The Dream Lover

by Elizabeth Berg

A passionate and powerful novel based on the scandalous life of the French novelist George Sand, her famous lovers, untraditional Parisian lifestyle, and bestselling novels in Paris during the 1830s and 40s. This major departure for bestseller Berg is for readers of Nancy Horan and Elizabeth Gilbert.

George Sand was a 19th century French novelist known not only for her novels but even more for her scandalous behavior. After leaving her estranged husband, Sand moved to Paris where she wrote, wore men’s clothing, smoked cigars, and had love affairs with famous men and an actress named Marie. In an era of incredible artistic talent, Sand was the most famous female writer of her time. Her lovers and friends included Frederic Chopin, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt, Eugene Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and more. In a major departure, Elizabeth Berg has created a gorgeous novel about the life of George Sand, written in luminous prose, with exquisite insight into the heart and mind of a woman who was considered the most passionate and gifted genius of her time.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, France, Book Club, Feminism, Adult

368 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2015

About the author

Elizabeth Berg is an American novelist.
She was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and lived in Boston prior to her residence in Chicago. She studied English and Humanities at the University of Minnesota, but later ended up with a nursing degree. Her writing career started when she won an essay contest in Parents magazine. Since her debut novel in 1993, her novels have sold in large numbers and have received several awards and nominations, although some critics have tagged them as sentimental. She won the New England Book Awards in 1997.
The novels Durable Goods, Joy School, and True to Form form a trilogy about the 12-year-old Katie Nash, in part based on the author's own experience as a daughter in a military family. Her essay "The Pretend Knitter" appears in the anthology Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting, published by W. W. Norton & Company in November 2013.

Reviews

[B the BookAddict · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can only say that Elizabeth Berg has portrayed a woman who, at times, I wanted to stand up for and cheer her on. Sand was a brave, gutsy, ahead of her time, curious, devoted woman. I've read a few novels by Berg in the past and was actually a little unsure if she was up to such a monumental task, i.e. creating on the page for us a semblance of the real George Sand. Ms Berg, stand tall and hold your head high, you have done this woman justice. 4.5★

[Sherwood Smith]

Copy provided by NetGalley.

There really needs to be a major work (fictional or non) about the remarkable George Sand, whose life spanned all the French revolutions, whose work influenced writers as widely spaced in geography and thought as Turgenev and Walt Whitman, and who experimented in life and in fiction with gender fluidity a century and a half before that was ever a term.

Unfortunately, The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg is not it.

There are some striking passages, full of sensory grace, about gardens, houses, the settings of gatherings, and several really lovely scenes, but unfortunately, those are far too rare. The narrative voice early on falls into a pattern of summarizing Sand’s life—in spite of the first person conceit—in such a distant manner that the novel never quite comes to life. Further, there is no narrative cohesion, as it begins supposedly late in life with an elderly Sand contemplating her life, then switches back and forth between her childhood and the commencement of her career thirty years later.

Though sentence by sentence, the prose can be vividly full of detail, the easiest authorial trick to write but hardest to draw in readers is to put a character alone in a room to think his or her history at the reader. Another is to catalogue what everyone is wearing at the cost of peopling scenes with the passion of conflict of ideals, as in the two revolutions Sand was part of.

The biggest disappointment of all is how Sand is diminished to a faithful summary of her many love affairs, and a somewhat forced judgment on Solange, her problematical daughter. A life like Sand’s deserves all the drama that she actually experienced, as well as the ambivalences; unfortunately, the English language has yet to see the biographical, or fictional, treatment that this astonishing woman deserves.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dream Lover encompasses some of the best qualities that historical fiction has to offer. It transports you to the 1800's France. It introduces you to an extraordinary person: Aurore Dupin, pen name, George Sand. Then, the reader gets to sit back and enjoy the wild ride that was her life. Talk about escapism.

For a woman in the 1800's, George Sand had it going on. She left her husband, had a series of lovers- both male and female- became a famous author, involved herself in the political upheavals of her time... it is truly an incredible life.

Not everyone in her life accepted her for who she was: "I feel I have made a mistake, George, and that I do not love you after all. ... The only thing you are passionate about is locking yourself up at night and writing your precious fiction, ignoring all that is before you here, which, if you would pay attention to it, would make your stories infinitely richer!" ... It was as if I had been shot in the chest." pg 242. But she wrote and loved anyway. Well done, Aurore, well done.

She rejected the role that society set out for her. "Tell me, George. Do you wish you'd been born a man?" ... "In my youth, I wished that. ... But now I find I don't wish to be either man or woman. I wish to be myself. Why should men serve as judge and jury, deciding for us what can and cannot be done, what is our due? Why should they decide in advance of our deciding for ourselves what is best for us; why should they decide what IS us?" "But then you do wish to be a man!" "Perhaps I wish to be a woman with a man's privileges." pg 151. Amen.

