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Dans le cadre de l'intense activité artistique qui, sous le Second Empire, voit se succéder romans et nouvelles, pièces et canevas pour le théâtre de société de Nohant, George Sand imagine les amours contrariées d'un jeune peintre de fleurs et d'une belle aristocrate en quête d'un homme selon son coeur.
Le Paris de la fin du XVIIIe siècle sert de décor à ce roman mettant en scène les préjugés tenaces et les sentiments vrais, la montée en puissance de la bourgeoisie et des idées libérales, la volonté des femmes d'être désormais les actrices de leur destinée.
Tout est drôle, vif et bien mené dans ce «divertimento» écrit en 1862 à la manière d'une comédie, mais qui conserve en contrepoint ce sens critique dont Sand ne se départ jamais.
Au lecteur de suivre intrigues et rebondissements, arguments et états d'âme, d'apprécier le talent de la conteuse, bref de goûter un roman qui était depuis longtemps introuvable.
Le Paris de la fin du XVIIIe siècle sert de décor à ce roman mettant en scène les préjugés tenaces et les sentiments vrais, la montée en puissance de la bourgeoisie et des idées libérales, la volonté des femmes d'être désormais les actrices de leur destinée.
Tout est drôle, vif et bien mené dans ce «divertimento» écrit en 1862 à la manière d'une comédie, mais qui conserve en contrepoint ce sens critique dont Sand ne se départ jamais.
Au lecteur de suivre intrigues et rebondissements, arguments et états d'âme, d'apprécier le talent de la conteuse, bref de goûter un roman qui était depuis longtemps introuvable.
- GenresClassics
305 pages, Pocket Book
Published May 7, 2002
1 person is currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
George Sand
2,895 books925 followersAmantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, best known by her pen name George Sand, was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. She wrote more than 50 volumes of various works to her credit, including tales, plays and political texts, alongside her 70 novels.
Like her great-grandmother, Louise Dupin, whom she admired, George Sand advocated for women's rights and passion, criticized the institution of marriage, and fought against the prejudices of a conservative society. She was considered scandalous because of her turbulent love life, her adoption of masculine clothing, and her masculine pseudonym.
Like her great-grandmother, Louise Dupin, whom she admired, George Sand advocated for women's rights and passion, criticized the institution of marriage, and fought against the prejudices of a conservative society. She was considered scandalous because of her turbulent love life, her adoption of masculine clothing, and her masculine pseudonym.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 27, 2021
Free download available at Project Gutenberg
I made the proofing of this book and Dagny its SR for Free Literature and Project Gutenberg will publish it.
I made the proofing of this book and Dagny its SR for Free Literature and Project Gutenberg will publish it.
September 13, 2025
Tellement Shakespearien !! (Hamlet, Ophelia, Roméo et Juliette, ... )
Oeuvre pilier du Romantisme : nature et sens au centre du récit : jardin au cœur d'une ville en travaux (beaucoup de mentions de chaos en dehors des deux résidences et du jardin) -> "Ce jardin qui était devenu pour l'amour un paradis terrestre"
J'aime la relation intime qu'entretient la narratrice avec le lecteur
Intéressant de lire un livre ancien qui relate lui-même des faits historiques anciens : point de vue
Backlash fait déjà suite aux mouvements sociaux
p.182 "Julie, fatiguée et un peu égarée, respira le calme de la nuit et ce parfum de la solitude avec un grand bien-être."
Oeuvre pilier du Romantisme : nature et sens au centre du récit : jardin au cœur d'une ville en travaux (beaucoup de mentions de chaos en dehors des deux résidences et du jardin) -> "Ce jardin qui était devenu pour l'amour un paradis terrestre"
J'aime la relation intime qu'entretient la narratrice avec le lecteur
Intéressant de lire un livre ancien qui relate lui-même des faits historiques anciens : point de vue
Backlash fait déjà suite aux mouvements sociaux
p.182 "Julie, fatiguée et un peu égarée, respira le calme de la nuit et ce parfum de la solitude avec un grand bien-être."
November 22, 2023
This is my introduction to George Sand, and I enjoyed it very much. I bought a small collection of 1898 Sand novels that started their life in a public library in Nebraska (last checked out in 1975--the card is still in it), and they are somewhat fragile but still hanging in there. I have six more such novels waiting for me, and that feels like riches.
This is the story of the Countess d'Estrelle--Julie--a widowed woman left in debt by her husband, who is facing all kinds of pressure by her friends in high society to live a certain way while being threatened by her creditors. Her father-in-law's second wife is in both categories, and she is a pure villain who will not lift a finger to help her with the debts her stepson left her with. Everyone is so invested in Julie's marrying some rich aristocrat, including her friends, that they bring every kind of pressure to bear against her. M. Antoine, her solicitor's rich old uncle, buys up her debt to use it against her, mostly to make her marry him, though he loves no one and doesn't seem to want anything from her except her humility. He works with her cruel mother-in-law at one point to force her to do what they both want.
This is complicated by a love story. A young painter who lives on the property beside Julie's home, adjacent to her garden, is in love with her. His mother (also a widow, also left in debt by her husband, and also from an aristocratic background) becomes friends with her and visits her in her garden, but the young man--Julien--cannot be friendly with the widow and visit the garden because he is a man and like his father is working class. Still, he sees her in the garden sometimes through the blinds in the room where he paints, and inevitably they meet and really fall in love. It's a very nice love story, in parts.
