George Sand: La Petite Fadette (1849)

Just a few years before writing this novel George Sand wrote to Jules Michelet describing herself as a 'utopian', and certainly there is something of that in this book. Sand wrote it in her home in Nohant, Berry, retreating from the 1948 revolution in Paris, and it's one of her 'romans champêtres', taking place in a pastoral setting and containing a number of expressions of the area.

She'd had an idea to call the novel 'Les Bessons' ('The Twins'), although she thought that although a great number of people would have understood the word, Parisians wouldn't have, (and presumably the more common 'Les Jumeaux' would have been unsatisfactory because it wouldn't have suggested the Berry vocabulary). Certainly much of the focus of the book is about the relationship between the identical twins Landry and Sylvinet Barbeau: only identical physically in the early stages but mentally as time goes on Landry is seen as more independent, outgoing and strong, whereas Sylvinet is mentally weaker, introverted, dependent on Landry and separation from him has such an effect that his mother fears for his sanity.

The split between the twins comes when Landry is chosen, at the  age of fourteen, to leave the parental farm and live on a neighbouring one. This is torture to Sylvinet, who is jealous of Landry's new life, of the new friends he finds, in spite of Landry returning to the parents' farm on Sundays. Sylvinet is in such a state of turmoil that he runs from home and hides away, Landry goes to find him, but he's in none of their old haunts. And this is where the book takes a vital turn.

There's a nearby house where the old Fadet lives, and she's rumoured to be a witch, but she doesn't know where Sylvinet is. She lives with her grand-daughter Fanchon, or 'La Petite Fadette', who is disrespected because she's 'masculine', ugly, dirty, has dark skin and is said to have the witch gene. Her mother left her parents to run off with a soldier. She knows where Sylvinet is, but to find out Landry has to promise to grant her any wish she chooses: he has no choice, and uncannily his brother is exactly where she says.

It's some time before Fanchon reveals her wish: she wants Landry to dance only with her at the local dance, which means that he can't dance with the beautiful Madelon, who has the hots for him. And they are both insulted: Landry for inexplicably monopolising the local scarecrow witch, and Fanchon for what she is. She leaves Landry and tells him to dance with whoever he likes.

Landry follows her and finds her crying. And so begins a long, secret and innocent love story between Fanchon (who has something of the 'masculine' George Sand about her) and Landry. Fanchon though is no easy catch as she doesn't believe Landry is serious: he can't possibly want to marry her? That would be difficult as Landry's father thinks she's trash.

Fanchon decides to go to work in town for one or two years to repair her reputation, but returns after a year as her grandmother has died. Landry sees her in secret, and she's developed into a rather different person, and of course they still love each other. Meanwhile Sylvinet is wasting away, and Landry has been sent to another farm.

Fanchon secretly visits Barbeau as she can't understand what her grandmother has left her, makes him swear he'll not tell anyone, and it transpires that she's richer than him: grand-mother Fadet hardly spent anything but saved almost all her customers had paid her for over the decades. Barbeau makes sure Landry knew nothing about this, so loved Fanchon for what she is, and then visits the town to inquire about Fanchon's behaviour. He's not only pleased that Fanchon wasn't pregnant, but that everyone has very good words to say of her. Sounds like the marriage is on.

Which of course it is, but Sylvinet is getting worse, although the magic Fanchon soon cures him. In the end there's a double wedding joining the two farms, although Sylvinet goes off to become a successful officer.

My George Sand posts:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
La Maison de George Sand, Nohant-Vic, Indre
George Sand in Paris: Literary Île-de-France #49
George Sand: La Petite Fadette
Norma Tessum Onda, St Maurice, La Rochelle
George Sand and Le Moulin d'Angibault, Montipouret, Indre

La Maison de George Sand, Nohant-Vic, Indre (36)

George Sand (1804-76) was brought up by her grandmother in Nohant-Vic. From 1830 until her death she wrote many novels, short stories, plays and newspaper and journal articles. She spent much of her time between Berry and Paris. The house here is an 18th century rebuild of a medieval manor house. Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside the house 'for safety reasons and to protect furniture' (their published words in English). My comment on this is that those words are  most meaningless: places I've come across before with this policy do so only to sell postcards and general tat. Anyway, what is the point of visiting a place if you have no personal experiences to take away, apart from elusive memory? Swerve.

There exists, though, a number of things to see around the house for free.

The back of the house.

A tiny part of the garden, with the house on the left. The cemetery is fascinating.

On the right, George Sand's daughter Gabrielle Solange Clésier (1828-99), née Dudevant Sand, wife of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Clésinger, and almost certainly the product of a relationship between Sand and Stéphane Ajasson de Grandsagne. Solange wrote three novels.

On the left, Jeanne Gabrielle Clésinger (1849-55), Sand's grand-daughter.

On the right, Marie Aurore de Saxe (1748-1821), Sand's grandmother.

On the left, Maurice François Dupin (1778-1808), Sand's father.

Claudine Jeanne Aurore Dudevant Sand (1866-1961), wife of Frédéric Lauth, and Sand's grand-daughter.