I loved the drama in this novel as well as the romance. One would think that the sheer quantity of lovers that she had would have nullified any quality in the feelings, but Berg does a good job proving that this was otherwise. The passion that she exhibits in one, Sand seems to have shown in them all.

My only complaint about The Dream Lover is that it felt rushed because of the almost unbelievable amount of important events that peppered Sand's life. I would have savored a 1000+ page book like Margaret George's treatment of Cleopatra in The Memoirs of Cleopatra, but The Dream Lover appeals to the more casual reader.

Still, it would have been awesome. A bookworm can dream, can't she?

If you enjoy Margaret George, you may like this book too for its sumptuous descriptions and tempestuous relationships. Also, you may want to pick up In the Company of the Courtesan or Marrying Mozart. Both are excellent historical fiction novels with similar themes to The Dream Lover.

I received a free advance reader's copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads. FTC guidelines: check!

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley.]

I'm afraid I don't have anything good to say about this book. I was bored through almost the entire story. The frequent back-and-forth in time was disruptive, where it could have been a bit more natural. When the two timelines met around 80%, the book started skipping forward vast amounts of time. Some authors make this work (one of my favorite series is told by skipping around in time). With this book, it did not work. It would have been much better in linear format.

I was bored by the story, and by the persona of George Sand herself. I felt it was bordering on the ridiculous, even if it were completely historically accurate, that she fell in love with essentially every man she ever met, and slept with him too. Now I'm not criticizing her for that, a woman is welcome to do whomever she pleases in my book; rather, I disliked the character that was given to her - petulant, irksome, unlikable, and yet every man she met threw himself at her. It made absolutely no sense to me. She was also incredibly inconsistent. I really tried to put this down as an historical rendering of someone who was truly like this, but in the afterword the author mentions that there are so many conflicting accounts of who she really was and what she was really like, that I have to take the character as someone almost entirely fictionalized, picked and chosen from the various accounts and with whom the author did what she would. In that respect, she was not believable at all to me as a character.

Others have said similar things, and I find myself in agreement with many of the one- and two-star reviewers on Goodreads. One person said it felt like more of a daily journal, and in that respect it certainly was. "That day I went there, and had an argument with this person, and then we made love, and then we went out to eat. The next day he left me and I decided to move back to Nohant. And then I was bored at Nohant and decided I didn't like anyone anymore and moved back to Paris to beg him to come back." It was, again, ridiculous.

I have heard only good things about Elizabeth Berg in the past, and was very excited to read this. Some reviewers have said that her other works are much better, however after reading this I am very hesitant to give one of her others a shot. I do not recommend this book.

[Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Dream Lover we meet Aurore Dupin, or as she is better known George Sand. The book starts with her leaving her husband and her children for a life in Paris, but it will take a while before we will know what led her to the decision. The story in the book will take two roads. We will get to know her from her childhood parallel with her life in Paris as she seriously starts to write. The two parallel stories will towards the end merge into one.

It was a fascinating book. I didn't know that much about George Sands life before I read this book. I have seen Impromptu with Judy Davis and Hugh Grant some years ago, but I didn't know more than she had some famous lovers and liked to dress in men's clothing. So, I was quite intrigued by what a fascinating life she lived. I had some problems with the parallel storytelling, but mostly because I was pulled out of the story every time the story shifted from the past to the "present" and vice versa. Other than that it was a really good book, both well written and really interesting.

It kind of sometimes felt that most of her life Aurore/George was trying to find the "one love", she kept on going from relationship to relationship, but it wasn't until towards the end of her life that she finally found the peace she had searched after throughout her life. I think Franz Liszt was the one in the book that really hit the nail on the head when it came to George and her relationships: I fear that in your romantic relationship, you tend towards the self-destructive. You choose men because they need you, not because you love them. You begin in passion but move quickly to maternal feelings."

I enjoyed the book very much and I recommend it warmly!

I received this copy from the publisher through Netgalley in return for an honest review!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This historical novel about George Sand is a real slow burner, and unfortunately doesn’t get much better as it goes along. Berg makes the mistake of trying to be too comprehensive about Sand’s life; it would be better to just choose illustrative vignettes or representative love affairs (e.g. with Chopin) rather than include them all. There are two different timelines, 1831–1876 and 1804–1831, such that they eventually meet up and then the one continues the story through to the end, but together they’re still just a chronological slog.

A question most people will be pondering is: why the male name and persona? Berg has a few theories. First, Sand had a sense of needing to make up for the death of her baby brother. Second, as a young reporter in Paris she could get cheap theater tickets (standing or benches), whereas women could only take box seats. Lastly, male dress conferred both anonymity and liberty: “There was an expansive freedom, not to say power, in wearing men’s clothes.”

