Le dernier amour

by George Sand

Dans Le Dernier Amour, dédié à Gustave Flaubert, George Sand continue à s’interroger sur le mariage, l’amour et la passion. Une jeune femme s’y trouve déchirée entre la passion orageuse et mauvaise qu’elle éprouve pour un tout jeune homme qui pourrait être son fils et un amour raisonnable pour un homme plus âgé qu’elle, son honnête et sage mari. Dans ces contradictions s’affrontent des désirs contraires : désir d’appartenance à une société et contestation d’un ordre qui opprime les femmes. Publié en 1866, ce roman n’avait jamais été réédité.

« Il y avait en elle des cordes brisées ou détendues : l’instrument, exquis par lui-même, ne pouvait être d’accord. Le son déchirant m’en était pénible. Parfois cependant une belle note pure produisait une impression délicieuse. J’éprouvais le besoin de la plaindre ; mais elle ne permettait pas l’amitié et ne semblait pas la connaître. Son attachement pour les siens avait le caractère d’un devoir accompli avec passion, jamais avec tendresse. »

ebook

First published January 1, 1866

About the author

Amantine 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.

Reviews

[Gabrielle Dubois · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Love, is a novel BY George Sand (not to be confused with The Last Love of George Sand, biography by Evelyne Bloch-Dano, which I haven’t read).
George Sand dedicated her novel The Last Love: "To my friend Gustave Flaubert. "
What to say? Oh, my God, how beautiful! George Sand had the intelligence, the art and the way to analyze human feelings, hearts and minds of men and women. Published in 1866, this novel deals with the female desire, taboo subject still very badly considered at that time.
Mr. Sylvestre, 49 years old, tells us his last love. On each page we explore a little more the soul of this man who claim to be a philosopher and a good man, and that of Felicie, a 29-year-old woman, as full of love as resentment. Both have a painful past, each one manages it his own way, with the education they have received from society, and the character they have received from nature.
"Perhaps Mr. Sylvestre felt the need to tell us about his soul and to distribute in a few faithful hands the grains of wisdom and charity he had saved from the disaster of his life. "
Mr. Sylvestre tries to help Félicie:
" People who don’t love themselves can’t be loved and don’t know how to be attractive. "
"There is a moment in one's life when one has only demands towards oneself. The possible of perfection is felt, since it is loved; but one feels how difficult it is to reach this perfection, since one doesn’t reach it. This pursuit of beauty and goodness, always vain in spite of great and sincere efforts, makes us indulgent to those whom we love. "
Desire, wisdom, adultery, love, and friendship as ultimate punishment.

Unfortunately for you, dear English language readers, this delicately carved gemstone hasn’t been yet translated into English, at least I couldn’t find it. I’m sorry if my review made you desire to read this novel by George Sand !

Flaubert and Sand had a long and exciting correspondence. They both liked to understand the functioning of the human soul. Flaubert always tried to know the cause of human actions, he built the lives of the strangers he crossed, according to their costume, their way of speaking or acting; if it was a woman (mostly middle-aged) then he would have wanted to know everything about her life. He would have liked to see her naked, and naked to the heart!

French version :

Le Dernier Amour, est un roman de George Sand qu’elle dédicace : « À mon ami Gustave Flaubert. »
Que dire ? Oh, mon Dieu que c’est beau ! Comme George Sand avait l’intelligence, l’art et la manière d’analyser les sentiments humains, les cœurs et les esprits des hommes et des femmes ! Publié en 1866, ce roman traite du désir chez la femme, sujet tabou encore très mal considéré à cette époque-là.
M. Sylvestre, 49 ans, raconte son dernier amour. À chaque page on explore un peu plus l’âme de cet homme qui se dit philosophe et bon, et celle de Félicie, femme de 29 ans, aussi pleine d’amour que de rancune. Tous deux ont un passé douloureux, chacun le gère à sa manière, avec l’éducation qu’ils ont reçue de la société, le caractère qu’ils ont reçu de la nature.
M. Sylvestre raconte son histoire :
« Peut-être éprouvait-il le besoin de raconter son âme et de distribuer dans quelques mains fidèles les grains de sagesse et de charité qu’il avait sauvé du désastre de sa vie. »
M. Sylvestre tente d’aider Félicie :
« On n’aime pas les gens qui ne s’aiment pas eux-mêmes et qui, par conséquent, ne savent pas chercher à plaire. »
« Il est un moment de sa vie où l’on n’a plus d’exigence qu’envers soi-même. On sent le possible de la perfection, puisqu’on l’adore ; mais on en sent le difficile, puisqu’on ne l’atteint pas soi-même. Cette poursuite du beau et du bien, toujours vaine malgré de grands et sincères efforts, rend indulgent pour ceux qu’on aime. »
Le désir, la sagesse, l’adultère, l’amour, et l’amitié comme ultime punition.

