Naked in the Marketplace: The Lives of George Sand (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: George Sand, Madame Dupin, Louis Blanc (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For all her notorious affairs with men, Sand's passionate and unrequited attachment to her mother is the real love story of her life," writes noted literary biographer Eisler (Chopin's Funeral) in her bustling study of the great French Romantic writer's love life. Capturing the complexity of George Sand's relationship with her adored but largely absent working-class mother, Eisler analyzes the writer's various attitudes to class in light of her childhood, as she rapidly narrates Sand's remarkable transformation from rebellious young wife and mother to cross-dressing, controversial Parisian literary star. Treating Sand's autobiography with skepticism, Eisler emphasizes how Sand (1804–1876) also caused strife for others in her turbulent emotional life. Eisler authoritatively sketches the themes and philosophical preoccupations of Sand's novels in an age of revolutionary ferment, but places Sand's affairs center stage: from Alfred de Musset's "romantic passion run amok" to her political education by radical lawyer Michel de Bourges, and her long relationship with Chopin. Eisler's Sand is doomed to act out the insecurities of her childhood in an ugly, punitive relationship with her own daughter, Solange. As Eisler comments, referring to Sand by her real name, "It was Aurore, the motherless child, who was both the cause and victim of much of George's confusion and suffering." (Nov.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* The startling title of this cinematic portrait of French writer George Sand is lifted from a remark by her polar opposite, Henry James, who was both appalled by Sand's very public affair with the poet Alfred de Musset and impressed by her commitment to exposing the injustices of a cruel class system. The daughter of a working-class woman and an heir to a distinguished family, the best-selling writer and valiant social critic who took a man's name and wore men's clothes as armor in a misogynist world wrote to earn both money and freedom, and ended up penning nearly 90 novels and countless articles while conducting a similarly dizzying number of love affairs and raising (badly) two children. Acclaimed biographer Eisler, whose earlier subjects include Lord Byron and Chopin (a great love of Sand's), has illuminated Sand's indomitable spirit, enormous capacity for work and pleasure, and deep emotional wounds in a narrative as character-driven, dramatic, and rich in psychology and ideas as the best of Sand's novels. Eisler's portrait of this woman of many firsts brings Sand and her boldly improvised life forward more vividly than ever before. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (November 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582433496
• ISBN-13: 978-1582433493
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,115,590 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars the worst, June 13, 2009

By	Just Another Amazon Customer (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Naked in the Marketplace: The Lives of George Sand (Hardcover)

I haven't bothered to write an Amazon review for I don't know how many years, but this book really offended me by being so bad. Here goes. This supposed biography reads like a plodding summary of a much larger--and real--biography. Everything from Sand's life is told through prose that reminds one of the kind found in Barron's Book Notes: simplistic, shallow, monotonous, yawn-inducing, the kind that takes the "lit" out of "literature" and turns your reading into sheer torture. There's not only no in-depth analysis of either Sand the woman or the writer, there are nearly no quotes from Sand herself, and absolutely no excerpts from any of her writings. Except for the endless plot summaries of a few novels (not even the key ones) that serve absolutely no purpose, you could hardly tell that this is meant to be the biography of a WRITER. A pure abomination.

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Another George Sand Book...., August 10, 2008

By	Caroline Pyne (Russell, New Zealand) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Just a rehash of old information - a bit of a disappointment, but easy to read.