A few tense mother–daughter relationships provide the novel’s thematic patterns. After her husband’s death, Sand’s prostitute mother left her with her mother-in-law in the French countryside (Nohant) to go to Paris with her other daughter. The irony was that Sand repeated her mother’s mistake by leaving her children with her husband, Casimir, so she could go to Paris to work and take lovers. She had a good relationship with her son, Maurice, but her daughter Solange was very difficult and pretty much hated her.

Many of Sand’s lovers were mercurial, immature young men. They were artistic but lazy and dependent, and Sand took care of them as if they were additional children. With actress Marie Dorval, however, Berg posits that Sand found her one true love. Whether this amounts to a hypothesis that Sand is bisexual, I’m not sure. As the title suggests, Berg emphasizes Sand’s devotion to the idea of love: “what consumed me most was the search for the absolute in love. First it was my mother I dedicated myself to, then God [a short time in a convent school], then a series of lovers...What we want is not the object of our desire but desire itself...One is not living when one does not use the parts of oneself that are most vital, most especially the need to love and be loved.”

The Dream Lover reminded me a bit of some of Julian Barnes’s French-set historical fiction, or maybe Lisette’s List, but the first-person narration lacks verve. Berg has loads of previous work, but most looks like chick lit, so I don’t think I’m tempted to try it. Likewise, this hasn’t really inspired me to seek out Sand’s fiction; I imagine I’d find it dated and melodramatic compared to Gustave Flaubert et al. (though I will read the one paperback of hers I think I have on shelf, Majorca).

[Angela M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not read anything by George Sand but yet this novel about her life interested me because I thought it would give me the chance to learn something about this notorious writer's life and work. The book was satisfying for me in that respect. I certainly know a lot more about George Sand .

It was fascinating to get a glimpse of the time in Paris and the other famous people in her life . I liked that the narrative alternated between her childhood and adulthood , but the first person narrative was really off putting and just didn't work for me .

Having said that , it was still an interesting read , a little slow at times but still interesting . While her life was not exactly conventional , her challenges to make it in the literary arena have relevancy even today , balancing her roles as a mother and an artist . Her love life was something
else !

I really think I would have liked this a lot more if it was presented as a biographical novel with a third person narrative rather than a sort of fictional memoir . I enjoy novels about writers and I always think it fascinating that an author has the capacity to imagine what they may have said or done and can make it believable , but it was so hard for me to get past the narrative style which imagined her every word and thought and feeling .

I'm giving it a generous three stars because I learned a lot about George Sand and am interested enough to read something by her .


Thanks to Random House and NetGalley .

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am perplexed that a novel about a fiery, determined, passionate and trail-blazing woman could emerge as a lifeless story without spirit or much substance.

I have read a few of George Sand's novels, viewed a PBS series on her life, and also seen the film about her interlude with Chopin. So, yes, I came to the book with some preconceived ideas about the character and, perhaps, a rather idealized view of who she was. My bias was such that I expected to learn more about her, understand her life more, and live in her shoes through this book. Instead, I plodded through in search of a woman who might eventually emerge as an interesting character. I never found her.

It felt like Elizabeth Berg just didn't have any passion for Sand. There is no doubt that Aurore Dupin (who wrote as George Sand)was a conflicted woman seeking both independence and love. It was not necessary for Berg to be sympathetic to her principal character, she just needed to do a better job painting the picture of how George Sand really lived her life and what the environment was like. It all came across to me as a cardboard sketch of a woman, not a vibrant and flawed human being.

It was a slog getting through this book, but I persevered because I thought that when her relationship with Chopin took place the book would resonate like his music does. It didn't happen.

Netgalley provided me with a copy of this book and I am disappointed that I was not able to offer more positive comments.

[Alice Poon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compelling fictional biography of one of France’s most talented but often misunderstood female writers. Berg takes readers on an exploratory journey into the depths of George Sand’s heart and soul in recreating her controversial life. The author presents the narrative with much authenticity, understanding and admiration.

The novel is written in the first-person, with the protagonist doubling as narrator. I’m aware that this is a popular style of writing, but for me, the weakness in such a style is that it becomes easy to indulge in the protagonist and to make him/her seem larger-than-life, and this renders the narrator a little untrustworthy.

The story runs on two parallel timelines, one starting from Sand’s childhood and the other from the point when she is divorced from her husband, with the two parts alternating in sequence. As the reader learns of the protagonist’s engagement in amorous relationships after the divorce, he/she understands her reasons better because of the doses of information on her childhood/adolescence that are being simultaneously fed through.

In general, this is a touching story of Sand’s life. We see her as a romantic feminist, a literary genius juggling fame, love and family, a doting and sensual lover (for both sexes), a loving and dedicated parent, a loyal and compassionate friend and an innate music lover all rolled into one.

But this is also a lucent study of the perceived notion and reality of romantic love, of the hardships and dilemmas of motherhood, of an artist’s struggles against melancholia, and of an idealistic way for a woman to balance work and emotional needs.

