George Sand(乔治·桑传)

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George Sand
1
George Sand
by Rene Doumic
Translated by Alys Hallard
George Sand
2
First published in 1910. This volume is dedicated to Madame L.
Landouzy with gratitude and affection
This book is not intended as a study of George Sand. It is merely a
series of chapters touching on various aspects of her life and writings.
My work will not be lost if the perusal of these pages should inspire one of
the historians of our literature with the idea of devoting to the great
novelist, to her genius and her influence, a work of this kind.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
GEORGE SAND (From a photogravure by N. Desmardyl, after a
Painting by A. Charpentier) GEORGE SAND (From an engraving
by L. Calamatia) JULES SANDEAU (From an etching by M. Desboutins)
ALFRED DE MUSSET (From a lithograph) FACSIMILE OF AN
AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF GEORGE SAND (Written from Venice
to Hipp. Chatiron) GEORGE SAND (From a lithograph) F. CHOPIN
(From a photograph) PIERRE LEROUX (From a lithograph by A. Collette)
GEORGE SAND (From a lithograph)
George Sand
3
I
AURORE DUPIN
PSYCHOLOGY OF A DAUGHTER OF ROUSSEAU
In the whole of French literary history, there is, perhaps, no subject of
such inexhaustible and modern interest as that of George Sand. Of what
use is literary history? It is not only a kind of museum, in which a few
masterpieces are preserved for the pleasure of beholders. It is this
certainly, but it is still more than this. Fine books are, before anything
else, living works. They not only have lived, but they continue to live.
They live within us, underneath those ideas which form our conscience
and those sentiments which inspire our actions. There is nothing of
greater importance for any society than to make an inventory of the ideas
and the sentiments which are composing its moral atmosphere every
instant that it exists. For every individual this work is the very condition
of his dignity. The question is, should we have these ideas and these
sentiments, if, in the times before us, there had not been some exceptional
individuals who seized them, as it were, in the air and made them viable
and durable? These exceptional individuals were capable of thinking
more vigorously, of feeling more deeply, and of expressing themselves
more forcibly than we are. They bequeathed these ideas and sentiments
to us. Literary history is, then, above and beyond all things, the perpetual
examination of the conscience of humanity.
There is no need for me to repeat what every one knows, the fact that
our epoch is extremely complex, agitated and disturbed. In the midst of
this labyrinth in which we are feeling our way with such difficulty, who
does not look back regretfully to the days when life was more simple,
when it was possible to walk towards a goal, mysterious and unknown
though it might be, by straight paths and royal routes?
George Sand wrote for nearly half a century. For fifty times three
hundred and sixty-five days, she never let a day pass by without covering
more pages than other writers in a month. Her first books shocked
people, her early opinions were greeted with storms. From that time
forth she rushed head-long into everything new, she welcomed every
George Sand
4
chimera and passed it on to us with more force and passion in it.
Vibrating with every breath, electrified by every storm, she looked up at
every cloud behind which she fancied she saw a star shining. The work
of another novelist has been called a repertory of human documents. But
what a repertory of ideas her work was! She has said what she had to say
on nearly every subject; on love, the family, social institutions and on the
various forms of government. And with all this she was a woman. Her
case is almost unique in the history of letters. It is intensely interesting to
study the influence of this woman of genius on the evolution of modern
thought.
I shall endeavour to approach my subject conscientiously and with all
due respect. I shall study biography where it is indispensable for the
complete understanding of works. I shall give a sketch of the original
individuals I meet on my path, portraying these only at their point of
contact with the life of our authoress, and it seems to me that a gallery in
which we see Sandeau, Sainte-Beuve, Musset, Michel (of Bourges), Liszt,
Chopin, Lamennais, Pierre Leroux, Dumas _fils_, Flaubert and many,
many others is an incomparable portrait gallery. I shall not attack
persons, but I shall discuss ideas and, when necessary, dispute them
energetically. We shall, I hope, during our voyage, see many
perspectives open out before us.
