The Novelist

 

Today was sunny and warm.  I walked around the Luxembourg Gardens.  I love that place.  I came across this statue of George Sand.  I knew she was a novelist, but other than that I really didn't know Jack Squat about George Sand.

I've done some intense research on wikipedia and I've discovered that George Sand had an interesting lifestory, which I'll now share.  She wore men's clothes because she found them more comfortable.  In the early 1800's, women had to apply for a permit to wear men's clothes but George skipped the application hassle and wore whatever she pleased when she pleased. After her marriage dissolved, George had a bunch of affairs with men and women.  Her most famous affair was with Chopin. They broke up after awhile and the breakup was not amicable.  She wrote many novels and worked for women's rights.  She was good friends with Victor Hugo, Flaubert, and Balzac but Baudelaire did not care for her and described her with some rude name calling. 

Go soak yourself, Baudelaire.  George Sand doesn't need your approbation. 

She died at age 71 and was buried in Nohant, but later her remains were transferred to the Pantheon which is a big honor.  (FYI:  Josephine Baker, our country woman, has had her remains transferred to the Pantheon quite recently).  Wikipedia mentions a controversy with the decision to transfer Sand's remains, but I'm not sure what the controversy was all about.  Please let me know if you have any additional information about the problem of George Sand's remains being moved to the Pantheon.