In my view, it fully deserves 4 stars.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was completely taken with Berg’s rendition of George Sand’s life. Learning of this prolific authoress from from birth to death was intriguing.

Sand suffered many challenges in her life along with successes and disappointments. A woman craving love – to love and to be loved, we are introduced to her numerous lovers, the trials each brings, the suffering of their endings. Clearly a brilliant woman born into an oppressive time for females especially women with artistic and literary talent pursuits. Sand spawned from a turbulent past, burdened with a difficult present, yet always optimistic of a promising future. Despite her setbacks and letdowns she possesses a strength allowing her to forge ahead. Clearly a woman with an independent streak she lives life on her terms causing quite a stir among mainstream populace. A woman haunted by her turbulent upbringing, she searches for the elusive love hoping to complete her. A woman possessing great talent, a talent pulling her from the abyss of darkness of life and loves frustrations.

[Quiltgranny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was given this book by NetGalley through the publisher for a fair and honest review.

Idon't like giving negative reviews, as I usually always find something in each book like a little gem. Not this one. I love Berg's stories, but this one just fell flat. It seemed as if I was reading a daily "to do" journal. There was no personal voice, and George had no (or very little ) character arc, and for me, that spells "Pu t. T h e. book. Down. Now." So I did.

[Judy Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE DREAM LOVER by talented, Elizabeth Berg, a beautifully written, fascinating historical fiction of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, best known by her pseudonym George Sand, a 19th-century French novelist and memoirist; rich in character, culture, and history.

Berg writes with enlightening, bold, and inspiring prose, with insights into the unconventional life of one of the most famous female and gifted writers of her time.

George Sand was known for her scandalous, and sometimes shocking behavior; her famous lovers, eccentricities, and her questionable Parisian lifestyle— including publicized romantic affairs with a number of artists, including the composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin and the writer Alfred de Musset, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt, Eugene Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and more.

Born in Paris, France in 1804, known as "Aurore" she was pretty much raised by her grandmother in a liberal setting, at her estate Nohant, in the French province of Berry, later using this setting in her novels.

In 1822, at the age of eighteen, Sand married Casimir Dudevant "François" and they had two children. In early 1831, she left her husband and entered upon a four- or five-year period of rebellion and a few years later was legally separated taking her children with her. During this time, her life was quite scandalous with many affairs.

Typical for this era, it was not socially acceptable to be intelligent and independent. These and other behaviors were exceptional for a woman of the early and mid-19th century when social codes—especially in the upper classes—were of the utmost importance.

Sand's reputation came into question when she began sporting men's clothing in public, which she justified enabling her to circulate more freely in Paris than most of her female contemporaries, and gave her increased access to venues from which women were often barred, even women of her social standing.

A woman of many talents, and often misunderstood, Sand authored literary criticism and political texts, wrote many essays and published works establishing her socialist position, and often sided with the poor and working class.

Berg eloquently, introduces us to many historical figures and brings life, intrigue, adventure, romance, scandal, and sensuality to the characters, settings, and intimate thoughts, as the vibrant pages come alive, transporting you to another time. I enjoyed the way she outlined the years of her life and geographical locations, in order to capture the moment with an easy flow.

A liaison with the writer Jules Sandeau heralded her literary debut and later in Paris when she was twenty-eight, a time of unhappiness and frustration in her life. Julies and she were finished, however, she had her work and novel, Lelia to sustain her and the friendship with Marie Dorval, her truest confidante. I enjoyed this part with Marie:

“Ah, George. A woman who denies love. It is you whom you write about. It is you, a powerful woman powerless to get what you need most. You seem to have no idea how to achieve it. And yet you have one of your own characters say of Lelia that she is not a complete human being. You have him say that where love is absent, there can be no woman. This is you speaking of yourself. A painful and fatal flaw in herself, as she could not explain her passion, how it sputtered and stalled."

“When I was thirty years old and felt old as time. I had failed in every love relationship I had attempted: with my mother, with God, with marriage, with Aurelien, with lovers, with my children. And with Marie, whose light still shone brightest for me, who still seemed the one with whom I might have been enduringly happy. These days, I enjoyed her company in friendship and no longer aspired to anything beyond it; I would have embarrassed myself in attempting it, and I had no doubt that any attempt at rekindling romantic love would have turned her away from me entirely. She had finished with that the day she’d left Nohant, and I knew perhaps better than anyone that it was always easy for Marie to leave behind what no longer engaged or amused her”.

“Marie was gone. Musset was gone. I wanted Pagello gone. One is not living when one does not use the parts of oneself that are most vital, most especially the need to love and loved. In that respect, I was already dead.”

THE DREAM LOVER is enticing and engaging; flashing back and forth from George Sand’s earlier, middle and latter parts of her life— told in first person narrative, pulling you into the struggles, heartbreaks, frustrations, passionate letters, and explorations of Sand’s desires, intelligence, creativity, and talents.

