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The Dream Lover:
A Novel of George Sand

This book counts for the following Reading Challenges:

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

George Sand is a very important figure in French literature. Unfortunately, she is not as well know in the US, and I’m not aware of anyone writing a historical novel on her. So I seized the occasion when I heard about The Dream Lover. It was also a good way of finally reading a book by Elizabeth Berg. I’m shocked to see that the average rating she received so far for this book is not too high on Goodreads. I thought the book was really excellent.

I have the feeling most readers had not even heard about George Sand, or at least they knew almost nothing about her eccentric life. And maybe they were not able to go beyond her character to appreciate the fabulous job Elizabeth Berg is doing in this book.  Using a simple and evocative style not unlike George Sand’s itself, Berg recreates the difficult childhood Aurore Dupin, her real name, had. All along the novel, the author highlights how the difficult relationship Sand had with her own family background will replay with her own daughter.
Her refuge is the family house at Rohant in the countryside. This village life is an important element in many of her novels. An easier time during her teen years was the time she was sent to perfect her education in a convent.

The book opens when she leaves her loveless marriage to start a successful literary career in Paris. The book goes back and forth between this period and her childhood, until that moment. In Paris, introduced to the very active art and literary circles of the time, she enters in close relationships with both men and women, most quite famous writers, painters, and musicians. Chopin (who composed many of his works at Rohant) is famously known an her lover. If he was one of the longest ones, he was far from being the only one…

That night [the first night she met Chopin], I lost my heart to his music before I lost it to the man.

I need romantic love as I need air to breathe. I need someone to offer body, heart, and soul and to accept mine in return.

Starting to dress as a man early on in life for practical reasons, it is easier to ride horses, which she enjoyed very much, she keeps doing it when she realizes it gives her a much better social presence. But during her life time (1804-1876) that could only add to the aura of scandal surrounding her.
Her independence shows not only in her clothes and love relations, but also obviously in her writing. As Berg shows clearly following Sand’s main books, lots of her writing was about feminism, before the name even existed I think. She was a very popular writer, even eclipsing Victor Hugo at one point!

I was the first woman to become a bestseller in France and had achieved worldwide fame.

I really enjoyed how Berg recreated the amazingly dynamic world of artists and writers at the time in Paris. And how she managed to combine together Sand’s emotional  tormented life and the development of her writing as well as her political career.

VERDICT: George Sand was a very popular writer in her days.  While recreating the dynamic world of artists and writers of 19th century Paris, Elizabeth Berg draws the portrait of an independent woman, both talented and tormented, scandalous for many. A must for all lovers of  French literature and historical novels.