on a nexus of language, masculinity and power, in which narrative is both a vehicle for the expression of manhood, and a site where masculinity is discursively performed. Masculinity is thus reconfigured in Sands fiction as an identity constituted as much through words as through actions. Analysis of the performances of masculinity staged in Sands novels opens onto an exploration of gendered processes of literary representation: the links between masculinity and the doxa, the equation of writing and power, the homosocial function of acts of narration, and the masculinity of authorship and authority. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The love affair between Maurice Bendix and Sarah, flourishing in the turbulent times of the London Blitz, ends when she suddenly and without explanation breaks it off. After a chance meeting rekindles his love and jealousy two years later, Bendix hires a private detective to follow Sarah, and slowly his love for her turns into an obsession. ... Read more