George Sand (1804-76), Amantine Aurore Dupin, Baronne Dudevant, wife of Casimir Dudevant.

Marc-Antoine Sand Dudevant (1863-64), Sand's grandson.

Maurice Dudevant (1823-1889), Baron Dudevant, Sand's son.

Marceline Claudine Augustine Calamatta (1842-1901), Maurice Dudevant's wife, and Sand's daughter-in-law.

Gabrielle Jeanne Lucille Dudevant Sand (1868-1909), Roméo Palazzi's wife, and Sand's grand-daughter.

Antoinette Sophie Victoire Delaborde (1773-1837), Maurice Dupin's wife, and Sand's mother.

Edmond Plauchut (1824-1909), a friend of the family, and a writer.

George Sand by Jean-Baptiste, or Auguste, Clésinger, Sand's son-in-law.

Maurice, George Sand's son.

My George Sand posts:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
La Maison de George Sand, Nohant-Vic, Indre
George Sand in Paris: Literary Île-de-France #49
George Sand: La Petite Fadette
Norma Tessum Onda, St Maurice, La Rochelle
George Sand and Le Moulin d'Angibault, Montipouret, Indre

George Sand and Le Moulin d'Angibault, Montipouret, Indre (36)

On the Vauvre (a tributary of the Indre) and with foundations dating back to the 15th century, Le Moulin d'Angibault ceased to function in 1958 and was abandoned. The commune Montipouret acquired it in 1990. Aided by volunteers, it is now in almost the same state as when George Sand discovered it in 1844. Sand wrote Le Meunier d'Angibault in 1844, after visiting the mill, whose owner she knew. In this work, two love stories meld, one of a couple from the countryside, the other of an urban couple, set against the backcloth of social struggle.

My George Sand posts:

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
La Maison de George Sand, Nohant-Vic, Indre
George Sand in Paris: Literary Île-de-France #49
George Sand: La Petite Fadette
Norma Tessum Onda, St Maurice, La Rochelle
George Sand and Le Moulin d'Angibault, Montipouret, Indre

Joseph Amber Barry: Père Lachaise Columbarium #14

'Joseph Amber
Barry
13.6.1917
SCRANTON, USA
15.3.1994

PARIS
WRITER ÉCRIVAIN'

 

Joseph Amber Barry is easier to track down than Émile Pignot. Barry came to France in 1944 with the American army, became familiar with the Gertrude Stein set and never left – it beat Scranton, PA, I don't doubt. It seems his most famous book is a biography of George Sand, although he also wrote a book about Versailles, one about the couple, and another on Byron and Augusta. For all the time he spent in France, it seems that the only books of his in French are translations.

George Sand in Paris: Literary Île-de-France #49

George Sand (1804—76) was born at 15 rue Meslay, which is today number 46, in the 3rd arrondissement. Her name at her birth was Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, although (partly under the inspiration of her friend Jules Sandeau) she started a fashion by adopting a male name: later, other women writers adopted men's names — Marie d'Agoult's was Daniel Stern, and Delphine de Girardin's Charles de Launay.

Sand was not brought up in Paris but in the château at Nohant by her grandmother, who was a passionate reader of Voltaire. She was married against her wishes to Baron Dudevant in 1822, but left him in 1831 to pursue independence as a writer.

'ICI EST NÉE LE 1 JUILLET 1804

AURORE DUPIN DITE GEORGE SAND

LITTÉRATEUR ET AUTEURE DRAMATIQUE'

One of Sand's later addresses in Paris was 31 rue de Seine, in the 5th arrondissement, which was occupied for many years by Raymond Duncan in the 20th century.

'GEORGE SAND (1804—76)

habita cette maison en 1831

puis RAYMOND DUNCAN

y créa l'Académie

de 1929 à 1966'

And a street in Auteuil in the 16th arrondissement remembers her.

My George Sand posts:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
La Maison de George Sand, Nohant-Vic, Indre
George Sand in Paris: Literary Île-de-France #49
George Sand: La Petite Fadette
Norma Tessum Onda, St Maurice, La Rochelle
George Sand and Le Moulin d'Angibault, Montipouret, Indre

Alfred de Musset, George Sand, and Norma Tessum Onda, St Maurice, La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime (17), France

Norma Tessum Onda's grave is in St Maurice cemetery, near La Rochelle, France. Much has been said about this grave, and she was for a time considered by many to be a product of the relationship between Alfred de Musset and George Sand. This is now known to be incorrect, although the facts are uncanny: 'Norma' is an anagram of 'roman' ('novel' in English), 'Tessum' is 'Musset' in reverse, and 'Onda' is almost an anagram of 'Sand'. Perhaps most important of all, the date of birth tallies with the Musset-Sand relationship.

My George Sand posts:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
La Maison de George Sand, Nohant-Vic, Indre
George Sand in Paris: Literary Île-de-France #49
George Sand: La Petite Fadette
Norma Tessum Onda, St Maurice, La Rochelle
George Sand and Le Moulin d'Angibault, Montipouret, Indre