ly defining the distinction between them.
By the expression of her idea that French literature had decayed on
account of the exclusive social spirit, and that its only means of
regeneration lay in the study and absorption of new models, she
cut French taste loose from traditions and freed literature from
superannuated conventionalities. Also, by her idea that a common
civilization must be fostered, a union of the eastern and western
ideals, and that literature must be the common expression thereof,
whose object must be the amelioration of humanity, morally and
religiously, she gave to the world at large ideas which are only now
being fully appreciated and nearing realization. In her novels she
vigorously protested against the lot of woman in modern society,
against her obligation to submit everything to opinion, against the
innumerable obstacles in the way of her development--thus heralding
George Sand and the general movement toward woman's emancipation.
France has never had a more forceful, energetic, influential,
cosmopolitan, and at the same time moral, writer than Mme. de Stael.

The events in the life of George Sand had comparatively little
influence upon her works, which were mainly the expression of her
nature. As a young girl, she was strongly influenced by her mother, an
amiable but rather frivolous woman, and by her grandmother, a serious,
cold, ceremonious old lady. Calm and well balanced, and possessing an
ardent imagination, she followed her own inclinations when, as a girl
of sixteen, she was married to a man for whom she had no love. After
living an indifferent sort of life with her husband for ten years,
they separated; and she, with her children, went to Paris to find
work.

After a number of unsuccessful efforts of a literary nature, she
wrote _Indiana_, which immediately made her success. Her articles were
sought by the journals, and from about 1830 her life was that of the
average artist and writer of the time. Her relations with Chopin and
Alfred de Musset are too well known to require repetition. After 1850
she retired to her home, the Chateau de Nohant, where she enjoyed the
companionship of her son, her daughter-in-law, and her grandchildren;
she died there in 1876.

To appreciate her works, it is more important to study her nature than
her career. This has been admirably done by the Comte d'Haussonville.
George Sand is said to have possessed a dual nature, which seemed
to contradict itself,