{"product_id":"becoming-george-the-self-invention-of-a-novelist","title":"Becoming George : The Self-Invention of a Novelist","description":"\u003cp\u003e'\u003cb\u003eSand seems as alive as if she had just walked out of the room...\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003equietly witty...\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003efascinating'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e '\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eThought-provoking\u003c\/b\u003e... \u003cb\u003ewritten with energy, passion and commitment to its fascinating subject'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMy friends will respect me, I hope, just as much under my jacket as under my dress... So take me for a man or a woman as you wish.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e By the age of thirty, the novelist who had been born Aurore Dupin in 1804 had become the internationally renowned George Sand. In English, \u003cb\u003eher daring literary experiments were out-selling even Victor Hugo. But the legend of Sand herself scandalised Paris.\u003c\/b\u003e Not only prodigiously talented but cigar-smoking, cross-dressing and promiscuous, she seemed to break all the rules society set for women.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e What can we learn from the way she lived? \u003cb\u003eWas her iconoclasm simply an act of courage, a declaration of absolute autonomy?\u003c\/b\u003e Or did her emotional and creative relationships with many of the leading figures of her day - \u003cb\u003efrom Fryderyk Chopin to Gustave Flaubert\u003c\/b\u003e, and Alfred de Musset to Eugène Delacroix - form part of her dialogue with the world around her: a dialogue that is intrinsic to writing itself?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eBecoming George\u003c\/i\u003e, award-winning poet and biographer Fiona Sampson rehabilitates Sand as an intellectual and artistic giant\u003c\/b\u003e, the beating heart of French literature in the nineteenth century. Too often underestimated in the century and a half since her death, she speaks to us today - about ecology, politics, society, gender - with brilliant prescience; a figure ahead of her time.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePraise for Fiona Sampson:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 'Fiona Sampson beautifully describes the \"self-invention\" of George Sand\u003c\/b\u003e, the Romantic period's most famous woman writer, and in the process paints \u003cb\u003ea vivid portrait of a world in the throes of political and artistic revolution.\u003c\/b\u003e' Maurice Samuels, Professor of French, Yale University\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e '\u003cb\u003eFiona Sampson is a sleuth of a biographer ... rarely has my jaw dropped on so many occasions\u003c\/b\u003e while reading a biography.' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e on \u003ci\u003eIn Search of Mary Shelley\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e '\u003cb\u003eBrilliant, heart-stopping ... reads like a thriller, a memoir and a provocative piece of literary fiction\u003c\/b\u003e all at the same time ... \u003cb\u003emagical and compelling\u003c\/b\u003e.' Charlotte Gordon, \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e on \u003ci\u003eTwo Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e '\u003cb\u003eIf we get another literary biography [this year] as astute and feelingful as this one, we shall be lucky\u003c\/b\u003e.' John Carey, \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e on \u003ci\u003eIn Search of Mary Shelley\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Unity Books","offers":[{"title":"Becoming George : The Self-Invention of a Novelist","offer_id":46051704537285,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0625\/6679\/3413\/files\/978-1-5299-2433-6.jpg?v=1775600382","url":"https:\/\/unitybooks.myshopify.com\/products\/becoming-george-the-self-invention-of-a-novelist","provider":"Unity Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}