George Sand

French novelist, memoirist and journalist, one of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s. Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. She wrote more than 50 volumes of various works to her credit, including tales, plays and political texts, alongside her 70 novels.

Sand was the daughter of a man of royal ancestry. When she was four, he died and she was unhappily caught in between the conflicts of her mother and grandmother. After three convent schools she went to Nohant to live with her grandmother. There she developed a love of nature and her own free spirit, which she indulged by wearing men's clothing.

At the age of 18, she married Casimir Dudevant on 10 September 1822 and subsequently had two children, a son, Maurice (born 30 June 1823) and a daughter, Solange (born 13 September 1828). Her frustration with the conventional life of a French housewife became intolerable until she abandoned the pretence. Never able to form a lasting romantic relationship, she had a series of lovers. Most of her later life was spent in Nohant, where she found in nature the fulfilment she could not find in a man.

Fame eluded her until she left her husband and kids on 4 January 1831 and headed to Paris. Once there, she lived a bohemian lifestyle, taking outstanding lovers, both male and female, and continuing to write. Her first novel Indiana was published in 1832 under the pseudonym George Sand. Though not an attractive woman, she had a spirit and passion that attracted two of the most romantic figures of her day. In June 1833, she met Alfred de Musset and began a tempestuous love affair that continued until 6 March 1835. She obtained a legal marriage separation in July 1836 and later that year met Frederic Chopin. They carried on a passionate romance which lasted nine years, from May 1838 to 1846.