George Sand was known well in far reaches of the world, and her social practices, her writings, and her beliefs prompted much commentary, often by other luminaries in the world of arts and letters. She would love Berg’s account and somehow see her smiling.

My first book by Berg, highly impressive writing, detailed research; a stunning novel written with compassion and intimacy and one to savor. A fan of good "books about books" or literary icons. Highly recommend THE DREAM LOVER to all historical and literary fiction fans, and look forward to reading more from Berg!

“The finest female genius of any country or age”. –Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A special thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

JDCMustReadBooks

BTW, I just finished The Story of Arthur Truluv Amazing!!! 5 Stars Coming Nov 21, 2017. Move this one to the TOP of your reading list. (I want an Arthur in my life). For fans of Fredrik Backman.

[☮Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slow starter and finally became somewhat better about 80% in. I appreciated that the instant I started reading, it was obvious in what era the book takes place. Yes, I already knew it was the early 1800's, but the language rang true to that fact, which I think is essential to creating the overall mood and atmosphere . I also liked that Ms. Berg went outside her comfort zone and her normal genre with this book. It was a good effort, but one that fell flat with me. I don't blame the writing; I am afraid that I may have had the same reaction no matter who authored this story. The title character simply did not interest me.

Now having read this account of George Sand's life, however, I do feel sadness for the way her story played out. It seemed like all the people in her life whom she loved left her after a short time -- her father and baby brother died, her mother abandoned her, her grandmother became estranged for awhile and then died, her husband was always off hunting and then they separated and later divorced. After that she went from one lover to another, falling in and out of love as often as the seasons changed. Finally with Fredric Chopin did she find lasting love, although imperfect. With all the fame and fortune she achieved, love was the only thing she wanted and the only thing she struggled with.

Probably closer to 2.5 stars. An ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

[Linda Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is biographical fiction about Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, best known by her nom de plume George Sand, history's first successful female novelist. Told in first person narrative, the story documents a woman who was perhaps the most unconventional person of her day. Born in 1797 in Paris, her parents were a French lieutenant from the aristocracy and his courtesan lover whom he married. This unusual beginning for the young Aurore, as she was called, was to set the tone for her entire life.
She married at the age of 17 and had children, but unsatisfied with her role, she left her husband, built a successful career as a writer, and sued her husband to get her fortune back. She changed her name to George Sand and was known as a sensational novelist (she wrote 80 of them), memoirist, and socialist. In the 1830's and 1840's she was considered the most popular writer in Europe, being more popular than both Victor Hugo and Honore de Balzac! Known now as the woman who was Frederic Chopin’s lover, she wore men’s clothing, smoked cigars in public and took multiple lovers without apology. She actually started wearing pants when she was hired to review the theater and could get cheaper seats if she sat in the men’s section.

I have read several novels by the author, Elizabeth Berg, and historical fiction is a different venture for her. The amount of research that must have gone into this book is staggering. Using Sand's own words (taken from the author's memoirs) in writing this first-person narrative Berg authentically and aptly portrays the passion, despair, hopes, ambitions and other emotions Sand faced as a world-class author and social star. Born in an age where women were to be largely ignored, she pushed back at every type of constraint and was centuries ahead of her time in advocating suffrage and equality between the sexes. The underlying theme of the novel is of a woman in 19th century France attempting to live HER life on HER terms. She rejected the role that society set out for her:

"Tell me, George. Do you wish you'd been born a man?" ...
"In my youth, I wished that. ... But now I find I don't wish to be either man or woman. I wish to be myself. Why should men serve as judge and jury, deciding for us what can and cannot be done, what is our due? Why should they decide in advance of our deciding for ourselves what is best for us; why should they decide what IS us?"
"But then you do wish to be a man!"
"Perhaps I wish to be a woman with a man's privileges." pg 151

It seemed that most of her life Aurore/George was trying to find an elusive meaningful "one love." She kept on going from relationship to relationship, and one love affair after another with famous men and possibly a one-night lesbian affair, with an actress. I think anyone who loves anything to do with France and the Parisian artistic elite, especially during the 19th century, will enjoy the fascinating account of those relationships, with contemporaries such as Jules Sandeau, Franz Liszt, Gustav Flaubert, Honore de Balzac, Turgenev, Dumas, Delacroix, Musset, Didier, Marie Dorval, and of course with Frederic Chopin. But it wasn't until her later years that she finally found the peace she had searched for throughout her life. In the novel she becomes her own self at last, through sheer courage and determination.

I found this a fascinating book to read but also difficult because of the alternating timelines, 1831–1876 and 1804–1831. The frequent back-and-forth between the two periods was disruptive and disjointed. Eventually the periods connect and it becomes a more cohesive story, but I did not enjoy this format, thus 4 instead of 5 stars. Also, I found the judgmental relationship with Sand's daughter, Solange, as problematic. Oh, and I really don't like the title. But I really like this work, am glad I read it, and would love to discuss it with like-minded persons. The audio version is read by Emily Sutton-Smith and is absolutely wonderful.

