Résumé
Résumé
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY USA TODAY * Elizabeth Berg has written a lush historical novel based on the sensuous Parisian life of the nineteenth-century writer George Sand--which is perfect for readers of Nancy Horan and Elizabeth Gilbert.
At the beginning of this powerful novel, we meet Aurore Dupin as she is leaving her estranged husband, a loveless marriage, and her family's estate in the French countryside to start a new life in Paris. There, she gives herself a new name--George Sand--and pursues her dream of becoming a writer, embracing an unconventional and even scandalous lifestyle.
Paris in the nineteenth century comes vividly alive, illuminated by the story of the loves, passions, and fierce struggles of a woman who defied the confines of society. Sand's many lovers and friends include Frédéric Chopin, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt, Eugène Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Marie Dorval, and Alfred de Musset. As Sand welcomes fame and friendship, she fights to overcome heartbreak and prejudice, failure and loss. Though considered the most gifted genius of her time, she works to reconcile the pain of her childhood, of disturbing relationships with her mother and daughter, and of her intimacies with women and men. Will the life she longs for always be just out of reach--a dream?
Brilliantly written in luminous prose, and with remarkable insights into the heart and mind of a literary force, The Dream Lover tells the unforgettable story of a courageous, irresistible woman.
Praise for The Dream Lover
"Exquisitely captivating . . . Sand's story is so timely and modern in an era when gender and sexual roles are upended daily." -- USA Today
"Fantastic . . . a provocative and dazzling portrait . . . Berg tells a terrific story, while simultaneously exploring sexuality, art, and the difficult personal choices women artists in particular made--then and now--in order to succeed. . . . The book, imagistic and perfectly paced, full of dialogue that clips along, is a reader's dream." -- The Boston Globe
"Absorbing . . . an armchair traveler's delight . . . Berg rolls out the wonders of nineteenth-century Paris in cinematic bursts that capture its light, its street life, its people and sounds. . . . The result is an illuminating portrait of a magnificent woman whose story is enriched by the delicate brush strokes of Berg's colorful imagination." -- Chicago Tribune
"There is authority and confidence in the storytelling that makes the pages fly." -- The New York Times
"Berg weaves an enchanting novel about the real life of George Sand." -- Us Weekly
"Lavishly described . . . Berg uses her own skill as a writer to graphically present the reader with a clear picture of a brilliant, yet flawed woman." --Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
"[A] beautiful, imaginative re-creation . . . Berg's years-long immersion in the writings of and about Sand has resulted in a remarkable channeling of Sand's voice." -- Library Journal (starred review)
"Berg offers vivid, sensual detail and a sensitive portrayal of the yearning and vulnerability behind Sand's bold persona." -- Publishers Weekly
"A thoroughly pleasant escape . . . [Sand is] intoxicating, beautiful, gifted, desirous, unconventional and heartbroken." -- Kirkus Reviews
Critiques (2)
Critique du New York Review of Books
Berg's novel about the life of the French novelist George Sand tells the story of how Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, the daughter of an aristocratic military officer and a courtesan, left her dull, respectable husband in order to become a writer in Paris and practice principled romantic acrobatics. Berg is too in love with her heroine's iconoclasm and passion, and so the novel, which is narrated by Sand, tends toward the claustrophobically earnest, and a reader's enjoyment of it depends on an ability to tolerate more than a few expository declarations like this: "I was the first woman to become a best seller in France and had achieved worldwide fame. My work had been praised to the skies by critics who found fault with Victor Hugo. Almost every day's post brought letters of praise. But my own daughter despised me. What had I done, I wondered. What had I done?" That said, there is authority and confidence in the storytelling that makes the pages fly. Berg's prose, when it is not cranking out the arias Sand sings of herself, does exhibit an exuberant, often cutting force that seems informed by a deep affection for - or at least a keen ear for - the work of Sand's literary compatriots. And the character of Marie Dorval, the cheerfully capricious but maternally wise actress with whom Sand shared friendship and an affair, provides a much needed counterpoint to Sand's ceaselessly pounding heart - as well as some memorable pronouncements on the treachery of men. "He will tell you anything," Marie tells George after yet another affair implodes. "And when he has spilled himself inside you, you will swear it was his brains that were left there, for he will have little or no memory of the amorous words that sprang forth from him." Such unsentimental wit makes one wish Dorval, not Sand, had been the voice of the novel.
Critique du Library Journal
George Sand, born Aurore Dupin in 1804 to a courtesan and a descendant of Polish royalty who was a distinguished military officer in France, is often reduced to the bullet points of her life: she was a prodigious writer who dressed in men's clothing and smoked cigars in public, a friend and/or lover to much of the A-list of 19th-century European culture (Frédéric Chopin, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt), and a divorcée who had troubled relationships with her mother, grandmother, and children. Berg's years-long immersion in the writings of and about Sand has resulted in a remarkable channeling of Sand's voice that imagines the contradictory strands of her nature. Among these themes are her fierce independence, so contrary to her endless impetuous romantic entanglements, which quickly devolve into difficult morasses. Sand's endless struggles to be a good parent were compromised by her unsettled travels; all of these issues were driven by her intense need to write. -VERDICT Years ago, Berg (Tapestry of Fortunes) urged Nancy Horan (Loving Frank) to write a fictional biography of Sand. Horan told Berg to write it herself. Wisely, Berg took her advice to heart, as evidenced by this beautiful, imaginative re-creation of a brilliant, complicated writer, feminist, romantic, and activist. [See Prepub Alert, 10/5/14.]-Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.