Book Description
"Two full-length and three one-act plays, translated here for the first time into English." ... Read more

Amazon.com
She was the most notorious female writer of her age, as famous for open love affairs and the habit of dressing in men's clothes as for wildly popular novels such as Indiana and Consuelo, many of which delineated women's struggles for fulfillment. George Sand's long, prolific life (1804-76) has prompted many biographies, from André Maurois's 1952 classic, Lélia, to a plethora of stimulating feminist rethinkings in the 1970s.

British scholar Belinda Jack's perspicacious new book makes a welcome addition to the genre. Taking a selective, interpretive approach, Jack spends a good deal of time on Aurore Dupin's tumultuous childhood. Torn between her aristocratic grandmother and her erratic mother after her father's untimely death, Aurore gained "precocious insights into the complexities of class and the respective lots of men and women," Jack argues; those insights, galvanized by passionate prose and scandalous subject matter, fueled the novels she published under the pen name George Sand. Jack pithily depicts the famous romances with Alfred de Musset and Frédéric Chopin, as well as Sand's less well known but intense affair with the actress Marie Dorval. She limns an appealing woman and a protean artist, too often stereotyped as the quintessential French Romantic when in fact Sand's view of identity as "multiple and constantly changing" sounds a note that rings true today. --Wendy Smith Book Description
A fascinating exploration of the life of George Sand--whose brilliant writing, radical politics, and unorthodox personality made her a legendary figure in her own time and forever after.

Born Aurore Dupin in 1804, Sand became France's best-selling writer, rivaled in her day only by Victor Hugo--yet she was known as much for her excessive life as for her plays, stories, and enduring novels like Indiana, Lélia, and Mauprat.

The daughter of a prostitute and an aristocrat, great-granddaughter of the King of Poland, Sand grew up acutely aware of social injustice and prejudice. Convent-educated, she became a mischievous, flamboyant rebel at the center of French intellectual and artistic life. Her intimate circle included Liszt, Delacroix, Balzac, and Flaubert. She was a magnet for some of the greatest writers of her era: Henry James, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Dostoyevsky, and Turgenev. Her long, troubled romance with Chopin was just one of her many affairs with both men and women. A believer in the equality of the sexes, she thought marriage "a barbarous institution"; a socialist, she acted as Minister of Propaganda after the Revolution of 1848. Legendary for her free life, cigar-smoking, and scandalous cross-dressing, she also spun a web of fraught relationships with her grandmother, mother, daughter, and beloved granddaughter.

No one quite matches George Sand--she remains unique, powerful, vital, and mysterious. In this rich new biography, Belinda Jack gives the full flavor of Sand's personality and delves beneath the surface of her life and her age,
showing how her art both reflected and shaped her life. Here is an unforgettable portrait of a remarkable writer--and an extraordinary woman. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A Life Lived Greatly
George Sand lived larger than many lives today during a time when women were cattle and broodmares she managed to enforce the beginnings of feminism upon French society.

Born Aurora Dupin, George Sand changed her name to that of a man so that she could write and earn a living during 19th century France, by doing so she made herself as famous for her lifestyle and character as for her writings. Sand is explained as an extraordinarily complex woman who refuses to stay in a box that denies her freedom. She explores passion and sexual escapades with such renowned figures as, Alfred Musset, Chopin, Liszt, Flaubert and many others not so well known. Sand laughed in society's face and stunned them all with her outrageous take on life becoming one of the world's first feminists, defending the rights of women in marriage and in a masculine culture. Sand walked around Paris alone, dressed in men's clothing and assumed herself to be free of the stigmas most women cowered to; for this Sand must be acknowledged and Belinda Jack has accomplished that in this interesting biography of Sand's life.

Belinda Jack writes well but tends to stick to many facts and less description. She keeps this biography geared on Sand and her accomplishments rather than the scandals that most people place their attentions on. Sand is explained as a child who grew up conflicted on status and her place in life, through this she appears capable of staying on the outside of society and becoming a great observer of human nature and character. It is said that Sand had so many relationships because she needed inspiration for her stories. Jack writes about the connection Sand has to animals and nature, to philosophical ideologies and religious teachings and interestingly enough it seems that Sand felt guided to art because she felt that the magnificence of God existed within the creation of beauty. Sand's approach to life seems to fit into modern society rather than the one she was born into and we can only imagine what an extraordinary woman she would be today had she lived in this century. One of my favorite lines in the book is, "Not to be noticed as a man, one has first to be used to not being noticed as a woman."

