e nature, he (Mauprat) is subsequently transformed from a
brute to a man; his sensual passion to a pure and holy love."--_Harper's
Monthly._

"The excellence of George Sand, as we understand it, lies in her
comprehension of the primitive elements of mankind. She has conquered
her way into the human heart, and whether it is at peace or at war, is
the same to her; for she is mistress of all its moods. No woman before
ever painted the passions and the emotions with such force and fidelity,
and with such consummate art. Whatever else she may be, she is always an
artist.... Love is the key-note of 'Mauprat,'--love, and what it can
accomplish in taming an otherwise untamable spirit. The hero, Bernard
Mauprat, grows up with his uncles, who are practically bandits, as was
not uncommon with men of their class, in the provinces, before the
breaking out of the French Revolution. He is a young savage, of whom the
best that can be said is, that he is only less wicked than his
relatives, because he has somewhere within him a sense of generosity and
honor, to which they are entire strangers. To sting this sense into
activity, to detect the makings of a man in this brute, to make this
brute into a man, is the difficult problem, which is worked out by
love,--the love of Bernard for his cousin Edmee, and hers for him,--the
love of two strong, passionate, noble natures, locked in a
life-and-death struggle, in which the man is finally overcome by the
unconquerable strength of womanhood. Only a great writer could have
described such a struggle, and only a great artist could have kept it
within allowable limits. This George Sand has done, we think; for her
portrait of Bernard is vigorous without being coarse, and her situations
are strong without being dangerous. Such, at least, is the impression we
have received from reading 'Mauprat,' which, besides being an admirable
study of character, is also a fine picture of French provincial life and
manners."--_Putnam's Monthly._

"Roberts Brothers propose to publish a series of translations of George
Sand's better novels. We can hardly say that all are worth appearing in
English; but it is certain that the 'better' list will comprise a good
many which are worth translating, and among these is 'Mauprat,'--though
by no means the best of them. Written to show the possibility of
constancy in man, a love inspired before and continuing through
marriage, it is itself a contradiction to a good many of the