Valentine

ALSO BY GEORGE SAND

The Bagpipers

Indiana

The Intimate Journal

Leone Leoni

The Letters of Sand and Flaubert

Lucrezia Floriani

Mauprat

Winter in Majorca

Published by

Academy Chicago Publishers

363 West Erie Street

Chicago, IL 60610

Chronology © Academy Chicago Publishers 1977

First Printing 1978

Second Printing 1995

Chronology may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

Printed and bound in the USA.

Cover: Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Stolen Kiss, c. 1786-89.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sand, George, pseud. of Mme. Dudevant, 1804-1876.

Valentine.

Reprint of the 1902 ed. published by G. Barrie, Philadelphia, as a volume The Masterpieces of George Sand.

I. Title.

PZ3.S21 Vol. 1978 [PQ2411] 843’.8 77-28026

ISBN 0-915864-59-2 pbk.

ISBN 0-915864-60-6 lib. bdg.

GEORGE SAND: CHRONOLOGY

1804

July 1: Birth at 15 rue Meslée, Paris, to Maurice Dupin and Sophie-Victoire Delaborde. Christened Amantine-Lucile-Aurore. Family moves to rue de la Grande-Batelière, Paris.

1808

Aurore travels to Spain with her mother. They join her father at the Palace de Godoy in Madrid where he is serving in Napoleon’s army under General Murat. The family travels to Nohant in France, the home of Maurice Dupin’s mother, born Marie-Aurore de Saxe, Comtesse de Horne, daughter of the illegitimate son of King Frederick-Augustus II of Poland.

Sept 16: Death of Maurice Dupin, age 30, in a fall from a horse.

1809

Feb 3: Sophie-Victoire gives custody of Aurore to Mme Dupin de Francueil, her mother-in-law, in return for payment of Maurice’s debts and a pension of 1000 francs a year.

1810-1814

Winters in Paris at rue Neuve-des-Mathurins with her grandmother. Visits from Sophie-Victoire. Summers at Nohant.

1818-1820

Educated at the English Convent des Augustines in Paris.

1820

Returns to Nohant. Studies with her father’s tutor, Deschartres. Rides horseback in male clothing.

1821

Death of Mme Dupin de Francueil. Aurore inherits money, a house in Paris and the house at Nohant.

1822

Moves in with her mother at 80 rue St-Lazare, Paris. April: Meets Casimir-François Dudevant, son of Baron Dudevant, on a visit to the Duplessis family.

September 10: Marries Dudevant. They move to Nohant in October.

1823

June 30: Maurice is born at Hôtel de Florence, 56 rue Neuve-des-Mathurins, Paris.

1824

Spring and summer at the Duplessis’ at Plessis-Picard near Melun; autumn at a Parisian suburb, Ormesson; winter in an apartment at rue du Faubourg-St Honoré.

1825

Spring at Nohant. Aurore is ill in the summer. Dudevants travel to his family home in Gascony. Vacation in the Pyrenees where she meets Aurélian de Sèze and recovers her health.

Nov 5: Writes long letter to Casimir confessing attraction to de Sèze. She gives him up. Winter in Gascony.

1827

Takes Stéphane de Grandsagne as lover. They meet in Paris.

1828

Sept 13: Birth of Solange.

1829

Writes Voyage en Auvergne, unpublished in her lifetime. Sees de Sèze.

1830

Visit to de Sèze in Bordeaux. Their correspondence ceases. She writes a novel, Aimée, which she later burns. Meets new lover, Jules Sandeau.

Dec: Discovers Casimir’s will, filled with antipathy toward her.