George Sand is astonishing and a true rebel against the machine that tries to hold individuals back from independent thought. This biography brings to light the struggle of women and George Sand overcomes it by portraying a man with more depth and compassion than the lesser gender has ever been capable of. It seems that Sand was so often bored in her relationships because the men lacked her strength and although she was not considered a proper beauty her talented personality and search for freedom was what caused her to be the ultimate femme fatale! Sand's life is worth celebrating and Belinda Jack has done an excellent job in bringing this shining light back into existence.

GEORGE SAND, MYTH OR IMAGINATION
An overblown and too sympathetic depiction of a woman said to have had numerous flaws, indiscretions, and self-inflicted mis-fortunes. Surely those of us who have studied her elsewhere know of her selfish acts, uninhibited behaviour and ravenous sex drive.Forthright portrayal of this extraordinary woman was lacking, and clearly Ms. Jack played it safe. For feminist sake?However I commend Jack in highlighting Sand's genius.In this regard, she hit the mark.

More summary than biography
I was appalled by this biography.Belinda Jack made many statements which repeated Sand's own opinion of herself which is not at all the analytical method that should be employed in biography.If all the reader wanted to know was what Sand thought of herself, s/he could read Sand's own biography.The problem here is that Jack believes Sand's own assessment of herself, which, from a great deal of other material in the book -excerpts from correspondence and the like - is quite grandiose.The Sand who emerges from this biography was selfish, self-righteous, and concerned above all with her own happiness.Given that many authors, painters, writers, and others adored her, it appears that Jack managed to leave out just what made Sand likable.While her work was startling for its day, the plots and enormous volume of works make her the modern-day equivalent of Jackie Collins, although probably slightly more erudite and aware of the political turmoil around her.She had many lovers but never divorced her husband and managed only to get pregnant twice. In the mid-nineteenth century, this is an amazing feat.For a woman so well known for her sexual appetites, it's puritanical of Jack not to at least ponder the reasons for this.There are many things implied and intriguing items mentioned and then dropped.The reader has no idea why she disliked her daughter so, why she stayed with Chopin for 8 years if he was such a millstone as she later claimed, and what did exactly kill her.Jack also claims that Sand invented psychoanalysis and field of psychology before Freud!This biography was a complete waste of time and managed only to make me believe that Sand is only - and rightly - known for having slept with an enormous number of people, and famous ones at that, when women of her class were socially stigmatized for this.She was no feminist and did nothing to advance the cause of women's rights, complained about certain inequalities as they pertained to her personally, but did nothing even when she had considerable influence later in her life to do something about it.And for those wondering about Delacroix's portraits of Sand and Chopin:it was a double portrait that was later cut in half.If you want to read a wonderful biography, try Victoria Glendenning's Vita Sackville West.

The Times of Sand
A visit this summer to Sand's home in Gargilesse, France,prompted me to learn more about George Sand, but Belinda Jack's biography was a disappointment. The book recaps Sand's life, raising more questions than it answers about the writer.

Sand's relationships with family members were often contentious, but few psychological insights are shared.One example is the rift between Sand and her daughter Solange.On one occasion, Sand disapproves of Solange's flirtatious behavior.Later, the author is ambiguous aboutthe relationship Solange has with Chopin, her mother's lover.Jack does not connect various episodes to explore the rift between Sand and her daughter. We understand that Sand disapproves of Solange, but have no insight as to character, motivations or causes of the bitterness that Solange harbored toward her mother.

Jack is meticulous in presenting dates of Sand's travels and activities, but very superficial and unquestioning in most else.For example, at the end of Sand's life, we are told she suffered from intolerable stomach pains.A Parisian Dr. Favre is called, and he "decided it was too late to operate." Sand asked that only doctors be allowed to see her, because she felt deeply humiliated by her condition.She died soon after.Jack offers no explanation for the cause of Sand's death.

The book is vague and skims the surface of Sand's life, which we see from a distance -- not as an insider.

Lelio
I have enjoyed several female writers immensely (George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Emma Goldman and, especially, Anna Kavan) but have never read George Sand. However, I do know of the woman by her link to Frederic Chopin. I suspect many readers of this biography - me included - will pick the book up because of their interest in music rather than literature.

