French fiction -- 19th century; Sand, George, 1804-1876
In the literary beginnings of younger authors George Sand took the
warmest interest, and unsparingly and judiciously advised and encouraged
them. Her counsel and tender solicitude in the case of Flaubert and many
others show how large was her heart and how untiring her aid. Concerning
her views on her art, her opinion is well expressed in a letter written
in the last year of her life: "Art should be the seeking for truth, and
the latter consists in something more than representing evil or good.
The _artiste_ who notices but the blemishes is as incomplete as he who
brings forth only good qualities." The imaginative played in Madame Sand
a greater part than the real. Love was the force out of which all that
is good or just should spring; she says: "He who abstains from love,
abstains from justice."
This great writer, whose works have triumphed over prejudice and secured
her a homage that rarely falls to the lot of authors, was as unassuming
as she was brilliant and fearless. She disliked all parade, and while
ever ready and prompt to come to the front when circumstances rendered
her prominence necessary or desirable, she preferred retirement. Of her
literary claims she says, in her calm old age: "I have never entertained
the pretension of being a first-rate writer. My object has been to react
on my contemporaries, even were they only a few, and to induce them to
partake of my ideal of meekness and poetry."
After an interval of usual reaction from great popularity, which George
Sand's works have not escaped, a reawakened interest has come. Time has
removed many prejudices, and her aim and intent are better understood.
Of the multitude of works she has contributed, it is not too venturesome
to assert that posterity will cherish many of her romances as classic
treasures. As long as the human heart feels the burden of the real life,
so long will men and women take delight and comfort in the ideal life;
in wandering amid scenes that will shed a cheering ray to lighten the
gloom and brighten the sadness of our real world. Nor will it be found
that George Sand takes us so out of the reality that we shall experience
only a mere wondering diversion. She indeed pictures life as it should,
and might, be; but she also describes it as she sees it; she feels what
she writes; she reads and interprets the "never-changing language of
nature"; she recognizes that the romance must be human before all else,
and assumes that true reality consists in a mixture of good and evil.
Her writings are too interestingly human for humanity to lose its
appreciation of those of them that are not precluded by special reasons
from enjoying lasting fame.
J. A. B.
Philadelphia, 1902.
SHE AND HE
TO MADEMOISELLE JACQUES
"MY DEAR THÉRÈSE:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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