Editing George Sand (section)

==Personal life==

===Childhood===
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, the future George Sand, was born on 1 July 1804 on Meslay Street in Paris to Maurice Dupin de Francueil and Sophie-Victoire Delaborde. She was the paternal great-granddaughter of the Marshal of France [[Maurice de Saxe]] (1696–1750), and on her mother's side, her grandfather was Antoine Delaborde, master [[Jeu de paume|paumier]] and master birder.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.cbx41.com/ext/http://www.cbx41.com/photo-1326389-Mus-e-de-la-Vie-romantique_6164_jpg.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130102043729/http://www.cbx41.com/ext/http://www.cbx41.com/photo-1326389-Mus-e-de-la-Vie-romantique_6164_jpg.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 January 2013 |publisher=CBX41 |title=Musée de la Vie Romantique |place=Paris |type=family tree }}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Sand|first=George|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/694516159|title=Lelia|date=1982|publisher=Indiana University Press|others=Maria Espinosa|isbn=978-0-253-33318-6|location=Bloomington|oclc=694516159}}</ref> For much of her childhood, she was raised by her grandmother [[Marie-Aurore de Saxe]], Madame Dupin de Francueil, at her [[House of George Sand|grandmother's house]] in the village of [[Nohant]], in the French province of [[Berry, France|Berry]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Sand|title=George Sand {{!}} French novelist|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2 March 2019}}</ref> Sand inherited the house in 1821 when her grandmother died, and used the setting in many of her novels.

===Gender presentation===
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2023}}

Sand was one of many notable 19th-century women who chose to [[Cross-dressing|wear male attire]] in public. In 1800, the police chief of Paris issued an order requiring women to apply for a permit in order to wear male clothing. Some women applied for health, occupational, or recreational reasons (e.g., horseback riding),<ref>{{cite web |last=Garber |first=Megan |title=It Just Became Legal for Parisian Women to Wear Pants |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/it-just-became-legal-for-parisian-women-to-wear-pants/272836/#:~:text=In%201799%2C%20the%20police%20chief,justification%20for%20exposing%20her%20legs. |website=The Atlantic |access-date=23 November 2022 |language=en |date=4 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Wills |first=Matthew |title=Rosa Bonheur's Permission to Wear Pants |url=https://daily.jstor.org/rosa-bonheurs-permission-to-wear-pants/ |website=JSTOR Daily |access-date=23 November 2022 |date=28 May 2022}}</ref> although many women chose to wear [[Trousers as women's clothing|trousers]] and other traditional male attire in public without receiving a permit.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paris women finally allowed to wear trousers |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21329269 |website=BBC News |access-date=23 November 2022 |date=4 February 2013}}</ref> Sand obtained a permit to wear men's clothing in 1831,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Le Parisien |title=Une permission de travestissement pour George Sand |url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leparisien.fr%2Fespace-premium%2Fair-du-temps%2Fune-permission-de-travestissement-pour-george-sand-18-04-2012-1959880.php#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url |date=18 April 2012}}</ref> justifying it as being less expensive and far sturdier than the typical dress of a noblewoman at the time. In addition to being comfortable, Sand's male attire enabled her to circulate more freely in Paris than most of her female contemporaries and gave her increased access to venues that barred women, even those of her social standing.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Siegfried|first1=Susan L.|last2=Finkelberg|first2=John|date=3 September 2020|title=Fashion in the Life of George Sand|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2020.1794202|journal=Fashion Theory|volume=26 |issue=5 |pages=559–593|doi=10.1080/1362704X.2020.1794202|s2cid=225330185|issn=1362-704X|via=Taylor and Francis Online}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Barry|first=Joseph|title=The Wholeness of George Sand|date=1976|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44627396|journal=Nineteenth-Century French Studies|volume=4|issue=4|pages=469–487|jstor=44627396|issn=0146-7891}}</ref> Also scandalous was Sand's smoking tobacco in public; neither peerage nor gentry had yet sanctioned the free indulgence by women of such a habit, especially in public, although [[Franz Liszt]]'s paramour [[Marie d'Agoult]] affected this as well, smoking large cigars.

While some contemporaries were critical of her comportment, many people accepted her behaviour—until they became shocked with the subversive tone of her novels.<ref name="Thomson 1972" /> Those who found her writing admirable were not bothered by her ambiguous or rebellious public behaviour.