George Sand's life was certainly extraordinary, just as she was. And there is no doubt now that I will read at least one of her novels. In those regards this biography is demonstrably a success. But in other ways it failed me.I have named this review 'Lelio' by the name Hector Berlioz (a contemporary of Sand) gave the sequel to his Symphonie Fantastique.(Berlioz is mentioned three times in the biography but only one of these references is indexed.) What is the link with George Sand? Belinda Jack does not explore this. George Sand wrote a short story 'La marquise' in which there is a character Lelio. She later wrote a novel called 'Lelia'. What does the name mean and are there any connections? Music lovers would probably like to know.I turned to David Cairns translation of 'The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz' and he reveals that Berlioz' work came after 'La marquise' and hence may have been inspired by it, but before Sand's novel 'Lelia'. It is notes of this type that greatly enrich works. I suggest that Belinda Jack has failed to provide this type of enrichment in her biography. Here is another example: Delacroix spent a lot of time with George Sand and we are all familiar with his portrait of Chopin - unfinished though it is. We are less familiar with the fact that he painted Sand as well (even more unfinished). The question to ask is why was it not finished. Even more, in the illustrations to the biography why do we only get Delacroix's portrait of Chopin? (You can find the portrait of Sand on the internet.) At another point Belinda Jack reports that Sand's reading included a bunch of writers - one of whom is called Hoffmann. ETA Hoffmann I wondered? No - the index told me it was Ernst Hoffmann, someone I have no knowledge of. By telling the reader upfront that it was Ernst Hoffmann might help avoid possible misunderstanding. But at least it was in the index. There are many people referred to in this biography whose name means nothing to me and it may have been useful to have short summaries of them and their significance. I happen to know who Proudhon was (libertarian anarchist) but I suspect many readers won't. And again, uncommented is the strangeness of the Sand family having a servant with the unlikely name of Carl Maria von Weber - especially strange to music lovers.

But despite these quibbles I value reading this biography and rate it well. ... Read more

Book Description
A modern exploration of the life and legacy of the nineteenthcentury'smost infamous and inspirational woman, the always ingenious andoccasionally incognito, George Sand

Who was George Sand? She was thefirst famous Frenchwoman celebrated throughout Europe who wasn't either asaint or a king's mistress. She was also the first woman in Europe tobecome a bestselling novelist. But her fame is inseparable from hernotoriety: the scandal of leaving a husband and child, setting up in Pariswith an eighteen year- old lover, liaisons and friendships with men oftalent and even genius: de Musset, Chopin, Balzac, and Flaubert.Politically engaged, Sand was literally, "there at the revolution," thoseof 1831 and 1848, reporting, analyzing, denouncing, exhorting. Shebelieved always in Progress as she did in Love, though she was doomed tobe betrayed in both.

Acclaimed literary biographer Benita Eisler shedsnew light on the many roles, triumphs, and losses that togetherconstituted Sand's overwhelming presence. With nearly ninety novels,20,000 letters, and thousands of pages of autobiographical writings andpolitical commentary, how did Sand also have the time to live? As Eislerreveals, hers seems more like several lives--literary, political, amorous,and domestic. Earlier biographers have either flash-frozen Sand into afeminist icon or blurred her in the dynamic of "child of the century," butNaked in the Marketplace presents Sand at her essence--the outsizedpersona and the inner woman, along with the unique and irreplaceable roleshe played in the history of her times. ... Read more

Book Description
Frédéric Chopin’s reputation as one of the Great Romantics endures, but as Benita Eisler reveals in her elegant and elegiac biography, the man was more complicated than his iconic image.

A classicist, conservative, and dandy who relished his conquest of Parisian society, the Polish émigré was for a while blessed with genius, acclaim, and the love of Europe’s most infamous woman writer, George Sand. But by the age of 39, the man whose brilliant compositions had thrilled audiences in the most fashionable salons lay dying of consumption, penniless and abandoned by his lover. In the fall of 1849, his lavish funeral was attended by thousands—but not by George Sand.

In this intimate portrait of an embattled man, Eisler tells the story of a turbulent love affair, of pain and loss redeemed by art, and of worlds—both private and public—convulsed by momentous change. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

piano student
I found this book to be very revealing about Chopin, the way he wrote, his torment and selfishness behind his writing.

Flowery Language, Hideous Death Mask, an Error or Two...
Most Chopinophiles who read "Chopin's Funeral" will have already read works on the composer, and will find little that is new here. As has been noted by others, the title is misleading (unless the author is telling us that Chopin's life was in fact a long pre-mortem funeral), but the few introductory pages describing Chopin's funeral at the Madeleine are thoroughly engaging.

Eisler does present some more or less newish, but not original, material. Among the more interesting relate to 2 of the 4 illustrations. For example, she suggests that the famous unique photo of Chopin was taken in 1846, and not mere months before his death in 1849. I suppose it is possible. The chronically ill Chopin certainly must have appeared to be on the verge of death many times, before the year of his actual demise.

She also publishes a photo of a hideous "original" death mask that will shock most readers who have only seen the apparently "sanitized" mask sculpted after Chopin's sister supposedly complained about the agonized and gruesome appearance of the first version, which bears no resemblance to Chopin aside from the pouty lower lip of a painfully grimacing mouth; in addition, Chopin appears to be bald! But who knows what the ravages of his final illness did to his appearance? In any case, readers who see this shocking photo for the first time, which will be most readers, are sure to be stricken with disbelief that it is actually their dear Chip-Chip at all. This death mask is nowhere to be found among "Google Images"; only the famous, oft-published "elegant" mask is widely available. For admirers of that well-known "life-like" death mask, this one will be a nightmare.