Victor Hugo said this about George Sands upon her death: “George Sand was an 'idea.' She has been released from the flesh, and now is free. She is dead, and now is living.”

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed with this historical novel on the life of George Sand. I think Elizabeth Berg became so enraptured by Sand’s sexual exploits that she failed to see any other side of her. While Berg paints each affair as a great love and fills it with deep attachment and meaning for Sand, I think when a woman has that many attempts at “love” it is because she has not found it and is desperately searching. Of course, she labels Marie Dorval as her one and only true love, but there is no evidence that this is so. The person generally taken as her greatest love is Frederic Chopin, and he gets about three chapters toward the end that seem to skim over the relationship and make it seem no more significant than the insipid affair with Musset.

If this book is a true reflection of who George Sand really was, she was undeserving of the attention and praise she received in her lifetime. I have always found her intriguing and interesting, well, up to now. She assumed her pseudonym for the same reason many female writers of her time did...it was more likely she would be accepted as a man in the literary world. She began to dress as a man when she was employed by Le Figaro magazine to review the theater. While women were required to buy expensive box seats, men were allowed to stand in the cheaper section to watch the plays. She needed to see the play inexpensively. It was a way of achieving an end. The fact that she found herself accepted and treated differently when posing as a man caused her to enjoy and continue the practice.

I enjoyed the sections that dealt with Aurore’s childhood and the story of her parents’ fated love. I did not enjoy the way Berg switched between her childhood and her present. I found it abrupt and disorienting. I also felt that she failed to invest any personality into her characters, so that it seemed a bit too stand-offish to me. In fact, I could not help noticing passages such as this one:

During her visit, she and I got on famously, each of us deeply appreciative of the other not only for the ways in which we cared for Chopin but for each other’s beings. Something about our mutual regard restored Frederic’s spirits.

One moment he is “Chopin”, the next line he is “Frederic”. It was meant to be first person narrative, but it never felt that we were seeing things through her eyes. I think your lover, Chopin, would be Frederic to you, and Frederic to his sister...I could not see the logic in the switching back and forth, and that made those passages seem stilted and unnatural. This is only a small example of why I felt this book had no flow, but it is typical of what made it fraught with shortcomings for me.

[George Ilsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having encountered the incredible George Sand recently, in books and the movie Impromptu, I picked up this novel to learn more about her life. Unfortunately, this book failed to engage my interest — it felt like a hybrid of sorts between an unhappy biography and a half-baked novel, with long expository passages and a great deal of telling.

Ultimately, I found the whole thing boring and unfocused, and by the end felt l knew even less about the life of George Sand than I did at the beginning. The structure of this novel jumped back and forth and characters appeared and disappeared. The novel lacked a centre — a fascinating artist’s life was reduced to a series of episodes, and her romantic escapades a series of encounters. Chopin appears late in the day, and sticks around a bit, then he dies too and the book rushes past the next 20 or 25 more years in just a page or two.

Three stars rounded down, because when I'm bored and disappointed I get in a mood.

[*TUDOR^QUEEN* · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a work of epic proportions depicting the life of celebrated writer, George Sands. George Sands was the pen name for the French female novelist, Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin. In the 1800s women writers weren't respected or accepted, so Aurore adopted the "Sand" moniker.

The book danced back and forth between eras of Aurore's life. Sometimes this can make a book more interesting, but I found myself disoriented each time I took up the book to read again. Perhaps another reason for this was the French names of the many friends and lovers in Aurore's inner circle. It was hard to keep track of it all. However, this was a rich recounting of an extraordinary woman's life.

The driving force of the book was this woman's strength of character to be herself: a successful independent woman, in a time when men were in control. Aurore crossed the boundaries of sexual conventions with her plethora of lovers. She even had a deep abiding relationship with Frederic Chopin, the famous composer and pianist. One of the more riveting story threads in the book was her ardent and passionate relationship with entertainer Marie Duval; this was perhaps her most intense and true love relationship in the book. Another recurrent theme was Aurore's eternal quest for true love, for which she dabbled in the pool of many artists she encountered.

This book leads you on a historical journey through the origins of Aurore's life. Looming large in her life was her wealthy grandmother with her grand estate, Nohant. This was a cherished place of many memories, good and bad; a safe haven that Aurore came back to, oftentimes bringing her close friends and lovers to stay.

The writing style was superb. As I read each word, in my mind I imagined reading it aloud, those hearing it receiving it as beautiful poetry. The words just flowed naturally and brilliantly.