Flaubert et Sand ont eu une longue et passionnante correspondance. Ils aimaient tous deux comprendre le fonctionnement de l’âme humaine. Flaubert cherchait tout le temps à savoir la cause des agissements humains, il bâtissait les vies des inconnus qu’il croisait, d’après leur costume, leur façon de parler ou d’agir ; si c’était une femme (d’âge moyen surtout) alors il aurait voulu tout savoir de sa vie. Il aurait voulu la voir nue, et nue jusqu’au cœur !

[Vygandas Ostrauskis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lietuvių kalba yra išleista (1996 m.) "Paskutinioji meilė". Visai neblogas romanas.
Jei kas dar nieko neskaitė iš jos kūrybos (o yra ji parašiusi netol 100 knygų), tikrai verta susidomėti, nes viena – yra gan įdomių romanų, antra – tai buvo iškili XIX amžiaus asmenybė, kuri ne vien dėl savo moteriškumo buvo vertinama tokių įžymybių kaip Balzakas, A. de Miusė, Floberas, Hugo, Šopenas ir net Dostojevskis.

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting but not fully realized novel belonging to the last decade of George Sand's career. The story is narrated by Sylvestre, an old man who has some strange views on adultery, based on his own experience. Made penniless by his first wife, Sylvestre starts life afresh in the Valais in his early fifties. Energetic, wise and personable, he becomes friends with wealthy landowner and would-be inventor Jean Morgeron, whose half-sister Félicie conceived a child out of wedlock when she was a teenager, and has paid a heavy price for her transgression. A third member of the Morgeron household is Tonino, Félicie's young cousin on her mother's side. While Tonino has some claim on an aristocratic title, he has no money and is treated as a servant by Jean and Félicie. However, Sylvestre soon becomes aware that Tonino seems to be in love with Félicie, which is why he is reluctant to declare himself to the headstrong young woman, in spite of Jean's encouragements. Eventually Jean dies of a rabid dog bite, and Sylvestre makes up his mind to marry Félicie, who looks up to him and seems to delighted of this opportunity to restore her good name. It comes as a great shock to Sylvestre when he discovers that Félicie has in fact started an affair with Tonino, who in the meantime has married a beautiful peasant girl and started a family. Wanting to remain blameless in all respects, Sylvestre makes sure that Tonino and Vanina move to a distant valley, but otherwise doesn't exert any kind of revenge on Félicie, except for freezing her out. And that's the most interesting part of the story, although, in typical George Sand fashion, it drags out for too long (the book was first published as a serial, of course). Made conscious that she has irretrievably lost her husband's love and esteem through her own inability to resist the carnal allure of the younger man, Félicie is driven to despair and suicide by Sylvestre's polite coldness towards her. Obviously quite the passionate woman, Félicie would presumably have preferred a thrashing to Sylvestre's stony rebuke. Even after reading Félicie's farewell letter, Sylvestre remains convinced that he has acted justly, and refuses to feel the slightest remorse for his wife's suicide. It seems to me that the character of Sylvestre should have been written slightly differently for the reader to be sure that Sand meant him to be ambiguous. Although the modern reader can hardly fail to perceive him as a cold fish and a prig, it is not clear that this is what Sand intended. Still, in the huge nineteenth century canon of books about the Fallen Woman, this is an unusual entry.

[Victor Bianchi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ennuyeux, l'amour selon le protagoniste puritain, sans contradictions, une éloge à la vision de l'amour de l'auteur j'imagine. La trame est intéressante mais les longs monologues du protagoniste beaucoup moins. Rien à voir avec Madame Bovary, c'est dommage.

[Elea. Noor. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un livre intéressant.

[Ana ★ Tesserell · Rating 5 out of 5]

+awesome hidden gem I received close to my first birthday
+a fresh take on romance in fiction
+very realistic, very thought provoking, on a classical level of literature