Valentine: George Sand

by George Sand, Lucas Farales (Editor)

Valentine (1832) was Sand's second novel and is notable for displaying many of her preoccupations as an emerging novelist: love, social class, greed, liberty, and family ties. It tells the story of Valentine, born into an aristocratic family but who falls in love with a peasant farmer, Benedict. Star-crossed lovers of different social status became a recurring theme in Sand's work, highlighting the hypocrisy and rigidity of social norms in the Restoration period French Republic.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, France, 19th Century, Novels, Literary Fiction, Romance

219 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1832

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

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

French classics about toxic love. It started a lot like Austen's books: peaceful countryside and uneventful lives of provincial aristocrats. But then turned into the story of an abusive relationship. I want to think of this novel as a warning from the author how so called passion and sacrifices (always demanded from women) is usually unhealthy and life-threatening. There is no love here, just psychological manipulation and pretensions drama.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saved my copy of ‘Valentine’ for quite some time, because I was sure from the start that it would be special, that it was a book to save for exactly the right moment. And when I read ‘Valentine’ I realised that I had been right, that I was reading a classic work by the finest of authors.

I was transported to rural France, I was captivated by the story, the romance, by everything that the author had to tell me …. I was torn between wanting to rush through the pages and wanting to linger, to in this world, in this story, for as long as I could.

‘Valentine’ tells the story of the love between Valentine de Raimbault, the daughter of the chateau, and Bénédict Lhéry, the nephew of one of its tenant farmers. When they met they feel in love, swiftly and deeply. That love was tangible, the characters lived and breathed, their whole world came to life. It was wonderful, but it was impossible.

“He could not take his eyes from Valentine’s; whether he leaned over the bank or ventured on to the loose stones or on to the smooth and slippery pebbles in the river-bed he inevitably met Valentine’s glance, watching him, brooding over him, so to speak, with tender solicitude. Valentine did not know how to dissemble; she did not consider on that occasion there was the slightest occasion for her to do so.”

Benedict had been brought up by his aunt and uncle, and it was understood that he would marry their adored – but spoiled – only child, Athénaïs.

Valentine’s sister, Louise, had been cast off by her family when a love affair produced a son out of wedlock, and that left Valentine to marry well. A marriage had been arranged with a man of high rank; but a man who was dissolute and in need of the fortune that Valentine would bring to pay his gambling debts.

It was impossible, but the bond between them was unbreakable.

The story rises and falls because Valentine and Benedict have different temperaments. One is reluctant to cause hurt and tries to follow the path that was planned for them, and one is ready to do anything for the two to be together.

And of course their are other influences. A spouse who will not be undermined. A lover sore after rejection. A loving sister, whose own feelings and interest may conflict with sisterly love ….

George Sand constructed and managed her plot beautifully, attending to every single detail;she brought the countryside to life with wonderfully rich descriptions; and she made her characters’ feelings palpable.

She gave me a wonderful story, full of wonderful drama, and so many real emotions.

And it was a story with much to say, about the separation of social classes, about the lack of education and opportunity for women of any class.

“Every day, in the name of God and society, some clown or some dastard obtains the hand of an unfortunate girl, who is forced by her parents, her good name or her poverty to stifle in her heart a pure and sanctified love. And before the eyes of society, which approves and sanctions the outrage, the modest, trembling woman, who has been unable to resist the transports of her lover, falls dishonoured beneath the kisses of a detested master! and this must go on!”

There is so much depth, so much richness in the characters, in the relationships, in the way that story plays out, but I am wary of saying too much.

I have to believe that George Sand was an author who put her head her heart and her soul into her work. And now, of course, I want to read everything that she ever wrote.

It’s difficult to place her ….

… imagine Thomas Hardy, transformed as Virginia Woolf transformed Orlando, sitting down to rewrite Romeo and Juliet and drawing inspiration from Shakespeare’s other works too ….

I can’t quite explain.

I just know that I loved this book.

(Translated by George Burnham Ives)

[Sincerae Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book by George Sand that I've read that is similar to a Shakespearean tragedy. The others of hers that I've read so far have a happy or a relatively happy ending.

In some ways Valentine, which is Sand's second novel, reminds me of Indiana which was her first. Both are brooding, painful and at time overly emotional love stories with great descriptions of the French countryside. The characters' internal worlds are described in detail. The dialogue is eloquent. In her later works that I've read thus far, Sand added in more dashes of wit.

This is the third novel by George Sand that I've read this year. I'm considering a fourth.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tonally and thematically, reads very much like George Eliot’s Middlemarch, though shorter, less complicated, and less sublime/transcendental (to me anyway).

Plot-wise, reminds me soooo much of a Shakespeare play:

Boy likes girl. (Boy also really hates capitalism, but I’ll just set that aside). Boy likes girl a lot, she’s the love of his life. But oops, boy’s already engaged to someone else (his cousin, naturally), and awk, girl’s like a decade and a half older anyway.

Double oops! Boy doesn’t like girl, boy likes girl’s sister now and she’s the “real” love of his life (I’m sure if there were a sequel he’d be falling in love with girl’s mother, girl’s grandmother, girl’s second cousin’s best friend’s hairdresser…).

Triple oops, girl’s sister is also engaged, uh oh.

Meanwhile, boy’s original fiancee gets married to another boy. Boys duel because boys will be boys! Bam bam pow wine glass shwooooop. [This may or may not be a drunk review. I should make a bookshelf for these.]

Cue lots of meeting in picturesque gardens and having faithful nurses cover for you (goddamn I really need to get myself a nurse to wingman my midnight trysts in the chateau, so handy) and hiding behind curtains and double suicide threats and getting high and- wait, I don’t remember that part in Shakespeare. Anyway, getting high and biting each other- no, don’t ask questions- and getting ill and marrying greedy bastards and oh, let’s not forget attacks of hysteria and paroxysms of spirit. And the inevitable murder-suicide and tidily marrying up of the few surviving parties. Gotta love that shit. Shakespeare, bitch.

It’s pretty good. A charming, elegant read. Makes me question, yet again, with so much great female-authored literature out there from the 19th century, people still insist on reading Austen…

I’m also really into the name Valentine for girls. Have been ever since I read Ender’s Game. Let’s make this more popular.

I leave you with this great line: “Must we part with every ray of sunlight in order to assure the solidity of our walls of ice?”

[Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5

I can imagine patriotism in free or virtuous nations, if there are any such. But here on French soil, where, whatever people may say, the soil lacks arms to work it, where every profession is full to overflowing with aspirants, where the human species, crowding in sickening fashion about the palaces of the great, crawls and licks the footprints of the rich man; where vast sums, heaped up according to all the laws of social wealth in the hands of a few men, are the stakes in the never-ending game between greet, immorality and stupidity, in this land of immodesty and poverty, of vice and desolation. and you expect me to be a citizen in this rotten civilization—rotten to its core? to sacrifice my desires, my inclination, my caprice to its needs, that I may be its dupe or its victim, and that the coin which I might have tossed to the beggar shall fall into the millionaire's strong-box.

I knew I was taking a risk taking up yet another Dupin with less ratings than and an equally low average rating to the first work I read of hers. However, I truly was surprised by that first Indiana, so when the opportunity to read more of the author arose in a combination of a suitable reading women challenge and a fortuitous book sale showing, I grabbed it. In hindsight, the fact that both that first work and this second one were published in the same year makes me think that Dupin struck an uneven balance with regards to theme, plot, and digression between the two, and 'Indiana' got far more of the quality part of that partitioning. As one can plainly see from the quote above, there are some instances where Dupin really lets loose in the best way possible, and if you're one of those US citizens who can't see the similarities between that long ago France and today's state of the union, you've got another thing coming. However, that kind of content, as well as some interesting commentary on shifts in French mores from the 18th c. to the 19th., likely only took up two to three pages, of the work, and the rest of it was so choked with gynephobic drama, seesawing character "development," and one of the most disappointing conclusions I've encountered in recent times, that I'm going to think twice before I take another chance on one of her other works.

Class, gender, the bucolic, and political shifts between empire and republic are the main focus of this work. It's been a long while since I was confronted with the pastoral novel outside of university assignments, so I didn't particularly realize what I was looking at until the main noblewoman went through her third instance of aspiring to be a milkmaid, or something of the sort. Now, I'm the type who made their way rather easily through the nature-choked descriptions of LotR, and I've noticed a tendency of mine to indulge in narrative descriptions of flora and fauna, and Dupin is no mean composer of such. However, such was largely confined to the first half of the book, and the second half went through so many iterations of various duos of he said she said executed in many a decorated drawing room (I'm assuming the decoration, as I didn't get many hints in that regard) that it was a relief when it finally ended. Attempted suicide, murder suicide considered by multiple parties, marriages between first cousins (fortunately in this case not, as it was in 'Indiana', the favored pairing), presented alongside the more condemned themes of marrying for money, sacrificing familial ties for wealth and status, the rich in general, and the status of (rich) women in French society in the early nineteenth century (although in a much weaker manner than that which occurs in 'Indiana'). Certainly a lot upon looking back, but altogether, it could have been half the length for all the unique content it had to offer. In a phrase: heterosexual nonsense at its finest, and this time around, I didn't learn nearly enough to render such tolerable..

So, second time around the Dupin bibliography wasn't the greatest, but that's unfortunately what has a high risk of happening with older works. Still, when taking authorial context into consideration, Dupin's one that I would be willing to try out at least one other work by, bonus points for her suiting my various reading women challenges quite nicely. Much as it is with Evans, the average reader probably has a hard time understanding what I'm talking about when I use real names, except Dupin doesn't have the benefit of more than twenty times the number of ratings on this, admittedly Anglo-biased, side of things. I've compared her to Hugo in the past, and I'll gladly do so again when given the opportunity, although I won't be handing out freebies in that regard (unless comparisons to Notre Dame's Hugo are in order, which I suppose could be desired in a misguided fashion). So, another older woman-authored work checked off the list, and one in translation to boot. Here's hoping I get access to a book sale before August and Women in Translation Month hits, as I'm getting through so many at the moment that I'd like to replenish my stocks.

Must we part with every ray of sunlight in order to assure the solidity of our walls of ice?

[Briela · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 George Sand me ha dejado impresionada con este libro, tintes de romeo y Julieta, un amor tóxico, una Francia Rural, fueron pocas las cosas que no disfruté de este libro. Así es, estoy emocionada de leer más obras de GS, son grandes mis expectativas! 🧡

[Helynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valentine, George Sand's second solo novel, is a simple, sad little tale set in he "Black Valley" of Sand's native Berry region in rural, central France. Like so many of her early novels, this is a bold condemnation of marriage and a straightforward statement about the tragedy of rigid social class distinctions that intervene between lovers. The story's impassioned hero, Bénédict, an educated young peasant, is Sand's vehement porte-parole. The title character is a naive young bride-to-be at the beginning of the novel when she starts to speculate on a subject that was very close to Sand's heart--the question of why women are not given an education equal to that of men, and why they accept the mediocrity of their own instruction, and practice only frivolous artistic skills that are particularly unappreciated by the post-Revolutionary republic. “L’éducation que nous recevons est misérable,” Valentine, who has been instructed only in painting, muses to herself. Before she meets Bénédict, the nephew of her parvenu farmer neighbors, Valentine is content with the marriage arranged for her by her mother to a young diplomat, Évariste de Lansac, who, at first, seems a sympathetic, though dispassionate, fellow. Early in the narrative however, the readers are told of Lansac's ruse of staying on the good side of both Valentine and her mother, so nothing will stand in the way of his gaining control of the valuable ancestral lands Valentine will receive as a dowry. Also, Lansac is boring, predicatble, and "incapbale d'apprécier Valentine." When Valentine meets 22-year-old Bénédict, recently returned from Paris, where his doting aunt and uncle had sent him for his education, she compares the feelings she thought she had for her fiancé. Bénédict's passion for Valentine is doubly hard for him to bear as he realizes that, aside form her betothal to another man, she is out of his reach socially since she is descended from wealthy landowners and he comes from peasant stock who have only started to gain some wealth. Before this story plays itself out, an uncomfortable love triangle will arise, Bénédict will slip easiliy into the role of misunderstood Romantic hero, and many, many plot complexities will abound. Although Valentine is generally less frequently cited and analyzed than many of Sand's other 1930s novels, its emphasis on how women were hurt by the legalities of the day, the open disgust with the state of comparative ignorance in which women were kept, and with the archaic preoccupation with social position that led to hurtful mariages de raison (marriages of convenience) all foreshadow the socialist George Sand who was to become more bold and forthright about her political ideas in the two decades to come. Valentine's pull-no-punches descriptions of how contemporary attitudes toward marriage could be devasting for all involved, but for women in particular, are the novel's strongest point. But Sand shows herself even this early in her career as a gifted Romantic storyteller as well.

[Jim Grimsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been reading George Sand's novels in and among other books, including Indiana, Mauprat, Consuelo, The Countess of Rudolstadt, and this book. The story of Sand's life, including her cigar-smoking, pants-wearing, and Chopin-loving, are better known in English than her fiction, which until recently was not easy to find. I'm not sure what I expected. Her writing is lush, overripe, passionate, unevenly plotted, desperately dramatic; sometimes the books are so wretched (Rudolstadt, for instance) that it's a chore to finish them. Her characters throb, tremble, weep, moan, pace the floor, take walks at midnight in dangerous castles and forests, endure abductions, betrayal, visitations; it is safe to say that there is nothing like her writing anywhere else. It is tempting to sound wiser than I am and declare that she is French through and through, but I've only ever been to France for three days and only know about France what I hear people say. But she is much more emotional, romantic, and florid than any other French writer I have read (in translation, of course) other than, perhaps, Genet. Valentine is of a pattern with the other books, full of descriptions of love so intense that it bursts liquid up from the page. I am in awe of her not because she is transcendent or elegant or fine but because she stuffs her pages so full of emotion that it's at times absurdly funny. Yet still I read her and like her. This is not so much a review of Valentine as it is a chance to talk about Sand in general. Every time I finish a book of hers I swear it will be the last one. This one may in fact be it. Though there are so many more left to sample.

[Steve Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Sand is just the tops. Valentine is just another brilliant gift to us all.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Its very readable and the characters are compelling. But then the second half has some very problematic scenes that made me roll my eyes and raised many red flags. Then the ending. I don't even know where to begin with how much the ending pissed me off.

[Inés · Rating 1 out of 5]

No hay un solo personaje en esta historia que no sea tóxico. Pero es que son tan tóxicos que incluso se intoxican unos a otros.

Son tres mujeres enamoradas de un mismo hombre. Él se va a casar con una por un matrimonio concertado (con Athénaïs, su prima), después se enamora de otra (de Luisa) y después se enamora perdidamente de la hermana de Luisa (Valentina).

Hasta aquí todo bien, complicado, pero bien.

El problema es que esto podía haber sido una historia de amor prohibido bastante tierna, y que los protagonistas y los demás fueran felices, pero en vez de eso nadie puede estar con quien quiere estar, y si están es para comportarse de forma sumamente tóxica con los demás y causar dolor. INCLUSO A SÍ MISMOS.

Bien, Athénaïs, despechada, decide casarse con otro hombre que parece ser que toda su personalidad es ser un bruto, con problemas de ira y estar celoso de Bénédict.

Valentina se casa con un noble tóxico que sólo quiere casarse con ella para saldar sus deudas, mientras intenta tener una relación con Bénédict, pero sin llegar nunca a nada más.

Y Luisa intenta criar a su hijo, estar enamorada de Bénédict y ser la confidente de Valentina y Bénédict, abogando por el sentido común diciéndoles que Valentina está casada, que son de diferentes clases sociales, etc., mientras usa todo esto para que no se vean sus celos.

Pues bien, toda esta toxicidad acaba explotando, primeramente en un intento de suicidio y finalmente en el asesinato de Bénédict por parte del marido de Athénaïs, y la muerte de Valentina y la posterior muerte también del marido de Athénaïs.

Porque TODOS actúan de tal forma que "si no estás conmigo, no estás con nadie más". Hasta el punto de que tengan que morir tres personajes para que los demás puedan ser felices y tener eso a lo que han aspirado: en el caso de Athénaïs, títulos nobles; en el caso de Luisa, una familia, y en el caso de Valentin (el hijo de Luisa), a Athénaïs.

Dicho esto, hubiera soportado la lección moral de buena gana (más o menos) si los personajes hubieran sido felices aun haciendo algo "malo" como amarse libremente, pero la autora ha decidido que era mejor hacerlos tóxicos por no poder ser felices juntos y después matarlos por tóxicos. Además, son personajes absolutamente planos, ya que no tienen ningún tipo de evolución a lo largo de toda la trama.

[Trounin · Rating 2 out of 5]

В плане проработки сюжетных линий всё не так замечательно, как читателю хотелось бы. Действующие лица сами не знают, чего хотят, совершая поступки таковым образом, чтобы от них обязательно душевно страдать. Привязанности героев повествования рождаются, не могут найти себе места и умирают. Всем хочется придти к согласию, для чего они честно обсуждают складывающееся положение дел, принимая не то решение, которое могло удовлетворить все стороны. Когда следует дать положительный ответ — дают отрицательный, а ежели наконец-то нисходят до положительного ответа, то обязательно следует отрицательная развязка. Легко понять страдания действующих лиц, хотя сами они не могут придти к обоюдным договорённостям. Так и будут подниматься/опускаться качели, пока кого-нибудь не придавит насмерть.

(c) Trounin

[Stil de scriitor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ca și în romanul Indiana, scriitoarea franceză George Sand ne prezintă povestea unor destine încâlcite, de multe ori povești de viață interesante. În romanul despre care vreau să vă vorbesc, autoarea construiește o serie de personaje care vor avea la finalul cărții un destin tragic, dar care cuceresc tocmai prin tragismul alcătuit de ființa lor. În Valentina avem o iubire interzisă, o poveste de dragoste dintre o burgheză și un tânăr sărac care nu poate avea niciun viitor. Benedict este un tânăr cu un suflet pur, curat, capabil de sentimente înălțătoare, dar care se vede nevoit să renunțe pentru totdeauna la iubirea vieții sale, tânăra și gingașa Valentina.


https://www.stildescriitor.ro/2015/02...

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a marvelous woman George Sand was...and had an amazing grasp of love affairs having herself conducted many)....great novel.

[Snizhana Zubach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it is one of the best novels I've ever read.

[Pierre A Renaud]

Valentine by George Sand http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17251

[Juliana · Rating 2 out of 5]

My review: https://theblankgarden.com/2018/07/12...

[Arteaga Daniela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Algunas páginas me parecieron insustanciales.

[Steven Báthory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tout comme Edith Wharton, George Sand fait partie des auteurs dont ma relation est bien souvent houleuse et agitée. C’est pourquoi, je me suis laissé tenter sans grande conviction dans Valentine, la troisième œuvre que je découvre de celle-ci et c’est sans surprise que je ressors juste satisfait de cette lecture.

Pourtant et comme précédemment, le résumé me semblait fort prometteur et avait totalement aiguisé ma curiosité. J’avais très envie de découvrir le cadre champêtre de cette œuvre romantique mais celui-ci est finalement très vite relégué au second plan. Je regrette vraiment ce choix car les premiers chapitres m’ont dévoilé une très charmante bourgade où il semblait faire bon vivre malgré l’étroitesse d’esprit et son mode de vie assez arriéré et archaïque. Cependant et malgré sa très vite absence, ce cadre champêtre permet à George Sand d’offrir quelques moments totalement dépaysant et collant parfaitement à l’ambiance romantique de son œuvre. Il est inconstatable que cette tragédie est d’un romantisme à toutes épreuves même sil m’a semblé que certains passages se sont dévoilés un peu trop rocambolesques pour être totalement réalistes. Pau importe, j’ai vraiment adhérer à cette tragique romance digne d’un roman de Thomas Hardy. Ainsi et sans pour autant être totalement transcendé, j’ai ressenti de vives émotions surtout lors des derniers chapitres. Je ne m’attendais pas à une telle finalité, ni une telle fatalité. Cette dernière aura eu le privilège de me surprendre totalement. Quant à sa plume et malgré certaines longueurs, celle-ci se dévoile toujours aussi facile d’accès et agréable au possible.

Malheureusement et même si l’intrigue reste assez bien trouvée et efficacement menée, je n’ai pas réussi a m’attacher aux personnages présentés dans Valentine. Ce manque d’affecte provient du manque de nuances concernant la construction de ces derniers. Avec quelques clichés en moins mon regard aurait été bien différent. En effet, j’ai trouvé les protagonistes beaucoup trop caricaturés pour me paraître attachants et empathiques. Fort heureusement, ils n’en sont pas pour autant exécrables et même si bien souvent je n’ai pas compris leurs choix ou leurs actions, j’ai apprécié les sentiments et autres émotions que chacun dégageait. Surtout en ce qui concerne notre héroïne Valentine. Cette dernière représente vivement la condition des femmes à l’époque et se retrouve très vite piégée par sa place ainsi que sa condition au sein de la société. J’ai finalement apprécié la suivre dans cette aventure romantique et je ne regrette absolument pas la destinée que lui a réservé George Sand.

Comme avec ses précédentes œuvres George Sand livre avec Valentine une tragédie romantique pertinente à découvrir, surtout dans ces derniers chapitres. Cependant, je regrette mon manque d’émotions face à des personnages manquant par moments de nuances et dont seule Valentine est parvenue à se démarquer.

[Keline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valentina es una novela en la que la autora te transporta a un pueblo con costumbres muy arraigadas, en este pueblo de encuentra la familia de Valentina, una familia adinerada. La historia gira en torno a Valentina una mujer noble, pura, muy distinta a su familia, ella de encuentra desconsolada porque fue separada de su hermana hace años. Luisa en este caso la hermana de Valentina en busca de recontrarse con ella, pide ayuda a un amigo Benedict para ayudar a reunir a las hermanas. Posteriormente el se enamora de Valentina y es aquí donde empiezan a complicarse las relaciones entre los personajes principales y secundarios. La novela en mi punto de vista te hace reflexionar sobre lo que es debidamente correcto y como esto a la vez no lo es para las personas. Cómo las personas tienen derecho de elegir lo que ellos quieren y no lo que otras personas así lo deciden. Y es comprensible por la época en la que está situada la obra y sus costumbres. Aquí vemos también vemos lo atrapadas que se sentían las mujeres en los matrimonios arreglados y como esto suprimia los deseos, derechos y la liberta de estas en muchos aspectos.

[Leyendoalmundooficial · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro #89 leído en el año

Novela de época (siglo XIX) ubicaba en una Francia rural costumbrista, perteneciente a la corriente literaria del romanticismo. De esas sociedades que les gusta mantener las apariencias pero con su respectiva doble moral. Los temas principales de las novelas de George Sand (al menos así me lo parece con las que he leído) son a) la infelicidad de las mujeres (por la represión, la desigualdad, como una suerte de determinismo), b) la crisis de los matrimonios (que por lo general son por conveniencia y por tanto destinados al fracaso desde su génesis), y c) los amores prohibidos (el adulterio) y la relación entre estos elementos como si se tratara de una fórmula matemática a+b=c
La novela tiene tintes Shakespeareanos y Wertherianos, mostrando personajes exageradamente insufribles, e insufriblemente exagerados.
Mediante un polígono amoroso donde los principales potragonistas son Benedict y Valentina, cuyo amor es prohibido por ser de diferentes clases sociales, y de familias consanguíneas 🤠

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like Sands' other work, "Valentine" manages to accurately depict abusive men. However, it is boring and towards the middle I was looking forward to it being over. "Indiana" is a much stronger book. I would not recommend "Valentine" because you could get all the same emotion out of it, but done better, in "Indiana".

This is not a romantic story and it makes no sense why the characters all love Benedict, who is incredibly toxic.

The ending was rather clunky and felt fast because it included all these flash forwards about what happened to the characters.

Even if you are interested in Sand's work, I think you can skip "Valentine". "Indiana" executes this subject matter much better.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha sorprendido, dado que al inicio parece ser la típica novela romántica clásica, pero no lo es, cosa que a mí, personalmente, me gusta.
En realidad, la nota que le pondría es un 4'5 sobre 5, pues a pesar de haberme "viciado" un poco, hay libros que, en caso de que tuviera trabajo que hacer, los tenía que dejar apartados porque me distraían de mis responsabilidades, y este no es el caso.
De todos modos, lo recomiendo totalmente, pero sí considero que debo recordar que la publicación original del libro fue en 1832, por lo que se verán cambios en cuanto "al pensar" de antes respecto al actual, aunque tampoco hay tantos...

[Valentina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaaaayy qué decir de este libro. Lo que me sorprendió, los giros de trama que tuvo, la forma de describir que tiene la autora, la capacidad de figurarte escenas tan claras, los discursos feministas que va dejando entrever a través de la historia… pero Benedict, te detesto. Y esto no es ni de cerca una historia de amor: es una historia de manipulación y toxicidad, que hasta me sorprendió que lo encierren en novela romántica.
Definitivamente estaré buscando más sobre la autora.

[Jim Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early and somewhat meandering novel that hits on Sands' favorite themes of class and sex. Her later novels are both more economically written and more compelling, but, if you are a fan of her work, you will probably enjoy this tale of a man in love with three different women in post-Napoleonic France.

[Ivar Volmar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kunagi noorena lugedes tundus päris hea, aga nüüd uuesti üle lugedes on siin kannatuste ja tunnetega ikka kõvasti üle pingutatud. See, mis XIX sajandi lugeja jaoks võis tunduda romantiline, tundub XXI sajandi inimese jaoks lihtsalt tobe.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A museum of gossip.

[Trine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Alexaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8

[Carolina Figueira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 4*? The end was too "happy" for me 😅 otherwise it was a nice reading!