I have, of course, made use of all the works devoted to George Sand
which were of any value for my study, and among others of the two
volumes published, under the name of Wladimir Karenine,[1] by a woman
belonging to Russian aristocratic society. For the period before 1840,
this is the most complete work that has been written. M. Samuel
Rocheblave, a clever University professor and the man who knows more
than any one about the life and works of George Sand, has been my guide
and has helped me greatly with his wise advice. Private collections of
documents have also been placed at my service most generously. I am
therefore able to supply some hitherto unpublished writings. George
Sand published, in all, about a hundred volumes of novels and stories, four
volumes of autobiography, and six of correspondence. In spite of all this
we are still asked for fresh documents.
George Sand
5
[1] WLADIMIR KARENINE: _George Sand, Sa vie et ses aeuvres._
2 Vols. Ollendorf.
It is interesting, as a preliminary study, to note the natural gifts, and
the first impressions of Aurore Dupin as a child and young girl, and to see
how these predetermined the woman and the writer known to us as George
Sand.
Lucile-Amandine-Aurore Dupin, legitimate daughter of Maurice
Dupin and of Sophie-Victoire Delaborde, was born in Paris, at 15 Rue
Meslay, in the neighbourhood of the Temple, on the 1st of July, 1804. I
would call attention at once to the special phenomenon which explains the
problem of her destiny: I mean by this her heredity, or rather the radical
and violent contrast of her maternal and paternal heredity.
By her father she was an aristocrat and related to the reigning houses.
Her ancestor was the King of Poland,
Augustus II, the lover of the beautiful Countess
Aurora von Koenigsmarck. George Sand's grandfather was Maurice
de Saxe. He may have been an adventurer and a _condottiere_, but
France owes to him Fontenoy, that brilliant page of her history. All
this takes us back to the eighteenth century with its brilliant, gallant,
frivolous, artistic and profligate episodes. Maurice de Saxe adored
the theatre, either for itself or for the sake of the women connected
with it. On his campaign, he took with him a theatrical company
which gave a representation the evening before a battle. In this
company was a young artiste named Mlle. de Verrieres whose father
was a certain M. Rinteau. Maurice de Saxe admired the young
actress and a daughter was born of this _liaison_, who was later on
recognized by her father and named Marie-Aurore de Saxe. This
was George Sand's grandmother. At the age of fifteen the young girl
married Comte de Horn, a bastard son of Louis XV. This husband
was obliging enough to his wife, who was only his wife in name, to die
as soon as possible. She then returned to her mother "the Opera
lady." An elderly nobleman, Dupin de Francueil, who had been the
lover of the other Mlle. Verrieres, now fell in love with her and
George Sand
6
married her. Their son, Maurice Dupin, was the father of our
novelist. The astonishing part of this series of adventures is that
Marie-Aurore should have been the eminently respectable woman
that she was. On her mother's side, though, Aurore Dupin belonged
to the people. She was the daughter of Sophie-Victoire Delaborde
milliner, the grandchild of a certain bird-seller on the Quai des
Oiseaux, who used to keep a public-house, and she was the great-
granddaughter of Mere Cloquart.
This double heredity was personified in the two women who shared
George Sand's childish affection. We must therefore study the portraits
of these two women.
The grandmother was, if not a typical _grande dame_, at least a typical
elegant woman of the latter half of the eighteenth century. She was very
well educated and refined, thanks to living with the two sisters, Mlles.
Verrieres, who were accustomed to the best society. She was a good
musician and sang delightfully. When she married Dupin de Francueil,
her husband was sixty-two, just double her age. But, as she used to say
to her granddaughter, "no one was ever old in those days. It was the
Revolution that brought old age into the world."
Dupin was a very agreeable man. When younger he had been _too_
agreeable, but now he was just sufficiently so to make his wife very happy.