Despite its moments of brilliance, I felt the book was too long and arduous. It could have been edited down a bit more. It seemed as though the book would never end, and I stopped reading it periodically to read other books. It was almost 400 pages, but actually seemed longer.

[Alissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've held off on making comments because I usually enjoy Elizabeth Berg's books and feel *bad* giving a poor review (because, you know, she's, like, trolling GoodReads and once she sees my review she'll cry a single tear). They're fun. They're sweet. They're quick reads.

I don't blame her for wanting to try something different, but with this book, she forgot to show instead of tell. I couldn't even get through it. And it's such a shame because this is a good story; instead, Berg just tells you about the things that happen to this person, and even though it's a first-person narrative, it feels so dissociated that I can't help but think the author was dissociated while writing it. Something of her own warmth and humor would have lent well to this story.

[RoseMary Achey · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are looking for something to replace your Ambien, pick up this book. I can't say this book fell flat as that implies there was some height to fall from.

It chronicles the life of French author George Sand and her many, many affairs and love interests. George Sand (Aurore Dupin) was ahead of her time with respect to both her writing and lifestyle but this fictionalized account of her life was sooooo boring!

[Trish · Rating 2 out of 5]

George Sand led an unusual life worthy of biography, or of a novel with her as centerpiece. Berg had excellent instincts when she centered in on Aurore Dupin, alias George Sand, the 19th century bestselling author living in France.

Sand, half-in half-out of high society, had two children with an older man “she was married off to” and did not love. She met a much younger man and fell in lust. She moved with her lover to Paris where they collaborated on novels while she honed her writing skills as a journalist. She dressed as a man to be allowed to report without incident and found she liked the attire and the feeling of power she got by wearing pants. She fell for a beautiful and fickle actress, Marie Doval, then took a series of male lovers, some of them famous musicians and poets of the time, fitting in visits to her children occasionally.

Sand's many novels sold well, and judging from how many times she is told, in this novel at least, that she is a "genius," she may have come to believe that. In this novel I found her an unsympathetic character, though undoubtedly her selfishness sustained her art. This novel did encourage me to order the André Maurois biography of Sand, called Lelia: The Life of George Sand and Sand's novel also called Lélia, just to see why we still remember her.

Berg might have written a fast-paced, thrilling fiction featuring a cross-dressing bisexual 19th century heroine that would feel completely fresh and welcome today but she hewed so closely to Sand’s style and story that the effort unfortunately died in her hands. As a girl reading the greats from earlier days, I never liked George Sand, but I admit to being curious about her life.

Berg uses as back-and-forth flashback-by-chapter structure which felt jarring at first but became second nature by the middle of the narrative. The distance between Sand's early life and her later life got shorter as the tale progressed, and truthfully I could not see what purpose the to-and-fro'ing served except perhaps Berg thought the latter half of Sand's life was the more interesting and she could force us, through flashbacks, to take our medicine and consider her earlier life. The truth is that neither section of her life had much "life." It all felt well and truly done-before-we-got-there.

I should probably admit at this point that I was thinking George Eliot when I signed up to read this book.

[Sara the Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if this was the most deadly boring book I've ever read or if George Sand herself is the problem. This book read like a never ending shopping list of George's various lovers all of whom share the same exact attributes; whiney, effeminate, rage filled, hypochondriacal artists who she takes care of before they break up in spectacular fashion and by spectacular I mean they write lots of letters about the true nature of love and cry. Her various trysts are broken up by equally riveting descriptions of her estate and various apartments, the amazing dinners she has with her witty friends and how amazing everyone thinks her books are.

The strange decision to structure the book with chapters devoted to the present day and then to childhood memories served only to cause utter confusion when the plot finally caught up with itself.

There's no passion here, in what should arguably be the most passionate story on earth, no sense of the driving obsession George supposedly had to find true connection with another person. All I see here is dry, derivative, boring words, words, words. And since it's all told in George's POV the reader is left feeling like she's not that interested in her life either!

This book would simply not end. Even when she's dead she won't stop talking about her superior perspectives on music, love, art, literature and politics oh and did she mention all the famous people who thinks she amazing? Because they do. Think she's amazing.

For a person with such a high opinion of her own views of the world George comes across as the least self aware person on earth. Despite periodically abandoning her children throughout their lives to live her beloved bohemian life she's at a loss to understand why daughter she describes as heartless and horrible doesn't want her around as an adult. Despite seeing first hand how wretchedly her lower class mother is treated by George's wealthy grandmother she doesn't get why mom seems so disappointed in her once she's rich and famous.

Was that the point? Is the reader meant to realize that George is little more than a pretentious poseur content to exposit with her other high minded compatriots about how much more spiritually elevated they are then everyone else while remaining utterly out of touch with the actual people getting their hands dirty trying to change the world?

No I think this was just really, really boring.

The two stars are because I admire a woman who thus far remains the only true life example of "ahead of her time" that I can actually get behind and because Elizabeth Berg does know how to construct a sentence just not a very exciting one.

