Lelia: The Life of George Sand

George Sand, pseud. of Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin, Baronne Dudevant 1804-76, French novelist. Other variant forms of her maiden name include Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin. Born of an aristocratic father and a lower-class mother, she was reared by her austere paternal grandmother on a country estate in Berry. After entering a convent in Paris, she returned to the countryside and led an unconventional life, donning the male clothes that became a mark of her rebellion. In 1831, after eight years of a marriage of convenience with Baron Dudevant, a country squire, she went with her two children to Paris, obtaining a divorce in 1836. She wrote some 80 novels, which were widely popular in their day, supporting herself and her children chiefly by her writing. Her earlier novels were romantic; later ones often expressed her serious concern with social reform. Her liaisons-with Jules Sandeau, Musset, Chopin, and others-were open and notorious, but were only part of her life. She demanded for women the freedom in living that was a matter of course to the men of her day.