He was very lavish in his expenditure and lived like a prince, so that he
left Marie-Aurore ruined and poor with about three thousand a year. She
was imbued with the ideas of the philosophers and an enemy of the
Queen's _coterie_. She was by no means alarmed at the Revolution and
was very soon taken prisoner. She was arrested on the 26th of November,
1793, and incarcerated in the _Couvent des Anglaises_, Rue des Fosse's-
Saint-Victor, which had been converted into a detention house. On
leaving prison she settled down at Nohant, an estate she had recently
bought. It was there that her granddaughter remembered her in her early
days. She describes her as tall, slender, fair and always very calm. At
Nohant she had only her maids and her books for company. When in
Paris, she delighted in the society of people of her own station and of her
time, people who had the ideas and airs of former days. She continued,
George Sand
7
in this new century, the shades of thought and the manners and Customs of
the old _regime._
As a set-off to this woman of race and of culture, Aurore's mother
represented the ordinary type of the woman of the people. She was small,
dark, fiery and violent. She, too, the bird-seller's daughter, had been
imprisoned by the Revolution, and strangely enough in the _Couvent des
Anglaises_ at about the same time as Maurice de Saxe's granddaughter.
It was in this way that the fusion of classes was understood under the
Terror. She was employed as a _figurante_ in a small theatre. This was
merely a commencement for her career. At the time when Maurice
Dupin met her, she was the mistress of an old general. She already had
one child of doubtful parentage. Maurice Dupin, too, had a natural son,
named Hippolyte, so that they could not reproach each other. When
Maurice Dupin married Sophie-Victoire, a month before the birth of
Aurore, he had some difficulty in obtaining his mother's consent. She
finally gave in, as she was of an indulgent nature. It is possible that
Sophie-Victoire's conduct was irreproachable during her husband's
lifetime, but, after his death, she returned to her former ways. She was
nevertheless of religious habits and would not, upon any account, have
missed attending Mass. She was quick-tempered, jealous and noisy and,
when anything annoyed her, extremely hot-headed. At such times she
would shout and storm, so that the only way to silence her was to shout
still more loudly. She never bore any malice, though, and wished no
harm to those she had insulted. She was of course sentimental, but more
passionate than tender, and she quickly forgot those whom she had loved
most fondly. There seemed to be gaps in her memory and also in her
conscience. She was ignorant, knowing nothing either of literature or of
the usages of society. Her _salon_ was the landing of her flat and her
acquaintances were the neighbours who happened to live next door to her.
It is easy to imagine what she thought of the aristocrats who visited her
mother-in-law. She was amusing when she joked and made parodies on
the women she styled "the old Countesses." She had a great deal of
natural wit, a liveliness peculiar to the native of the faubourgs, all the
impudence of the street arab, and a veritable talent of mimicry. She was
George Sand
8
a good housewife, active, industrious and most clever in turning
everything to account. With a mere nothing she could improvise a dress
or a hat and give it a certain style. She was always most skilful with her
fingers, a typical Parisian work-girl, a daughter of the street and a child of
the people. In our times she would be styled "a midinette."
Such are the two women who shared the affection of Aurore Dupin.
Fate had brought them together, but had made them so unlike that they
were bound to dislike each other. The childhood of little Aurore served
as the lists for their contentions. Their rivalry was the dominating note in
the sentimental education of the child.
As long as Maurice Dupin lived, Aurore was always with her parents
in their little Parisian dwelling. Maurice Dupin was a brilliant officer,
and very brave and jovial. In 1808, Aurore went to him in Madrid, where
he was Murat's _aide-de-camp_. She lived in the palace of the Prince of
Peace, that vast palace which Murat filled with the splendour of his
costumes and the groans caused by his suffering. Like Victor Hugo, who
went to the same place at about the same time and under similar
conditions, Aurore may have brought back with her
_de ses courses lointaines_
_Comme un vaguefaisceau de lueurs incertaines._
This does not seem probable, though. The return was painful, as they
came back worried and ill, and were glad to take refuge at Nohant. They
were just beginning to organize their life when Maurice Dupin died
suddenly, from an accident when riding, leaving his mother and his wife
together.
From this time forth, Aurore was more often with her grandmother at
Nohant than with her mother in Paris. Her grandmother undertook the
care of her education. Her half-brother, Hippolyte Chatiron, and she
received lessons from M. Deschartres, who had educated Maurice Dupin.
He was steward and tutor combined, a very authoritative man, arrogant
and a great pedant. He was affectionate, though, and extremely devoted.
He was both detestable and touching at the same time, and had a warm
heart hidden under a rough exterior. Nohant was in the heart of Berry,
and this meant the country and Nature. For Aurore Dupin Nature proved
George Sand
9
to be an incomparable educator.
