The only YA book to tell the story of George Sand and the courageous
fight for women's rights in the 19th century.
George Sand was the most popular novelist of the mid-19th century, and
the pen name of Amandine Aurore Dupin. Sand wasn't looking for scandal
or subterfuge by using a pseudonym, but for freedom to live and to
write, which she found by dressing as a man, writing under a man's name,
and loving who and how she chose. Her actions were an affront to the
prejudices of the 19th century and a formidable lesson in courage.
Young Aurore grew up torn between two women and two worlds: the
conventional and narrow bourgeoisie of her paternal grandmother, who
raised her in the countryside, and the modest, Parisian environment of
her whimsical mother. Refusing to become the stereotype of femininity,
she dreams of another world, where she can breathe, uncorseted, away
from the strictures of social expectation. She ignores the slander and
rumors that follow her, and builds a free woman's life, deeply respected
by friends and contemporaries like Victor Hugo, Honore de Balzac,
Gustave Flaubert and many others. Using her fame as a writer, she fights
for women's and workers' rights. She is the model of an emancipated
woman.