Becoming George

A long-overdue reappraisal of a groundbreaking nineteenth-century writer who reshaped the literary and social norms of her age.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Sand’s death, and Becoming George is a fitting celebration of her literary genius—as well as the first new biography in nearly twenty-five years. Born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin in 1804, Sand achieved international fame as a novelist early in life. Prolific and iconoclastic, she was a key intellectual and artistic figure who addressed the social and political issues of her time. Yet this central role in literary and cultural history has long been overshadowed by superficial interest in her promiscuity and cross-dressing. In Becoming George, poet and Romanticist Fiona Sampson identifies Sand’s personal relationships with fellow artists and thinkers—from Gustave Flaubert to Fryderyk Chopin—as part of the creative and cultural dialogue through which her life and work unfolded. Following Sand’s transformation from rural ingénue to metropolitan “Maître,” Sampson captures the sweep of the writer’s life and the enduring influence of her work.