There was only one marked trait in the child's character up to this date,
and that was a great tendency to reverie. For long hours she would
remain alone, motionless, gazing into space. People were anxious about
her when they saw her looking so _stupid_, but her mother invariably said:
"Do not be alarmed. She is always ruminating about something."
Country life, while providing her with fresh air and plenty of exercise, so
that her health was magnificent, gave fresh food and another turn to her
reveries. Ten years earlier Alphonse de Lamartine had been sent to the
country at Milly, and allowed to frequent the little peasant children of the
place. Aurore Dupin's existence was now very much the same as that of
Lamartine. Nohant is situated in the centre of the Black Valley. The
ground is dark and rich; there are narrow, shady paths. It is not a hilly
country, and there are wide, peaceful horizons. At all hours of the day
and at all seasons of the year, Aurore wandered along the Berry roads with
her little playfellows, the farmers' children. There was Marie who tended
the flock, Solange who collected leaves, and Liset and Plaisir who minded
the pigs. She always knew in what meadow or in what place she would
find them. She played with them amongst the hay, climbed the trees and
dabbled in the water. She minded the flock with them, and in winter,
when the herdsmen talked together, assembled round their fire, she
listened to their wonderful stories. These credulous country children had
"seen with their own eyes" Georgeon, the evil spirit of the Black Valley.
They had also seen will-o'-the-wisps, ghosts, the "white greyhound" and
the "Big Beast"! In the evenings, she sat up listening to the stories told by
the hemp-weaver. Her fresh young soul was thus impregnated at an early
age with the poetry of the country. And it was all the poetry of the
country, that which comes from things, such as the freshness of the air and
the perfume of the flowers, but also that which is to be found in the
simplicity of sentiments and in that candour and surprise face to face with
those sights of Nature which have remained the same and have been just
as incomprehensible ever since the beginning of the world.
The antagonism of the two mothers increased, though. We will not
go into detail with regard to the various episodes, but will only consider
George Sand
10
the consequences.
The first consequence was that the intelligence of the child became
more keen through this duality. Placed as she was, in these two different
worlds, between two persons with minds so unlike, and, obliged as she
was to go from one to the other, she learnt to understand and appreciate
them both, contrasts though they were. She had soon reckoned each of
them up, and she saw their weaknesses, their faults, their merits and their
advantages.
A second consequence was to increase her sensitiveness. Each time
that she left her mother, the separation was heartrending. When she was
absent from her, she suffered on account of this absence, and still more
because she fancied that she would be forgotten. She loved her mother,
just as she was, and the idea that any one was hostile or despised her
caused the child much silent suffering. It was as though she had an ever-
open wound.
Another consequence, and by no means the least important one, was to
determine in a certain sense the immense power of sympathy within her.
For a long time she only felt a sort of awe, when with her reserved and
ceremonious grandmother. She felt nearer to her mother, as there was no
need to be on ceremony with her. She took a dislike to all those who
represented authority, rules and the tyranny of custom. She considered
her mother and herself as oppressed individuals. A love for the people
sprang up in the heart of the daughter of Sophie-Victoire. She belonged to
them through her mother, and she was drawn to them now through the
humiliations she underwent. In this little enemy of reverences and of
society people, we see the dawn of that instinct which, later on, was to
cause her to revolt openly. George Sand was quite right in saying, later
on, that it was of no use seeking any intellectual reason as the explanation
of her social preferences. Everything in her was due to sentiment. Her
socialism was entirely the outcome of her suffering and torments as a
child.
Things had to come to a crisis, and the crisis was atrocious. George
Sand gives an account of the tragic scene in her _Histoire de ma vie_.
Her grandmother had already had one attack of paralysis. She was
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GeorgeSand1GeorgeSandbyReneDoumicTranslatedbyAlysHallardGeorgeSand2Firstpublishedin1910.ThisvolumeisdedicatedtoMadameL.LandouzywithgratitudeandaffectionThisbookisnotintendedasastudyofGeorgeSand.Itismerelyaseriesofchapterstouchingonvariousaspectsofherlifeandwritings.Myworkwillnotbelostiftheperusaloft...

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