In 1831, at the age of 27, she chose her pseudonym George Sand. "Sand" was derived from the name of her lover and fellow writer Jules Sandeau, as the pair had previously co-authored a novel under the pseudonym J. Sand. She added George to complete the name and distinguish it from Sandeau's, removing the final "s" from the usual French spelling of the name to heighten its ambiguity as a pseudonym.

Victor Hugo commented, "George Sand cannot determine whether she is male or female. I entertain a high regard for all my colleagues, but it is not my place to decide whether she is my sister or my brother."<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Gerson|first1=Noel B.|date=3 October 2021|title=George Sand: A Biography of the First Modern, Liberated Woman|page=13|edition=Kindle |publisher=Sapere Books|asin=B09DYKZQ7F}}</ref>

[[File:Portrait of George Sand by Thomas Sully, 1826.jpg|left|thumb|Portrait of George Sand by [[Thomas Sully]], 1826]]

Gender appears to be likewise ambiguous in Sand's own perspective. Sometimes when writing first person memoirs or essays (including letters and journals), Sand's language "speaks to modern explorations of gender ambiguity" in the consistent use of a first-person "male persona" <ref name="Roberts2020">Roberts, Michele (13 March 2020) "La parole humaine: Writing, gender and the shifting reputation of George Sand." [[The Times Literary Supplement|Times Literary Supplement]] (''TLS''), no. 6102. [http://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632692903/AONE link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632692903/AONE] - via Gale Academic OneFile.</ref> used to describe Sand's own experiences and identity in masculine terms. However, when writing an autobiography of the author's youth, the person described is a girl/woman whose descriptions aligns with her legal designation as "la demoiselle Aurora."<ref name="SandMaVie">{{Cite book|last1=Sand|first1=George|date=1856|title=Histoire de ma vie.|publisher= Paris, M. Lévy|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007570668}}</ref>

Sand's friends and peers likewise alternate between using masculine or female adjectives and pronouns depending on the situation. For instance, in reviewing the collected letters of Sand's lover [[Chopin]],<ref name="ChopinLetters">Chopin, Frédéric and Henryk Opieński (1931). ''Chopin's Letters''. Translated by E. L. Voynich, A.A. Knopf. Archived at: https://archive.org/details/chopinsletters00chop/mode/2up</ref> one finds her consistently addressed as either "Mme Sand" or more familiarly as "George". Either way, she is referred to with feminine pronouns, and positioned as the "Lady of the House" <ref name="ChopinLetters" />{{rp|202}} when referring to their domestic life together. However, when speaking of Sand as a public rather than a private figure, even those who clearly knew (or even referenced) the writer's sex also tended to apply masculine terms when speaking of their role as an author. For instance [[Jules Janin]] describes Sand as the ''king'' of novellists (ie: "le roi des romanciers modernes")<ref name="Roberts2020" /> rather than as the ''queen''. Likewise, [[Flaubert]] refers to Sand as being a dear master of their shared art (ie: "Chère Maitre"), using a masculine title to denote the masculine professional role, but a grammatically feminine adjective that acknowledges their legal or grammatical sex.<ref name="Roberts2020" />

===Notable relationships===
[[File:Casimir Dudevant.jpeg|thumb|upright|[[Casimir Dudevant]], Sand's husband, in the 1860s]]

In 1822, at the age of eighteen, Sand married [[Casimir Dudevant|(François) Casimir Dudevant]],<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Sand|title=George Sand {{!}} French novelist|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=1 July 2018|language=en}}</ref> an [[Legitimacy (family law)|illegitimate]] son of Baron Jean-François Dudevant. She and Dudevant had two children: [[Maurice Sand|Maurice]] and [[Solange Dudevant|Solange]] (1828–1899). In 1825, she had an intense but perhaps platonic affair with the young lawyer [[Aurélien de Sèze]].<ref name="Leduc2015">{{citation|last=Leduc|first=Edouard|title=La Dame de Nohant: ou La vie passionnée de George Sand|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGK9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA30|year=2015|publisher=Editions Publibook|isbn=978-2-342-03497-4|pages=30–}}</ref> In early 1831, she left her husband and entered upon a four- or five-year period of "romantic rebellion". In 1835, she was [[legally separated]] from Dudevant and took custody of their children.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-sand-review-monstre-sacre-1528489494|title='George Sand' Review: Monstre Sacré|last=Eisler|first=Benita|website=The Wall Street Journal|date=8 June 2018|language=en-US|access-date=1 December 2019}}</ref>

Sand had romantic affairs with the novelist [[Jules Sandeau]] (1831), the Polish-Russian Prince Norbert Przanowski (February 1832 – Summer 1833) the writer [[Prosper Mérimée]], the dramatist [[Alfred de Musset]] (summer 1833 – March 1835), Louis-Chrysostome Michel, the actor [[Bocage (actor)|Pierre-François Bocage]], the writer [[Charles Didier (writer)|Charles Didier]], the novelist [[Félicien Mallefille]], the politician [[Louis Blanc]], and the composer [[Frédéric Chopin]] (1837–1847).{{Sfn|Szulc|1998|pp=160, 165, 194–95}} Later in her life, [[Flaubert's letters|she corresponded]] with [[Gustave Flaubert]], and despite their differences in temperament and aesthetic preference, they eventually became close friends.