Eisler is solidly sympathetic with Chopin re: the breakup with Sand, while admitting that Chopin was not the easiest partner to deal with... no new ground here. Her synopsis of Sand's roman a clef about Chopin, "Lucrezia Floriani", is very clear and detailed; not all Chopin bios give such a good description of the plot. (Sand's book itself is rather boring, and would be excruciatingly so were it not about Chopin, dwelling on minute character descriptions page after page... it could use a few throbbing members, or car crashes! In fact, Eisler herself seems to take her cue from Sand, focusing on the character and motivation of those in Chopin's world.)

The language will be a tad flowery for many tastes, often written in a Harlequin romance style. The book also happens to include a factual error or two, stating on page 115:

"Returning from New York in 1852, Julian Fontana [Chopin's amanuensis] committed suicide in Paris, three years after Chopin's death."

Yet Fontana published most of Chopin's posthumous works in 1855. He did commit suicide, but in 1869, TWENTY years after Chopin's death. This kind of error could only be made by an author who took on Chopin as a "project", with little or no previous familiarity with standard sources. Of course this blunder brings suspicion on other material... we don't like to feel we must do an author's editing and fact-checking. ARE YOU LISTENING, KNOPF?

Eisler also mistakenly states that Chopin's cellist friend Franchomme was "the inspiration for the only music Chopin would ever write for an instrument other than the piano", meaning the cello. Those who have an actual rather than a commercial interest in Chopin know that he wrote also for the violin (Piano Trio) and flute (Rossini Variations), both pieces completed before Chopin's arrival in Paris and subsequent friendship with Franchomme, though the Trio was PUBLISHED, and no doubt finally edited, in Paris after his arrival. One of his cello works, the Polonaise, was written before his Paris period. We don't mention Chopin's writing for voice and, technically, orchestra.

The book's rough-edged,"faux-deckled" pages look nice enough, but are a major pain when the reader wishes to riffle-search for a specific page. The dust jacket is well done, imitating a quarter-calf 19th century binding.

"Chopin's Funeral" appears to be a limited gleaning of Chopin scholarship by an author who wished to make the material "romantically readable". The serious student would do better to go to the sources. If you just want a beach read, "Chopin's Funeral" will do; we gather that the author aimed no higher.

Chopin turned in his grave at the publication of this biography...
As a Chopin fanatic, I have done a lot of reading about his life. "Chopin's Funeral" is a terrible portrayal of this composer's personality and life. Ms. Eisler turned Chopin into a whining fruitcake, when in reality he was quite the opposite. Also, Ms. Eisler credited several myths about Chopin as fact (such as his homosexuality, when there is no proof whatsoever that Chopin was gay). On top of all this, the book was incredibly dull and slow. I got 2/3 of the way through this book before I slammed it shut in disgust. If you want to read an interesting biography of Chopin that let's his true personality come through, read "Chopin" by George Richard Marek.

A Short Glimpse Of A Life
Owing to the relative shortness of this book, it offers a glimpse into the life of Chopin.It focuses much of its attention on the private lives of Chopin and his partner George Sand.

Any biography of Chopin has to include the period of his involvement with Sand, for it was the most important relationship of his adult life.The book tells of how the two lover's relationship finally turned into a parent/offspring situation, with Sand regarding Chopin as just another of her children.

It seems that Chopin was, because of his illness or personality or probably both, needed someone to take care of him.Even negotiations with music publishers werer entrusted to friends.Before the break-up came to Chopin and Sand, Chopin's health was already getting worse, and when he was out on his own again it wasn't long before tuberculosis took its toll.

Chopin was a man that constantly lived beyond his means, was forever in debt, had no qualms about borrowing money from family and friends knowing full well he would never be able to repay them.He was a man of rather common background, but moved into the world of aristocracy and artists.Along the way he picked up aspects of noble snobbery and prejudice, and it is revealing to know that of all his piano students (of which there were many), most were persons of the nobility and aristocracy. It was a subject of braggadocio to have studied piano with Chopin, and he was one of the most expensive piano teachers in Paris.There was no piano progeny of Chopin, no great student that ever became a leading pianist or musician.

But these are but human facts.All humans by nature are full of good and bad traits.It is Chopin's music that is the important thing, and the author touches on some of it in this book.

A good introduction to the life of Chopin, his music, and the times it was written.Recommended!

Chopin's Funeral
This book is an amazing account of Chopin's life story.It has a great deal of information about his compositions and the inspiration behind them.Beautifully written and an interesting story.I would highly recommend it. ... Read more