Produced by Delphine Lettau, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration: _FAMOUS WOMEN_] GEORGE SAND. BY BERTHA THOMAS. BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1883. _Copyright, 1883_, BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. PREFATORY NOTE. The authentic materials available for an account of the life of George Sand, although lately increased by the publication of a large part of her correspondence, are still incomplete. Her memoirs by her own hand, dealing fully with her early life alone, remain unsupplemented by any entire and detailed biography, for which, indeed, the time seems hardly yet come. Hence one among many obvious difficulties in the way of this attempt to prepare for English readers a brief sketch that shall at least indicate all the more salient features of a life of singularly varied aspect. Much, though of interest in itself, must here be omitted, as beyond the scope of the present study. There are points again into which, as touching persons still living or quite recently deceased, it would be premature to enter. But none seem of such importance as to forbid the endeavor, by a careful review of those facts in the life of George Sand which most justly represent her character as a whole, and were the determining influences on her career and on her work, to arrive at truth and completeness of general outline, the utmost it is possible to hope to accomplish in this little volume. BERTHA THOMAS. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS CHAPTER II. GIRLHOOD AND MARRIED LIFE CHAPTER III. DEBUT IN LITERATURE CHAPTER IV. LELIA--ITALIAN JOURNEY CHAPTER V. MENTAL DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER VI. SOLITUDE, SOCIETY AND SOCIALISM CHAPTER VII. CONSUELO--HOME LIFE AT NOHANT 149 CHAPTER VIII. NOVELIST AND POLITICIAN 170 CHAPTER IX. PASTORAL TALES CHAPTER X. PLAYS AND LATER NOVELS CHAPTER XI. ARTIST AND MORALIST CHAPTER XII. LATER YEARS GEORGE SAND. CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS. In naming George Sand we name something more exceptional than even a great genius. Her rise to eminence in the literature of her century, is, if not without a parallel, yet absolutely without a precedent, in the annals of women of modern times. The origin of much that is distinctive in the story of her life may be traced in the curious story of her lineage.