Sand was also close friends with the actress [[Marie Dorval]]. Whether they were physically involved or not has been debated, yet never verified.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679779186&view=excerpt | title = George Sand | first = Belinda | last = Jack | publisher = Random House}}.</ref><ref name="glbtq">{{citation|last=Pettis|first=Ruth M.|title=Dorval, Marie|url=http://www.glbtq.com/arts/dorval_m.html|year=2005|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007174202/http://www.glbtq.com/arts/dorval_m.html|periodical=[[glbtq.com]]|accessdate=19 October 2008|archivedate=7 October 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> The two met in January 1833, after Sand wrote Dorval a letter of appreciation following one of her performances. Sand wrote about Dorval, including many passages where she is described as smitten with Dorval. <blockquote>Only those who know how differently we were made can realize how utterly I was in thrall to her...God had given her the power to express what she felt...She was beautiful, and she was simple. She had never been taught anything, but there was nothing she did not know by instinct. I can find no words with which to describe how cold and incomplete my own nature is. I can express nothing. There must be a sort of paralysis in my brain which prevents what I feel from ever finding a form through which it can achieve communication...When she appeared upon the stage, with her drooping figure, her listless gait, her sad and penetrating glance...I can say only that it was as though I were looking at an embodied spirit.<ref name=":0" /> </blockquote>

Theater critic [[Jean Baptiste Gustave Planche|Gustave Planche]] reportedly warned Sand to stay away from Dorval. Likewise, Count [[Alfred de Vigny]], Dorval's lover from 1831 to 1838, warned the actress to stay away from Sand, whom he referred to as "that damned lesbian".<ref name="glbtq" /> In 1840, Dorval played the lead in a play written by Sand, titled ''Cosima'', and the two women collaborated on the script. However, the play was not well-received, and was cancelled after only seven showings. Sand and Dorval remained close friends for the remainder of Dorval's lifetime.

====Chopin====

Sand spent the winter of 1838–1839 with [[Frédéric Chopin]] in [[Mallorca]] at the (formerly abandoned) [[Carthusian]] monastery of [[Valldemossa]].<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.valldemossa.com/museoin.htm | title = Museoin | publisher = Valldemossa}}.</ref> The trip to Mallorca was described in her ''Un hiver à Majorque'' (''[[A Winter in Majorca]]''), first published in 1841.<ref>Travers, Martin (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=fZFitE0jpv4C&dq=%22a+winter+in+majorca%22+sand&pg=PA97 ''European Literature from Romanticism to Postmodernism: A Reader in Aesthetic Practice''.] Continuum publishing, 2006, p. 97. {{ISBN|978-0826439604}}</ref> Chopin [[Chopin's disease|was already ill]] with incipient tuberculosis at the beginning of their relationship, and spending a cold and wet winter in Mallorca where they could not get proper lodgings exacerbated his symptoms.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Pruszewicz|first1=Marek|title=The mystery of Chopin's death|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29915863|date=22 December 2014|access-date=20 January 2015|work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref>[[File:ChopinSandDelacroix.jpg|thumb|Sand sews while Chopin plays piano, in a hypothetical reconstruction of Delacroix's 1838 painting, ''[[Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand]]''.|left]]

Sand and Chopin also spent many long summers at [[House of George Sand|Sand's country manor in Nohant]] from 1839 to 1846, skipping only 1840.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nohant, Indre: Frédéric Chopin and George Sand|url=https://www.francetoday.com/learn/history/nohant_chopin_sand/|access-date=29 January 2022|website=www.google.com|date=16 September 2010}}</ref> There, Chopin wrote many of his most famous works, including the [[Fantaisie in F minor (Chopin)|Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49]], [[Piano Sonata No. 3 (Chopin)|Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 58]], and the [[Ballade No. 3 (Chopin)|Ballade No. 3 Op. 47]].

