George Sand

Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin - later Baroness Dudevant (July 1, 1804 - June 8, 1876) was a French novelist and early feminist (prior to the invention of the word), writing under the pseudonym of George Sand.

Born in Paris. Married in 1822 to Baron Casimir Dudevant, they had 2 children, Maurice (b. 1823) and Solange (b. 1828). In 1835 she parted from her husband.

Her first novel, "Rose Et Blanche" (1831) was written in collaboration with Jules Sandeau, from whom she took her pen-name.

She was linked romantically with Alfred de Musset (summer 1833 - March 1834), Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin (1838 - 1847) whom she met in Paris in 1831, and left him shortly before he died from tuberculosis.

Her successful novels: "Indiana" (1832), "Lélia" (1833), "Mauprat" (1837), "Le Compagnon du Tour de France" (1840), "Consuelo" (1842 - 1843), "Le Meunier d'Angibault" (1845). Drawing from her childhood experiences of the countryside, she wrote the rural novels "La Mare du Diable" (1846), "François le Champi" (1847 - 1848), "La Petite Fadette" (1849), "Les Beaux Messieurs Bois-Dore".

Her theatre pieces and autobiographical pieces, "Histoire de ma vie" (1855), "Elle et Lui" (1859) (about her affair with Musset), "Journal Intime" (posth. 1926), "Correspondance".

George Sand died at Nohant, near Chateauroux, in the Indre département of France on June 8, 1876 at the age of 72. She was interred in the Cimetiere de Montparnasse, Paris, France.

This information has been sourced from the "3ème édition du Dictionnaire Encyclopédique de la Langue Française".