Customer Reviews

Mauprat

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This is the second Sand novel that I have read. Sadly it didn't measure up to the first, 'Indiana', for me. It is too long and the mannered society of the characters is too formal and stilted for me. And there is so much scene setting - it goes on and on and on. In fact I put the novel down for quite a while before I picked it up and read to the finish. And the ending does have more momentum than a lot that went before, but - perhaps a reflection of the time - I am perplexed at how an individual can be charged with murder when no-one has died and, indeed, even be sentenced to execution and, in the end, an execution does take place - still in the absence of a death.

But Bernard - brought up badly by the bad side of the family - is rescued and nurtured by the good side where he falls in love with his second cousin Edmee. And for seven years Edmee resists him - for two of those years he actually flees to America (and yes, I couldn't blame him). Of course, had he been raised in a supportive and caring environment perhaps he could have withstood Edmee's 'indifference' (initially she is betrothed to another, but she is released from that), but with the terrible upbringing he endured Bernard is torn apart by this apparent rejection in the heart of the part of the family that has adopted him.

So why does Edmee keep Bernard at arms length? It is not at all clear to me unless - as is indicated at times - she sees Bernard as mentally unstable (perhaps schizophrenic) and cannot take on the burden of caring for him, physically or in her heart. But she does not send him away either! There is one other possibility that Sand does not explore and that is that Edmee has an unseen physical disability that distracts and torments her in the face Bernard's love. But this is just making excuses for inexplicable behaviour.

Strangely for me, the sanest words in the novel come from the 'murderer' who comes upon Bernard and Edmee 'lost' in the woods. He says that the conversation he overheard nearly made him scream with laughter - Bernard with his childish pleas, Edmee with her haughty indifference. And that is exactly how I saw these two and in the end I really didn't need to spend as much time with them as George Sand has put me through.

It is an interesting novel but for me tedious in its extent and at times laboured in its prose. With unlikeable key characters, I find it hard to recommend.

Now, as any deposed true queen would do, it lives happily in exile knowing that it was pushed aside by such books as The Count of Montecristo, Don Quijote, On the Beach and so on, but, trust me, even thou in exile, this books lives in a palace, with all the servants and courtesans it deserves.