But wow, the conspiracies against them... The rich old man, the solicitor's uncle, is also Julien's uncle, and he suspects they are in love and he will do anything to keep them apart. In the end, he arranges matters so that Julien and his mother will be supported in the nice home they used to live in and Julie will have her debts paid and be allowed to keep her home (hotel in the novel), as long as they don't meet again and never try to marry. If either breaks the agreement, all lose and end in poverty. Nobody wants to be responsible for ruining the lives of the others, especially hurting Julien's old mother, so they agree to it.
If this were the end, I would kinda hate it, but it's not a horrible sad ending (spoiler--sorry). Ultimately, the rotten old uncle gives in when both Julien's mother and Countess d'Estrelle, independently, kneel for him to ask his pardon for ridiculous imagined slights. Once he has that, he's willing to let everyone have a happy life. Yay!
I haven't researched this, but since it takes place just before the French Revolution, it feels like M. Antoine is deliberately made to represent the wealthy bourgeoisie who resent the old (often debt-ridden) nobility and want to take them down a peg--I'm as good as you!--but I don't know if the author wants it read as allegory. For certain, the ridiculous belief, so deeply held it was encoded into law, that the nobility were not to marry someone from the low classes, that they were innately different, innately superior to them, is mocked here. (I think that's awesome.) Julie and Julien are the best characters in the story, both of them selfless and virtuous, and they deserve each other.
The story is not very long, which I like, but it also has very few characters, which is less fun. Most scenes include only two people, sometimes three; there are no balls or parties in the story, and except one scene with maybe five characters meeting up it feels very lonely. I wonder if it could be staged as a play... Actually, yeah, it would be pretty simple to do that. Maybe it started that way. Hmmmm.
Despite missing the sights and sounds of dinners or big social events (as we might find in Jane Austen, I mean), I enjoyed this a lot, and I'm eager to see what the other novels on my shelf turn out to be like.
Recommended for readers of 19th century novels.
This is the story of the Countess d'Estrelle--Julie--a widowed woman left in debt by her husband, who is facing all kinds of pressure by her friends in high society to live a certain way while being threatened by her creditors. Her father-in-law's second wife is in both categories, and she is a pure villain who will not lift a finger to help her with the debts her stepson left her with. Everyone is so invested in Julie's marrying some rich aristocrat, including her friends, that they bring every kind of pressure to bear against her. M. Antoine, her solicitor's rich old uncle, buys up her debt to use it against her, mostly to make her marry him, though he loves no one and doesn't seem to want anything from her except her humility. He works with her cruel mother-in-law at one point to force her to do what they both want.
This is complicated by a love story. A young painter who lives on the property beside Julie's home, adjacent to her garden, is in love with her. His mother (also a widow, also left in debt by her husband, and also from an aristocratic background) becomes friends with her and visits her in her garden, but the young man--Julien--cannot be friendly with the widow and visit the garden because he is a man and like his father is working class. Still, he sees her in the garden sometimes through the blinds in the room where he paints, and inevitably they meet and really fall in love. It's a very nice love story, in parts.
But wow, the conspiracies against them... The rich old man, the solicitor's uncle, is also Julien's uncle, and he suspects they are in love and he will do anything to keep them apart. In the end, he arranges matters so that Julien and his mother will be supported in the nice home they used to live in and Julie will have her debts paid and be allowed to keep her home (hotel in the novel), as long as they don't meet again and never try to marry. If either breaks the agreement, all lose and end in poverty. Nobody wants to be responsible for ruining the lives of the others, especially hurting Julien's old mother, so they agree to it.
If this were the end, I would kinda hate it, but it's not a horrible sad ending (spoiler--sorry). Ultimately, the rotten old uncle gives in when both Julien's mother and Countess d'Estrelle, independently, kneel for him to ask his pardon for ridiculous imagined slights. Once he has that, he's willing to let everyone have a happy life. Yay!
I haven't researched this, but since it takes place just before the French Revolution, it feels like M. Antoine is deliberately made to represent the wealthy bourgeoisie who resent the old (often debt-ridden) nobility and want to take them down a peg--I'm as good as you!--but I don't know if the author wants it read as allegory. For certain, the ridiculous belief, so deeply held it was encoded into law, that the nobility were not to marry someone from the low classes, that they were innately different, innately superior to them, is mocked here. (I think that's awesome.) Julie and Julien are the best characters in the story, both of them selfless and virtuous, and they deserve each other.
The story is not very long, which I like, but it also has very few characters, which is less fun. Most scenes include only two people, sometimes three; there are no balls or parties in the story, and except one scene with maybe five characters meeting up it feels very lonely. I wonder if it could be staged as a play... Actually, yeah, it would be pretty simple to do that. Maybe it started that way. Hmmmm.
Despite missing the sights and sounds of dinners or big social events (as we might find in Jane Austen, I mean), I enjoyed this a lot, and I'm eager to see what the other novels on my shelf turn out to be like.
Recommended for readers of 19th century novels.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews