Becoming George Sand: A Passionate Literary Novel About Women's Marriage, Love, and Life Choices

by Rosalind Brackenbury

Maria Jameson is having an affair—a passionate, lifechanging affair. She Is it possible to love two men at once? Must this new romance mean an end to love with her husband? For answers, she reaches across the centuries to George Sand, the maverick French novelist who took many lovers. Immersing herself in the life of this revolutionary woman, Maria struggles with the choices women make and wonders if women in the nineteenth century might have been more free, in some ways, than their twenty-first-century counterparts. Here, Rosalind Brackenbury creates a beautiful portrait of the ways in which women are connected across history. Two narratives delicately intertwine—following George through her affair with Frederic Chopin, following Maria through her affair with an Irish professor—and bring us a novel that explores the personal and the historical, the demands of self and the mysteries of the heart. Sharply insightful, Becoming George Sand asks how we make our lives feel vibrant while still acknowledging the gifts of our pasts, and challenges our understanding of love in all its forms—sparkling and new, mature, rekindled, and renewed.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Rosalind Brackenbury is the author of several novels, books of poetry, and short stories. She was born in England, and has also lived in Scotland and France. She earned a history degree at Cambridge University, speaks French fluently, and has been a teacher, journalist, and deck hand on a schooner.

Reviews

[Gayla Bassham · Rating 2 out of 5]

The heroine of this novel is silly, shallow, and self-absorbed. It is as if Carrie Bradshaw had children and became obsessed with George Sand. This would not be a deal-killer for me--I like lots of novels with flawed, unlikable protagonists--were it not for the fact that the author doesn't seem to regard her as such, and in fact seems to want me to relate to her and root for her. I can do neither.

Two stars instead of one because there really are some nice passages about life and books, despite the vapidity of the heroine.

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The description of this book, at least as I wrote it, does not remotely do the book credit. Largely because the story is not the real point. I mean, it is and it isn't. More than being about a plot it's about what it's like being a woman, about the spaces between love and marriage, about feminism, and about literature and language. The writing is completely gorgeous, sucking me in from the first pages, even though the opening scenes chronicle the affair, a thing in which I have little interest. To me, there is no excuse for cheating and I do not believe Maria's romanticized idea of it (and not just because I know what happens later); the treatment of the affair in early pages reminds me of Chretien de Troyes, and how in that time folks believed that true love had to be extramarital.

Rather than speaking to what I loved and didn't (what little there was of that) as I usually do, I really want to include some of my favorite quotes and let the author speak for herself.

"'You can't be loved whatever you do. You have to be someone good, to be loved. People can't just love you for existing.'
'Hmm. Well, maybe. You don't believe in unconditional love?'
'Yes, I do, but it's for babies. You have to be worthy of love.'" (221).

"That's it, the last gesture of a long friendship lived over distance and time, without frequent meetings, between two languages; a friendship built over books, plays, poems, the written word." (252).

"What is it she needs, at this point in her life? To touch another life, to have it touch hers. To create, to understand. To give back. To be part of a whole." (286)


Brackenbury obviously wholeheartedly loves and appreciates literature, which makes her such a joy to read. I now want to check out George Sand and to read a biography of her life, as she sounds fascinating.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! It's the second of Brackenbury's books I've read, and I also gave 4 stars to the first, The Lost Love Letters of Henri Fournier.

Maria is a middle-aged Scottish acadmic, married 20 years to Edward, with teenage children, a house, mutually satifying careers, habit and contentment ruling their lives. Maria loves Edward, but there is no passion. We meet Maria waiting in a bookstore for someone while also buying a copy of George Sand's Letters to Flaubert that have just been published in translation. She actually orders the book in the original French, but all the time her mood is one of anticipation unrelated to the book. We soon learn why as her young lover, Sean, arrives and they head off for their regular rendez-vous.

From here we trace Maria's journey from belief that she can sustain a passionate love affair while keeping her comfortable marriage intact to ultimately facing the harsh reality that is adultery, all while looking for guidance in the life of George Sand, she who juggled multiple lovers without seeming social or other consequence, whose autobiography and letters she is reading to gather material for a book. As a result, the novel moves between Maria's 21st Century life in Edinburgh and George Sand's in 1830s/1840s. it's an emotional journey for Maria, not always a happy one. Sand's story as told here is also to a large degree about emotion and relationships. A recurring theme as well is about Sand the writer vs. Maria as writer, what makes one a writer, how does one write about subjects like George Sand.

It's a hard book to describe well. While there are events and actions, it's more meditative and internal than plot or action driven. it is a book to be savored, read slowly, allow yourself to sink into it. Plus the incorporation of the life of George Sand is absolutely wonderful, bringing her to life as a woman, a mother, a writer. But then I am a tad prejudiced as I did my senior thesis at Barnard on George Sand and her political writings and activities. I actually read some of the letters and chapters of her autobiography that are referenced in the book (although a very long time ago). I've had an abiding fascination with George Sand ever since, which of course led me to this book in the first place.

Make no mistake, the center of this novel is Maria.

I read this in ebook and highlighted a whole heck of a lot. Here are some of the passages that I am still mulling over:

In the front room there is a placard on the wall which says: GEORGE SAND, FEMINISTE, REPUBLICAINE, PRECURSEUR.....

But we are all feminists, thinks Maria, because we had to be, because there was nothing else, Feministe, Republicaine, Precurseur. Yes, she {Sand] was our ancestor. But what now? George Sand is dead,....

When did history turn over in the night and decree that adultery was a punishable offence again...Is it geography, is it history, that determines how we feel about what we do, and how others feel about it, and therefore, what happens next?

"If you are becoming George Sand, it's probably all for the best, and you know, we incorporate the people we admire, and then move on. They become part of us. Also the people we love."
"So, you think I was doing all that work simply in order to become George Sand?"
"Why do we do the work we do? Writing, I mean. ... To immerse oneself in a work, especially when it concerns the life of another person -- well, who knows. There is a reason, Marie, but I can't tell you what it is. Perhaps we just want to be in the stream of history, to be included."

[Jenny Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is it the times we live in that make it necessary to stay together rather than fly apart?"


I'm an easy mark for novels with bookish heroines. Add to that, bookish heroines who identify with either a literary character or a long deceased writer, and I'm a goner.

You get the point.

In Becoming George Sand, we get a cornucopia of all things literary. The main character, Maria, is a writer who finds herself stuck between a husband and a lover. She is happy enough in the domesticity of her everyday life to not want a divorce, but she seeks the element of passion with her younger lover, a scientist named Sean. She looks to Aurore Dupin aka George Sand for guidance. The 19th century novelist/memoirist seemed to enjoy more freedom than modern day women. Sand embarked on a 4-5 year long "Romantic Rebellion" after divorcing her husband in 1831, and went on to have numerous affairs with some of the most important writers and artists of her day.

"What can seem ordinary, now? She has no idea. She has arrived somewhere where she doesn't know the customs, can't read the signs, and there is no one, except a dead French writer, to give her a clue."

Maria knows that although she lives in an era more seemingly accepting of unconventional women, she cannot keep this up for much longer. She begins researching the life of Sand--her relationship with her mother, her relationships with different men (platonic and romantic), her relationship with her children, and why Sand had this craving for love that not be sated, despite the number of lovers she had.

"Her hands hold the book as if it were a passport."

When Maria and her botanist husband travel to Majorca, the very same place where Sand and her young lover, Chopin, stayed in 1838-1839, the situation comes to a head. It is then that Maria's life changes. In compiling a biography of Sand's life, Maria figures out just what she wants out of her hers. She connects with old friends, dissects her own relationship with both men, and goes out on her own to discover her aspirations, her fears, her desires.

In being forced to change her circumstances, Maria's life shakes off the stagnation and decay that lead to her own ennui. An end leads to a new beginning. Maria begins to see that she should not demand more of her husband than she expects from herself. The ever repeating motions of the days lead to a sort of death of the soul, and thus, of love. How can passion survive that?

"If you are western and middle-class at this time in history, you have to be dislodged from comfort, or dislodge yourself. If you want to live fully, you have to give something up quite deliberately, for nothing is going to do it to you, you are too safe."

Becoming George Sand is a moving, lyrical novel that transcends time and place. The plight of woman, past and present, moves us to examine our own lives. Are we merely plodding through this existence, or are we living? I would recommend this book to any woman-- whether you like the fluffy reads, or the meaty classics... This is a definite reread for me.

"It's on the tender inside of life, where everything begins again..."

*I received a free ARC of this novel thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. This in no way influenced my opinion of the novel. ”

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this, although I knew little about George Sand going in.
The novel begins with a look into Maria's affair with a married-with-children colleague. She loves him, and she loves her husband. Why can't this be OK? Obviously, it's a selfish desire and fairly plain why learning about the affair causes her husband to become angry and leave.
Soon, she has the heartbreak of losing her lover as well when he decides he can't participate in the affair any longer. Throughout all this, she continues to study George Sand and embarks upon an attempt to write a novel about her.
As I mentioned, I really knew next to nothing about Sands. It was very interesting to learn about her life and lifestyle, her philosophy, if you will, about love and how her many loves changed or impacted her existence in so many varied ways.
The present day story was juxtaposed with the historical one in a pleasantly poetical way.
Some may say that the novel was short on dialog and long on introspective rambling, which may be true. For me it worked well, allowing us into the evolution of Maria's vision of love and life as inspired by her study of Sand.
I read a digital advanced galley of the novel and appreciate the opportunity to read such a well written peice.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I was a bit impatient with the heroine. She's married with children, is having an affair with a married man with children, and can't figure out why her husband is upset when he finds out. Duh!

However, the prose is lovely to read, and the links with the life of George Sand are intriguing. In the end, I mostly forgave her for her stupdity, because it was written so beautifully.

[Kathy Boehm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed review. Protagonist Maria tries mightily to glorify her adultery for much of the book. Toward the end, she somewhat redeems herself, but by then I was too turned off by her to care very much. Not recommended.

[kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books like this make me feel stupid and maybe I am because there is so much wordage with so little actual plot that I feel that it’s probably all simply beyond me and I’m not getting it. There isn’t enough here for a good short story, let alone an entire book. I feel badly saying that, but it’s true. Perhaps you need to be a George Sand scholar to understand the nuances? Nah, there isn’t really enough about Sand to make the connection between the main character of Maria and the famous author. I wanted to learn about Sand and received only snippets of her life, glances or little tidbits here and there. And to what end?
Maria, as a character to carry the weight of the story, is unsympathetic. She seems so self-centered that you wonder why either of the men in her life would love her as she can’t seem to imagine anyone else has feelings except for her. When her husband tells her he knows about her affair, she cannot understand why he’s upset, why they can’t simply go on as they are, with him at home for comfort and security while she has the other man for excitement. She won't even apologize because she isn't sorry and doesn't care. It is only in the last few pages that she finally concludes that maybe her husband was hurt. Huh.
I found all the other characters, her children, even the married with children lover, to be more interesting and more likeable than Maria. Does a main character need to be likeable? I'm not sure, but there does have to be a connection to the character in some way and the writing style, third person present tense, seemed to keep things at a distance, as if I could look at Maria's story, but never feel involved in it. Perhaps that was intentional, I don't know.
The title seems a bit misleading. The book isn't about how Aurore Dupin became George Sand, how she developed and had the courage to be herself and, irregardless of what one character says to Maria, it also isn't about Maria becoming like George Sand.
The switches between Sand's story and Maria's are clumsy, having to pause to remember what is happening in the other story before continuing.
The story is told is bits and pieces, many of which go on far too long and add nothing to the story, seeming to simply be descriptions that the author enjoyed creating. Two examples:

“Somewhere behind poplars and walnut trees and fields of maize and sunflowers, a dog barks. Dragonflies flash their gas-flame blue close to the water that crawls like skin on milk. There are dancing white butterflies and big creeping black beetles, horseflies, probably snakes in the grass. Somewhere upstream, men are fishing, the long lines they play out taut over the water like threads of saliva. They plumb this river and the Vienne, deep under the bridges, and the Indre, and the Cher, and the grey shining Loire in its gravelly bed. Fisherman, like literary critics, she thinks, waiting for the big one, throwing others back.”

All of this to simply say she went swimming in the river.

“The museum at La Chatre has one floor for George Sand memorabilia, copies of her books, the Nadar photograph, drawings of Nohant done by her son Maurice. But first there is the floor of stuffed birds. Eagles, buzzards, owls big and small, gulls in all species, the black-backed, the herring gulls, kittiwakes, cormorants, and swans, ducks, finches, kingfishers, larks, blackbirds, thrushes, robins, swallows, swifts, martins, penguins, stone-chats, curlews, herons both white and blue, pigeons, yes, and canaries, and linnets, too.
The swans, the emu, the giant fighting cock with his black frills, the albatross borrowed by the Ancient Mariner, too big to be put behind glass. The emu is moulting and looks mad. The flamingo is brittle as sticks. The swans are dried out, grey with accumulated dust. There’s a whole closet full of birds with ticktes on them saying Espeèces Disparues. The canard du Labrador, the pic aè bec d’lvoire, the ,pigeon migrateur. Extinct species. Then there are the tiny, ordinary birds that can flit in and out of rooms hardly noticed, like so much punctuation. Their bones like scraps of writing, marks of a thin long-ago pen, their flight a calligraphy that has been lost for the good, Sparrows, house martins, wrens.”

There is more description of the birds than of Sand’s things at the museum. Why? Could this not be said in one sentence? There were birds of every imaginable species, many of them dusty, moulting and dried out. See, it isn't so difficult.
That's not to say that I didn't like the descriptions, I did, but they didn't fit and slowed the pace of everything w a y d o w n.
I don’t understand the need to blather on and on when it isn’t adding anything. There are pages describing Edinburgh when Maria grew up and so what? I don’t see the significance of any of this information which again, makes me feel dim as if I’m missing the point. It seems as if the author had a lot to say, lots of thoughts, lots of opinions, but that they don't really add up to a cohesive plot and go on for page after page while you're waiting to get back to the story. It feels as if she must have been paid by the word or else she's enjoying showing how much smarter she is than the rest of us.
I've gone back and forth over whether this book should be a two or a three star and finally decided that, although the language is beautiful, the story itself is barely a very weak three. As I said, the descriptions bothered me, but they are well-crafted, other than interrupting the flow of the story. Had they been integrated better and the story made stronger, it could have been an enjoyable read.
If you’re interested in George Sand, I’d suggest a biography of her and not this book. I can’t recommend this one.

Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways.

[Ashleeneva]

In all honesty, your relationship with this book may have more to do with your own life experiences. I love a novel that tackles human emotion through time, couched in history for added context.

I understand the other reviews' evaluation of the narrator, but I don't agree. I loved this book and especially appreciated that it left me with a desire to learn more about George Sand, among other things. But more than that, the story itself was what I sometimes look for most in a story: companionship. Shared experiences. Proof that the human condition is similar across continents and epochs. 'Becoming George Sand' delivered.

[Dale Rogerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character in this book, Maria, is an unlikable and self-centered sort. Whyever is her husband upset that she's been sleeping with another man for over a year? Really, Marie?

She is a professor and is also writing a biography of George Sand and the story goes back and forth between George's life and Maria's and it feels like Maria is living vicariously through George. Marie has a friend from uni, named Marguerite, and they go on a trip in France to visit the places George Sand lived. I enjoyed their relationship. It was interesting to read about George's life though, and the prose is oftentimes most enjoyable to read, which is why this gets 3 instead of 2 stars.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.2***
Although I found it excruciating at first to bear witness to the dissolution of intelligent Maria's 20-year marriage due to her affair with Sean an Irish phd mouse researcher, the introspective self reflection that followed this major change was worth the wait. Alone, Maria follows the physical and written path of authoress George Sand's affairs, her relationships with her parents, and childhood traumas and through discovering George's frailties and strengths begins to eloquently understand the essence of love and herself.

[Tanya Rossi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose was beautifully written, evocative, and almost poetic. I'm going to echo other reviewers and say the heroine was largely unlikable. She was selfish, grossly naive and swung wildly from hyperbolic self awareness to a complete lack there of. Still, at times when she was dealing with the loss of her friends and lovers I empathized with her; the author brought those feeling out skillfully. Overall, a solid 3 stars.

[Lois Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very well written book, however, I did not care for the style. So much of the "action" was developed in Maria's mind and she would switch between present and past in the same paragraph. I often had to re-read in order to figure out who she was talking about.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent weaving of a current day heroine struggling with a relationship while writing about George Sand.

[Julie Faust · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a long time to get through. No big deal. Wouldn’t recommend

[Rick Skwiot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Becoming George Sand, Rosalind Brackenbury’s tenth novel, creates a poetic, dreamlike disquisition on love, sex and loss, sliding smoothly between the 19th century and the 21st and the lives of two formidable women trying to somehow manage their homes, their children, their men and their work as writers.

The two fortyish women—famed French novelist George Sand, born Aurore Dupin, and fictitious Edinburgh French professor Maria Jameson—face parallel struggles as they ferry between France and Majorca, and, in Maria’s case, Scotland, as well as between husbands and lovers. Sand plays mother not only to her two children but also to a tubercular Frédéric Chopin while trying to write her novels. Maria, likewise, tends to her two neophyte teenagers, her husband Edward and her lover Sean while teaching, researching and writing a book on Sand.

However, there are deeper resonances here in this discursive, ruminating novel. We are led to view and ponder love in its various incarnations: maternal, matrimonial, sexual, and filial—and how its loss affects us. We glimpse wrenching scenes between Maria and her husband when he confronts her about her adultery. And we peer inside the hearts and minds of both women as they struggle to fulfill themselves and their destinies while still nurturing those around them, with Maria examining Sand’s life in hopes of discovering guideposts.

While admiring Sand for her independence, iconoclasm and talent—and her aplomb in juggling various husbands and lovers—Maria, being Scotch and not French, can’t quite pull it off for herself with the same amoral savoir-faire. Nonetheless, she displays admirable resilience, self-honesty, tenacity and self-love that carry her through, learning that the people we admire ultimately become part of us.

While the London-born Brackenbury writes here of strong women successfully navigating a dangerous, improvised course among the shoals of marriage, family, work and society, she writes not just for women, but for any reader who values fine craft, compelling characters and forthright examination of issues of the heart that exalt and harry us all.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Becoming George Sand" is the story of Dr. Maria Jameson, a Scottish university professor, who is writing a book about the life of French author George Sand (nee Aurore Dupin). Her marriage is falling apart, due in no small part to her affair with another professor, and one of her friends is seriously ill. It seems as though Maria just cannot get her act together.

The book was extremely slow to start and, I must confess, I nearly abandoned it. However, I am glad I stuck with it because things get very interesting about a third of the way in. Maria starts gaining insight into her own actions the more she studies the life of George Sand for her own work.

The book occasionally takes Sand's perspective and, frankly, those sections were the most interesting to me. Brackenbury lapses between present and past tense for no apparent reason (which is to I could not divine the pattern that she used to make this choice), which was a trifle distracting.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this well-written novel about a female professor in Scotland who has an affair with a younger man. The main character, Dr. Maria Jameson, is also a French literature scholar and during the course of the affair she reads everything she can find that George Sand has written, including letters to and from her various lovers. The book switches back and forth between modern-day Scotland and Sand's life in France and vacations in Majorca.

Ironically, as I was overwhelmed with French prune plums here on our two trees, and making lots of jams, some of the characters in the book find themselves in the same predicament and put up over 40 jars of jam. I felt as if I never got away from those plums in my real life when they reappeared quite evocatively in this novel.

I would encourage others to read and enjoy this book.

[Lorri Steinbacher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Might as well beat myself over the head with my French intellectuals. The novel switches back and forth between modern day Scotland and George Sand's France.

Book was OK. I think it captured something essential about the surprising nature of desire and the way it can senak up on you, and also about marriage and how finding comfort in the known, the expected can sneak up on you as well.

It made me think: did George Sand have it easier in her time, indulging in her desires, living outside the expectations of her society? Brackenbury posits that it seems harder on women now, that marriage and convention has women locked down more stringently than in Sand's time. In a way I agree with this, and in some ways I don't, but an interesting thing to consider.

[Shirley Jeffries · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful and moving novel, which I could not put down. The poetry of the language is extraordinary, and the evocation of place - whether Edinburgh, France, or Majorca - is so powerful I felt I was there. The two stories - of George Sand and her contemporary reader - are not only brilliantly woven together but are crafted in such a way that I was equally gripped by both of them. One of the many achievements of this marvellous book is that I did not skip through one of the stories in order to concentrate on the one I liked more as I often do. Both are equally compelling, richly told, and profound. Anyone in a relationship should read this novel. And for those who love reading Becoming George Sand is a must. This is one of the best books I have read this year.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for book group. I was not impressed with the writing. I did not like the main character very much. It was about a woman who cheated on her husband. Her marriage falls apart and I don’t think she is ever sorry for what she did. It wasn’t really much about George Sand. The transitions between Maria’s life and George Sand’s life were kind of clunky. The story was readable but I think the author tried to put too much into his prose. He would take forever to make a point at times. I want to give it 2.5 stars but I give it 3. It was just ok.

[Cindy Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a lovely book, lots of layers, a satisfying combination of historical fiction, a literature lesson and a story of becoming. I also appreciated the settings; part of it was in Edinburgh, where I have just visited, and it was evocative of that place, as well as of Majorca and Paris. This book inspired me to learn more about George Sand--it's great to read a book that reminds me of the women writers in history and how hard they had to work to do their craft. The book was smart, sexy, emotionally rich and historically interesting.

[Linda Friesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book. The parallel stories of two woman: the protagonist, Dr Maria Jameson, a present day academic, a Professor, and a married mother of two; the other, George Sand. While conducting research on her book about George Sand, Maria Jameson is also having an illicit and passionate affair.

I found the author was able to weave the parallel lives together seamlessly, sometimes it can be jarring to be wrenched from one life into another, but not so in this case. The beauty and urgency and messiness of life was captured in the author’s thoughtful and often lovely prose.

[Rebecca Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished "Becoming George Sand" a bit wordy. Pretty good but skim read quite a bit. I did learn a lot about George Sand that you don't get in school, background info. The author seemed to actually become George Sand while writing a biography of the author. She learned how the world was different now from long ago but just could not reconcile why. The ending was a happy ending however. If you are a fan of literature or the author George Sand you will enjoy the book if not it can get tedious.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a lot of things I liked about this book: the writing style, the literary allusions, the subject matter, the mix of the present day with the historical. What I didn't like, unfortunately, was the heroine...she seemed far too naive and passive for a woman at her stage of life (i.e., published academic, married, with two teenage children). Worth a read for the writing, though, and I did learn something about George Sand in the process.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosalind Brackenbury has written a book that is rich in language, exploring love and all its facets. Becoming George Sand's intertwined stories of self and what love means to self are presented in imagery that illustrates Brackenbury's talent as a writer. I thoroughly enjoyed this book for both the story as well as the use of words/sentence structure.

[Ingrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really lovely, and I could hear the narrator's voice in my head even after finishing it. Her style is almost hypnotic, and because the subject matter was also fascinating to me, it gave that exquisite feeling of slipping inside of a book, to a place you'd like to stay for awhile. I'll definitely be buying this one, so that I can go inside again and again.

[Cristina Contilli]

"Lui era il mago che teneva tra le sue mani tutti quelli che ascoltavano.
Lei gli domandò: "Cosa senti mentre suoni?"
"Tutto, Tutte le voci passate e presenti. Sento tutto contemporaneamente come un'orchestra"

Il titolo della versione inglese corrisponde meglio al libro visto che l'autrice si mette proprio nei panni della Sand e ricostruisce il suo amore per Chopin...

[Marilyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I loved the cover! I didn't even so much mind the beginning but by about page 75 I was having to force myself to stay with it. Perhaps it just wasn't the right time for me; I don't know. Anyway, I have put it aside for another time and another place.

[Barbara]

I love George Sand!!! I have watched the movie Impromptu over 100 times, and I've read some of George Sand's books (but it's been a while.) What a great idea for a book. I'm really looking forward to reading this.