Becoming George Sand: A novel

By Rosalind Brackenbury

Maria Jameson, an Edinburgh academic, is passionately involved with a younger man and married to a steady, reliable husband with whom she has two children. She wonders: Is it possible to love two men at the same time? And must she feel guilty?

For answers she reaches across the centuries to the life story of George Sand, the maverick French novelist whose many lovers included the composer Frederic Chopin. While researching a book about Sand — and enduring bitter disappointment — she moves toward understanding how best to live her life.

This is a richly detailed novel that explores past and present, the personal and the historic, and sensuality, responsibility and the mystery of love. Sharply insightful, it is a deeply engaging examination of two women's minds, hearts and homes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 18, 2009
• ISBN: 9780307372222

Rosalind Brackenbury

Poet and novelist Rosalind Brackenbury is the author of Becoming George Sand. A former writer-in-residence at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, she has also served as poet laureate of Key West, teaching poetry workshops. She has attended the yearly Key West Literary Seminar as both panelist and moderator. Born in London, Rosalind lived in Scotland and France before moving to the United States. Her hobbies include swimming, reading, walking, and talking with friends. For more on the author and her work, visit www.rosalindbrackenbury.com.

Reviews for Becoming George Sand

[karenrinn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Rosalind Brackenbury has written a book that is rich in language, exploring love and all its facets. Becoming George Sand's intertwined stories of self and what love means to self are presented in imagery that illustrates Brackenbury's talent as a writer. I thoroughly enjoyed this book for both the story as well as the use of words/sentence structure.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Eh. Couldn't finish this one. Y'know, I'm just not that interested in other women's seedy sex lives. Especially when said sex lives involve adultery which the adulterer tries to justify by comparing her philandering to George Sand's. I don't know what conclusions Marie eventually came to . . . and I really don't care.

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The heroine of this novel is silly, shallow, and self-absorbed. It is as if Carrie Bradshaw had children and became obsessed with George Sand. This would not be a deal-killer for me--I like lots of novels with flawed, unlikable protagonists--were it not for the fact that the author doesn't seem to regard her as such, and in fact seems to want me to relate to her and root for her. I can do neither.

Two stars instead of one because there really are some nice passages about life and books, despite the vapidity of the heroine.

[a_reader_of_fictions · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The description of this book, at least as I wrote it, does not remotely do the book credit. Largely because the story is not the real point. I mean, it is and it isn't. More than being about a plot it's about what it's like being a woman, about the spaces between love and marriage, about feminism, and about literature and language. The writing is completely gorgeous, sucking me in from the first pages, even though the opening scenes chronicle the affair, a thing in which I have little interest. To me, there is no excuse for cheating and I do not believe Maria's romanticized idea of it (and not just because I know what happens later); the treatment of the affair in early pages reminds me of Chretien de Troyes, and how in that time folks believed that true love had to be extramarital.

Rather than speaking to what I loved and didn't (what little there was of that) as I usually do, I really want to include some of my favorite quotes and let the author speak for herself.

"'You can't be loved whatever you do. You have to be someone good, to be loved. People can't just love you for existing.'
'Hmm. Well, maybe. You don't believe in unconditional love?'
'Yes, I do, but it's for babies. You have to be worthy of love.'" (221).

"That's it, the last gesture of a long friendship lived over distance and time, without frequent meetings, between two languages; a friendship built over books, plays, poems, the written word." (252).

"What is it she needs, at this point in her life? To touch another life, to have it touch hers. To create, to understand. To give back. To be part of a whole." (286)


Brackenbury obviously wholeheartedly loves and appreciates literature, which makes her such a joy to read. I now want to check out George Sand and to read a biography of her life, as she sounds fascinating.

[porte01 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Some really insightful thoughts on the parallel lives of two women (one current, one historical). I really liked the emotional layers built as we got to know the protagonist and what underlies the choices she makes.

[litendeavors · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Is it the times we live in that make it necessary to stay together rather than fly apart?"I'm an easy mark for novels with bookish heroines. Add to that, bookish heroines who identify with either a literary character or a long deceased writer, and I'm a goner. You get the point.In Becoming George Sand, we get a cornucopia of all things literary. The main character, Maria, is a writer who finds herself stuck between a husband and a lover. She is happy enough in the domesticity of her everyday life to not want a divorce, but she seeks the element of passion with her younger lover, a scientist named Sean. She looks to Aurore Dupin aka George Sand for guidance. The 19th century novelist/memoirist seemed to enjoy more freedom than modern day women. Sand embarked on a 4-5 year long "Romantic Rebellion" after divorcing her husband in 1831, and went on to have numerous affairs with some of the most important writers and artists of her day."What can seem ordinary, now? She has no idea. She has arrived somewhere where she doesn't know the customs, can't read the signs, and there is no one, except a dead French writer, to give her a clue."Maria knows that although she lives in an era more seemingly accepting of unconventional women, she cannot keep this up for much longer. She begins researching the life of Sand--her relationship with her mother, her relationships with different men (platonic and romantic), her relationship with her children, and why Sand had this craving for love that not be sated, despite the number of lovers she had. "Her hands hold the book as if it were a passport."When Maria and her botanist husband travel to Majorca, the very same place where Sand and her young lover, Chopin, stayed in 1838-1839, the situation comes to a head. It is then that Maria's life changes. In compiling a biography of Sand's life, Maria figures out just what she wants out of her hers. She connects with old friends, dissects her own relationship with both men, and goes out on her own to discover her aspirations, her fears, her desires.In being forced to change her circumstances, Maria's life shakes off the stagnation and decay that lead to her own ennui. An end leads to a new beginning. Maria begins to see that she should not demand more of her husband than she expects from herself. The ever repeating motions of the days lead to a sort of death of the soul, and thus, of love. How can passion survive that?"If you are western and middle-class at this time in history, you have to be dislodged from comfort, or dislodge yourself. If you want to live fully, you have to give something up quite deliberately, for nothing is going to do it to you, you are too safe."Becoming George Sand is a moving, lyrical novel that transcends time and place. The plight of woman, past and present, moves us to examine our own lives. Are we merely plodding through this existence, or are we living? I would recommend this book to any woman-- whether you like the fluffy reads, or the meaty classics... This is a definite reread for me."It's on the tender inside of life, where everything begins again..."*I received a free ARC of this novel thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. This in no way influenced my opinion of the novel. ”