Becoming George

'Sand seems as alive as if she had just walked out of the room . . . quietly witty . . . fascinating' The Times

'Thought-provoking . . . written with energy, passion and commitment to its fascinating subject' Literary Review

My 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.

What can we learn from the way George Sand lived? Born Aurore Dupin in 1804, by the time she was thirty she was internationally renowned, her novels out-selling Victor Hugo in the English language. Cigar-smoking, cross-dressing and promiscuous - Sand scandalised Paris, seeming to break every rule set for women in polite society.

Was her iconoclasm simply an act of courage, a declaration of absolute autonomy, or did her sexual and emotional relationships with the leading figures of her day - from Frederic Chopin to Gustave Flaubert - form part of her dialogue with the world, a dialogue intrinsic to writing itself?

In Becoming George, award-winning poet and biographer Fiona Sampson rehabilitates Sand as an intellectual and artistic giant, 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.

'Engaging . . . elegant . . . empathetic' Guardian

'Sampson's vivid and innovative biography will hopefully send a new generation of readers to Sand's work' Observer

'A highly readable, subtly inventive book that argues for Sand's importance not just as a writer but as a cultural figure' New Humanist