d through her father's mother from
Marshal Saxe, the famous son of Augustus of Saxony and Aurore von
Koeningsmarck. At the age of eighteen she married a man named Dudevant,
and was very unhappy, though it is rather difficult to determine on whom
the blame of the unhappiness ought to rest. They separated after a few
years, and she came to Paris, from her home at Nohant in Berry, to seek
a living. She found it soon in literature, having met with a friend and
companion in the novelist Jules Sandeau, and with a stern and most
useful critic in Henri de Latouche. Her first novel of importance was
_Indiana_, published in 1832. This was followed by _Valentine_, _Lelia_,
_Jacques_, etc. The interest of all or most of these turns on the
sufferings of the _femme incomprise_, a celebrated person in literature,
of whom George Sand is the historiographer, if not the inventor. A long
series of novels of this kind gave way, between 1840 and 1849, first to
a series of philosophical rhapsodies, of which _Spiridion_ is the chief,
and then to one in which the political aspirations of the socialist
Republicans appear. Of these, _Consuelo_, which is perhaps popularly
considered the author's masterpiece, was the chief. Her private history
was somewhat remarkable, and she succeeded in making at least two men of
greater genius than herself, Alfred de Musset and Chopin, utterly
miserable. They, however, afforded the subjects of two noteworthy books,
_Elle et Lui_, and _Lucrezia Floriani_, the latter perhaps the most
characteristic of all her early works. After the establishment of the
Second Empire her tastes and habits became quieter. She lived chiefly,
and latterly almost wholly, at Nohant, being greatly attached to the
country; and she wrote many charming sketches of country life with
felicitous introduction of _patois_, such as _La Mare au Diable_,
_Francois le Champi_, _La Petite Fadette_. Some voluminous memoirs,
published in 1854, dealt with her own early experiences. She lived till
the age of seventy-two, dying in 1876, and never ceased to put forth
novels which showed no distinct falling off in fertility or imagination,
or in command of literary style. She must have written in all nearly a
hundred books. As the chief characteristics of Balzac are intense
observation, concentrated thought, and the most obstinate and unwearying
labour, so the chief characteristic of George Sand is easy
improvisation. She had an active and receptive mind whi