Aurore Lucile Dupin, aka George Sand. During a visit to her grandmother’s country chateau of Nohant her father died in a horse riding accident. The four year old Aurore was raised from then on by her grandmother Marie-Aurore de Saxe, daughter of the late great Marshal General of France (who took over Louis XIV’s bed chamber at Chambord).
She inherited Nohant (~3 hours drive south of Paris) from her grandmother in 1821. She was light years ahead of her time and after a short time living with her uninspiring husband, she sought a legal separation and headed for Paris. One of her first lovers was fellow journalist Jules Sandeau. Together they wrote a novel which was published under the name J. Sand. When a follow up was commissioned, she wrote her first solo novel “Indiana”. Jules had not participated so a compromise was found. The novel was published with the name of the author as George Sand. She went on to publish more than seventy novels as well as writing plays, newspaper articles and political commentaries.
She split her time between Paris and her country residence at Nohant where she had many famous house guests.
Her tumultuous love life involved many of the famous men of her time including Chopin. When she was 45 her son introduced her to his friend Alexandre Manceau. Her son was not happy when she became involved with Alexandre, who was thirteen years younger. However it was her most stable and long lasting relationship. When Alexandre died fifteen years later, she moved into his bedroom and made it her own for the final eleven years of her life, dying in this blue room just before her 72nd birthday.
George Sand’s granddaughter lived in Nohant until her death in 1961 when the French State took on the restoration and conservation of George Sand’s home and furniture.
