Famous Affinities of History: The Romance of Devotion. Volume 4Orr, Lyndon
History
Famous Affinities of History: The Romance of Devotion. Volume 4
Orr, Lyndon
Biography; Love; Women -- Biography
The last great emotional crisis in George Sand's life was that which
centers around her relations with Frederic Chopin. Chopin was the
greatest genius who ever loved her. It is rather odd that he loved her.
She had known him for two years, and had not seriously thought of him,
though there is a story that when she first met him she kissed him
before he had even been presented to her. She waited two years, and in
those two years she had three lovers. Then at last she once more met
Chopin, when he was in a state of melancholy, because a Polish girl had
proved unfaithful to him.
It was the psychological moment; for this other woman, who was a
devourer of hearts, found him at a piano, improvising a lamentation.
George Sand stood beside him, listening. When he finished and looked up
at her, their eyes met. She bent down without a word and kissed him on
the lips.
What was she like when he saw her then? Grenier has described her in
these words:
She was short and stout, but her face attracted all my attention, the
eyes especially. They were wonderful eyes--a little too close together,
it may be, large, with full eyelids, and black, very black, but by no
means lustrous; they reminded me of unpolished marble, or rather of
velvet, and this gave a strange, dull, even cold expression to her
countenance. Her fine eyebrows and these great placid eyes gave her an
air of strength and dignity which was not borne out by the lower part
of her face. Her nose was rather thick and not over shapely. Her mouth
was also rather coarse, and her chin small. She spoke with great
simplicity, and her manners were very quiet.
Such as she was, she attached herself to Chopin for eight years. At
first they traveled together very quietly to Majorca; and there, just
as Musset had fallen ill at Venice, Chopin became feverish and an
invalid. "Chopin coughs most gracefully," George Sand wrote of him, and
again:
Chopin is the most inconstant of men. There is nothing permanent about
him but his cough.
It is not surprising if her nerves sometimes gave way. Acting as sick
nurse, writing herself with rheumatic fingers, robbed by every one
about her, and viewed with suspicion by the peasants because she did
not go to church, she may be perhaps excused for her sharp words when,
in fact, her deeds were kind.
Afterward, with Chopin, she returned to Paris, and the two lived openly
together for seven years longer. An immense literature has grown around
the subject of their relations. To this literature George Sand herself
contributed very largely. Chopin never wrote a word; but what he failed
to do, his friends and pupils did unsparingly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account