In her novel ''Lucrezia Floriani'', Sand is said to have used Chopin as a model for a sickly Eastern European prince named Karol. He is cared for by a middle-aged actress past her prime, Lucrezia, who suffers greatly through her affection for Karol.{{Sfn | Szulc | 1998 | p = 326}} Though Sand claimed not to have made a cartoon out of Chopin, the book's publication and widespread readership may have exacerbated their later antipathy towards each other. After Chopin's death, Sand burned much of their correspondence, leaving only four surviving letters between the two.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Belotti|first1=Gastone|last2=Sand|first2=George|last3=Weiss|first3=Piero|date=1966|title=Three Unpublished Letters by George Sand and Their Contribution to Chopin Scholarship|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3085958|journal=The Musical Quarterly|volume=52|issue=3|pages=283–303|doi=10.1093/mq/LII.3.283|jstor=3085958|issn=0027-4631}}</ref> Three of the letters were published in the "Classiques Garnier" series in 1968.<ref name=":1" />[[File:Alexandre Manceau (1817-1865).jpg|thumb|Alexandre Manceau (1817–1865), long time lover of George Sand from 1849 to 1865|217x217px]]

Another breach was caused by Chopin's attitude toward Sand's daughter, Solange.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jensen|first=Katharine Ann|date=1 February 2013|title=The Chopin Affair: George Sand's Rivalry with her Daughter|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/08905495.2013.770617|journal=Nineteenth-Century Contexts|volume=35|issue=1|pages=41–64|doi=10.1080/08905495.2013.770617|s2cid=193206245|issn=0890-5495}}</ref> Chopin continued to be cordial to Solange after she and her husband [[Auguste Clésinger]] fell out with Sand over money. Sand took Chopin's support of Solange to be extremely disloyal, and confirmation that Chopin had always "loved" Solange.<ref>From the correspondence of Sand and Chopin: {{harvnb|Szulc|1998|p=344}}</ref>

Sand's son Maurice disliked Chopin. Maurice wanted to establish himself as the "man of the estate" and did not wish to have Chopin as a rival. Maurice removed two sentences from a letter Sand wrote to Chopin when he published it because he felt that Sand was too affectionate toward Chopin and Solange.<ref name=":1" />

Chopin and Sand separated two years before his death for a variety of reasons.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Frédéric Chopin and George Sand: A Collaborative Union {{!}} The Romantic Piano|url=https://www.wqxr.org/story/291926-frederic-chopin-and-george-sand-a-collaborative-union/|access-date=2 March 2019|website=WQXR|date=9 May 2013 |language=en}}</ref> Chopin was never asked back to Nohant; in 1848, he returned to Paris from a tour of the United Kingdom, to die at the [[Place Vendôme]] in 1849. George Sand was notably absent from his funeral.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/books/chapters/chopins-funeral.html|title=Excerpted from 'Chopin's Funeral'|last=Eisler|first=Benita|date=20 April 2003|work=The New York Times|access-date=1 December 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In December 1849, Maurice invited the [[Engraving|engraver]] Alexandre Manceau to celebrate Christmas in Nohant. George Sand fell passionately in love with Manceau, he became her lover, companion and secretary and they stayed together for fifteen years until his death.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Harlan |first=Elizabeth |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191935438 |title=George Sand |date=2004 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13056-0 |location=New Haven |pages=286f., 298 |oclc=191935438}}</ref>

===Last years and death===
George Sand had no choice but to write for the theater because of financial difficulties. In Nohant, she even exercised the functions of village doctor, having studied anatomy and herbal remedies with a Doctor Deschartres. But she was not confined to Nohant, and travelled in France, and in particular with her great friend {{ill|Charles Robin-Duvernet|fr|Charles Duvernet}} at the Château du Petit Coudray, or abroad. In 1864, Sand took residence in [[Palaiseau]] together with her beloved Manceau for a couple of months, where she tended him in his decline.<ref name=":2" />

Sand died at Nohant, near [[Châteauroux]], in France's [[Indre]] ''[[departments of France|département]]'' on 8 June 1876, at the age of 71. She was buried in the private graveyard behind the chapel at [[Nohant-Vic]].<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 41516). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref> In 2003, plans that her remains be moved to the [[Panthéon]] in Paris resulted in controversy.<ref>{{cite news|title=Will George Sand Join the Immortals in the Pantheon?|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1043894595789807544|newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|date=30 January 2003|access-date=17 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Ashes to ashes, Sand to sand|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/sep/13/featuresreviews.guardianreview16|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=13 September 2003|access-date=17 October 2014}}</ref>