Hofstadter (London: Gollancz, 1979). The complete text is also available in a group translation, ed. Thelma Jungrau, Story of My Life (Albany: State University Press of New York, 1991). A translation of selected writings is available under the title In Her Own Words, trans. J. A. Barry (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1979).

There are numerous biographies of George Sand. The following is a brief list of the best of these:

Barry, J. A., Infamous Woman: The Life of George Sand (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977).

Cate, Curtis, George Sand: A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975).

Dickenson, Donna, George Sand: A Brave Man—The Most Womanly Woman (Oxford: Berg, 1988).

Maurois, André, Lélia: The Life of George Sand, trans. G. Hopkins (London: Jonathan Cape, 1953).

Toesca, Maurice, The Other George Sand, trans. Irene Beeson (London: Dennis Dobson, 1947).

Secondary works:

Crecelius, Kathryn, Family Romances: George Sand’s Early Novels (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987).

Haig, Stirling, ‘The Circular Room of George Sand’s Indiana’, in his The Madame Bovary Blues (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987).

Hirsch, Michèle, ‘Questions à Indiana’, Revue des Sciences Humaines, 165 (1977), 117–29.

Kadish, Doris, ‘Representing Race in Indiana’, George Sand Studies, 11/1–2 (199z), 22–30.

Naginski, Isabelle Hoog, George Sand: Writing for her Life (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992).

Petrey, Sandy, ‘George and Georgina Sand: Realist Gender in Indiana’, in Michael Worton and Judith Still (eds.), Sexuality and Textuality (Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming).

Rabine, Leslie, ‘George Sand and the Myth of Femininity’, Women and Literature, 4(1976), 2–17.

Schor, Naomi, George Sand and Idealism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).

Vareille, Kristina Wingard, Socialite, sexualité et les impasses de l’histoire: L’Evolution de la thématique sandienne d’Indiana (1832) à Mauprat (1832) (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiskell, 1987).

A CHRONOLOGY OF GEORGE SAND

1804

Birth on 1 July of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin (the future George Sand). Her father Maurice, an army officer, was the son of an eighteenth-century financier Dupin de Francueil who at 72 married the 29-year-old, illegitimate daughter of the distinguished military commander, the Maréchal de Saxe, illegitimate son of a king of Poland. Aurore’s mother, Antoinette Delaborde, daughter of a Parisian birdseller, married Maurice Dupin on 5 June 1804, the couple having had a liaison since 1800.

1808

Maurice Dupin is killed in a riding accident.

1808–18

Aurore Dupin lives with her grandmother at her country estate at Nohant. Relations between Aurore’s mother and grandmother are strained.

1810

Aurore’s mother goes to live in Paris.

1818

Aurore is sent as a boarder to the convent of the English Augustine nuns in Paris.

1819

Aurore undergoes a mystical experience and wants to become a nun.

1820

Aurore returns to Nohant.

1821

Death of Aurore’s grandmother.

1822

Her paternal relative, René de Villeneuve, becomes Aurore’s legal guardian, but she does not agree to break with her mother as her grandmother had wished. Aurore goes to live with her mother but suffers from her capricious and unstable temperament. On 19 April Aurore meets Casimir Dudevant (aged 27), the illegitimate son of a Baron of the Napoleonic Empire. On 17 September Aurore marries Casimir and in October the couple go to Paris.

1823

Maurice Dudevant (later known as Maurice Sand) is born.

1824

The marriage is unhappy; the husband and wife have no interests in common.

1825

Aurore meets Aurélien de Sèze, with whom she has a passionate but platonic relationship lasting till 1830.

1827

Aurore develops a circle of faithful friends, including Jules Néraud to whom the conclusion of Indiana is addressed. She becomes the mistress of Stéphane Ajasson de Grandsagne.

1828

Birth of Solange Dudevant (thought probably to be Stéphane’s daughter).

1830

Aurore meets Jules Sandeau.

1831

Having become his mistress, Aurore (with an allowance from Casimir) goes to Paris with Sandeau, leaving her husband and children at Nohant. In collaboration with Sandeau, she writes two novels, signed J. Sand and J.S.

1832

She returns to Nohant and then goes back to Paris with her daughter. Having written Indiana on her own, she publishes it under the pseudonym of G. Sand. Then she publishes Valentine under the name of George Sand.

1833

Beginning of George Sand’s liaison with Alfred de Musset, and journey of the couple to Italy. Publication of Lélia.

1834

George Sand and Musset fall ill, and Musset is attended by Dr Pagello, with whom George falls in love. Musset returns to France, while George stays in Venice and writes several novels and the first Lettres d’un voyageur. In July she and Pagello go to Paris; in October he goes back to Italy and George again becomes Musset’s mistress.

1835

George Sand’s liaison with Musset ends and she becomes the mistress of an eminent republican lawyer, Michel de Bourges. Proceedings begin for the judicial separation of George Sand and her husband.

1836

Legal separation of George Sand and her husband confirmed. George and her children join Liszt and Marie d’Agoult in Switzerland and go to Paris.

1837

Liszt and Marie d’Agoult visit George at Nohant. End of her liaison with Michel de Bourges.