Chaste Grandmother?

Among the many famed lovers of Amandine Lucile Aurore Dupin Dudevant (George Sand) was the volcanic lawyer, Michel de Bourges, who upon completing a fervent lecture on republicanism, would lock her in her bedroom to meditate his philosophy. But that there were no lovers at all has occurred only to George Sand's loyal granddaughter, Aurore Sand (Mme Lauth). Indignant that there should be so much talk concerning the chastity of her illustrious grandmother, Aurore Sand sued Jacques Boulenger in her defense when he published The Early Loves of George Sand in 1928, but lost when the court ruled that the biographer had not abused his right to criticize. Last week in Paris Aurore Sand claimed to have adduced further evidence of virtue to gild her grandmother's memory.

After separating from her husband, Casimir Dudevant, the natural son of a Napoleonic baron, because of his excessive addiction to young ladies, George Sand turned to Jules Sandeau, with whom she collaborated on her first novel and from whom she took her pseudonym. The affair was short-lived. Returning from a visit to the country, she was surprised to discover that her fickle Jules had set up their laundress as his mistress in her apartment.

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, famed critic, was deeply distressed by George Sand's lack of a lover. To her he sent Prosper Merimee. After a week George Sand sent him back. Anxious to please, Sainte-Beuve replaced Merimee with Alfred de Musset, who was to prove, except for one divertisement, eminently satisfactory.

The divertisement occurred on a trip to Italy. Bored with seeing George plugging away eight hours a day at her writing to support them, Alfred took to the cafes, was soon in bed with delirium tremens. Dr. Pietro Pagello was called in. George was much taken with him. As soon as Alfred recovered, the three agreed that George and Pietro had best go away together. She later returned to Alfred but the glamor was gone. Thereafter Alfred de Musset, when in need of funds, would reopen the wound of his old love, watch the metaphorical blood flow as he penned a poem. Last and most famed of George Sand's lovers was Frederic null Chopin, of whom a friend said: "There was nothing permanent about him except his cough." Granddaughter Aurore found basis for her belief that George Sand lived a relatively virtuous life in the fact that during the last seven years of their life together she was completely continent for the sake of Chopin's precarious health.

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