George Sand and Her Lovers

Living in an extravagant age, George Sand gloried in her own contribution to its extravagance. She not only "lived her own life," but boldly asserted her right to do so. Her feeling apparently was that, when she loved, she was making history; and she took pains that the future historians should not find the records incomplete. Not only did she most carefully preserve such records of her amours; she left directions that they should be published after her death. George Sand provided the material, and meant it to be used. She did not regard the incidents related in this volume as scandalous either at the time or afterwards. Her view in later life evidently was that her love affairs, no less than her early books, were apart of the Romantic Movement. To the historian, indeed, they are a very instructive part of it. One really needs to have the life of George Sand before one in order to understand how much more the Romantic Movement was than a revolt against the classical traditions of literature and the stage.