George Sand

Impromptu.

And it's about George Sand, Delacroix, Chopin, that whole group.

Two-week trip to an aristocrat's house someplace in France.

And to watch that film, And then to walk down the street and see where they lived during that period of time.

As such, to truly understand what he's talking about, you also need some knowledge about these people, because Nietzsche doesn't give you the knowledge himself, he assumes that the reader is familiar.

He talks about, for example, Thomas Carlyle, Ernest Renan, George Sand, Sainte-Beuve, Emerson, Charles Darwin.

And many of these names might not sound familiar, but back in Nietzsche's day, they were among the most popular writers of the time.

So people in Nietzsche's time would have been familiar with these names, but us in the 21st century, not necessarily so.

And I think this is a lot of what is happening beginning around this time in the Romantic era, especially coming from women themselves.

You look at someone like George Sand's writings, which are so erotic at times and express a level of agency and sexuality in women that you get in something like Dangerous Liaisons, but that's also such a It doesn't end well, right? So now we're in this kind of shifting era.

And I actually I needed to find out more about this.

So I wound up reading an essay by Maya Corey on the erotic effectivity in Renaissance religious art.

for my part, should approve of their action in slamming the door in the face of invading facts that threaten to leave the way open for scandal-hunters and herophobists to enter with them, and to deal with the honored reputation of Charlotte Bronte in the same way that, more to the discredit of english letters than to that of two french writers of genius recent critics have dealt with the love-letters of madame de stal and this point of view however is a mistaken one in the present case because to commence with charlotte bront's romantic love for m heger affords no game to the scandal-hunter but on the contrary it is serviceable to the just appreciation of her character as well as of her genius, that is, her true sentiment for her professor, that explains her attitude of mind when writing Villette, should be rightly understood.

Then also, whilst Madame de Stael's infatuation for Benjamin Constant neither adds to nor diminishes her claims as the authoress of Corrine and d'Alemont to the rank of a fine writer and a great critic, and while Georges Sand's tormenting and tormented love for the ill-fated, irresistible, unstable child of his century, Demuset, is a poignant revelation of the passing weakness, through immense tenderness of a splendidly strong and independent spirit, that one is almost ashamed to be made the spectator of, Charlotte Bronte's various martyrdom undergone secretly and silently and rewarded openly, fills one with an extraordinary sentiment of respect for her, and justifies Mr. Clement Shorter's own fine and generous utterances upon the impression that the letters that betray the anguish she endured and overcome alone produces upon him.

Charlotte Bronte, said Mr. Clement Shorter, by the report of an interviewer who recorded his opinions in the times thirtieth july immediately after the publication of these letters is one of the noblest figures in life as well as in literature and these letters place her on a higher pedestal than ever let me quote from the same report in the times the further statement of his opinions given by this well-known critic as to the sentiments revealed in these letters mr shorter affirmed the interviewer welcomed the publication of the letters in the times as giving the last and final word on an old and needless controversy personally he said i have always held the view that those letters were actuated only by the immense enthusiasm of a woman desiring comradeship and sympathy with a man of the character of professor There was no sort of great sorrow on her part, because Professor Hager was a married man, and it is plain in her letters that she merely desired comradeship with a great man.

When Charlotte Bronte made her name famous with her best-known novel, she experienced much the same adulation from admirers of both sexes as she had already poured upon her teacher.

After two books of fiction for George Eliot, though, the secret was out.

Another female writer of the time, a French one named George Sand, had taken the man's name.

She pushed the gender boundaries a lot more than Marianne Evans did, though.

George Sand was protesting.

George Eliot wanted to sell her writing.

However, she had other publicity problems.

Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton raised their two children while living in two houses next door to each other in London, I read.

Also the novelist George Sand and Frederic Chopin, just to name a few.

So do you live separate from your partner? How does it work for you? The phones are open for your stories, your calls, your texts, 212-433.

WNYC 433-9692.

She was previously here in episode 776 to talk about Mary Shelley and Bath, a book published by Manderley Press, for which Fiona wrote the introduction.

And she was here in episode 813, where we focused on her book, Becoming George, The Invention of George Sand.

She returns today for a discussion of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whom Fiona wrote about in her biography, Two-Way Mirror, The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Fiona Sampson, welcome back to the History of Literature.

Okay, we're back.

So Fiona, let's circle back to the life a little bit because it's so fascinating.

And we also, I want to ask you about this relationship with Robert Browning, what it did for Elizabeth, because, and maybe we can compare that with Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley and George Sand and Frederick Chopin.

We're not biting off a little more than we can chew there.

So the moment words like the enemy of the people or these people are enemies, et cetera, those words make me very, very worried because I've heard that kind of rhetoric elsewhere.

And one more thing, if I may add, As I was writing in one brief moment, All Eternity, I also focused on the friendship of Flaubert, Gustave Flaubert and Georges Sand, which to me was very interesting because she is very progressive at the time.

She's very scandalous.

Freedom is very important for her in her private life as well.