[♥ Sandi ❣]

I am not rating this book. I was unable to finish it. As much as I like Elizabeth Berg, I dislike authors using a foreign language throughout their novels. This one is filled with French names, French cities, French, French, French. I was barely getting a feel for George Sands and who she was and the French names, accents and interpretations just got in the way. Not sure that I would like reading the book any better than listening to the audio, so sadly ending this as a DNF.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent historical fiction/ biography of George Sand. I'm assuming an enormous amount of research was done to turn out this book. Elizabeth Berg is brilliant.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This historical romance, set mostly in the first part of the 19th century, is filled with substance which makes this book interesting.

Aurore Dupin, pen name George Sand, is a descendant of Augustus II, King of Poland. She is not happy in her marriage. She moves to Paris, where she craves freedom and ability to express herself. “I wanted to immerse myself in a life of writing, the life of an artist. I wanted to be like the bohemians, who cared nothing for the opinions of others.”

After her first publishing rejection, she finds hope with Henri Latouche, who recognizes her raw talent and guides her toward success. Her first romantic affair with another writer Jules Sandeau influences her writing, even though down the line she becomes a much greater success than him.

As her romances continue, the story loses its essence for short moments. But as it is intertwined with her childhood story it continues to hold pretty well, revealing how her childhood and her relationship with her mother shaped her.

At the time, when she finally finds “satisfying happiness of work, friendship, and family,” she meets Frederic Chopin, Polish composer. Her country house becomes an inspiration for many more of his “mazurkas, polonaises, preludes, and waltzes.”

As George Sand tells her own story in her own words and intertwines her affairs with her childhood story, it comes together beautifully at the right time. The author portrays well another author, bringing her pain in unhappy marriage, her pain in many unfulfilled romances, her pain in struggling to write at some point, her progressive thinking from a young naïve girl to a grown up woman, her pain in dealing with ups and downs of life including her own well-being – not always able to get solace from nature or reading or whatever makes one happy.

I don’t agree with the claim that “Paris in the 19th century comes vividly alive.” There is a mention of political situation at the beginning and at the end of the story, and that is it. The friends and lovers of George Sand, who are artists, do not bring the atmosphere of artistic Paris, if that’s what this author was trying to do.

There is mention of Victor Hugo in this story and that’s it. He doesn’t play any role here. Then why even mention his name on the leaflet? Disappointing. As his name and Chopin’s name attracted me to this story.

Overall, well-written, for most of the part interesting. I didn’t care for graphic descriptions.

@FB/BestHistoricalFiction
@https://bestinhistoricalfiction.blogs...

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s amazing how interesting an author who’s seldom read in modern times can be so fascinating. Aurore Dudevant aka Georges Sand seems to have lived many lives. Born to a prostitute turned respectable matron married to an affluent soldier Sand felt torn between the two backgrounds. She was passionate yet down to earth. She liked fine things but was willing to forego them in order to claim her freedom. She lived a rich inner life but at times attempted to appear conventional. And she wrote. She wrote all her life and told stories to anyone who would listen. She also loved deeply and often both men and at least one woman. It’s hard to picture a woman, then or now, who abandons her children for large blocks of time in order to live an artist’s life in Paris.

I was interested in all her love affairs but spent much of the book waiting to read about her relationship with Chopin and it was worth the wait. I can’t imagine the courage it would took in the 18th century to walk the city in men’s clothes and sit in cafes debating plays, art, and literature with a crowd of literary and artistic men. She must have felt free and in charge of her own destiny. The dark side of her life was missing her kids and second guessing her choice to be away from them all the while feeling compelled to write through the night. An interesting and enjoyable book.


Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC.

[Mauoijenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man. I wish this was as good as I hoped it would have been. I found this a CHORE to finish this. I lost interest a little before half way through it. I suggested this book to my book club, but I will be retracting that suggestion as I don't think this would be a good choice. Just not that good. :/

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to try author since Goodreads was recommending her work to me, but when I checked it out I found I had already tried and abandoned this...without making note of it. I read through this book rather quickly - too emotional for me. It went back and forth between time periods, but even that did not interest me.

[Karen R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read several books by Elizabeth Berg and enjoy her writing style. The author takes a chance here and veers off on a path of historical fiction, and is successful. This is an engaging novel of a gifted and trailblazing woman in history. Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin aka George Sand, is a French novelist and memoirist, one of the most famous of her time. Raised for the most part by her grandmother in the countryside, she married at 18, divorced in her twenties and then began a period of romantic rebellion, having a number of affairs with prominent men in the Arts. Her reputation came into question when her unorthodox and scandalous lifestyle defied the rules of appropriate behavior of women of that time. Her actions prompted a lot of well-deserved speculation. This is a book worth reading, one that captures the times and George Sand expertly.

[Jenny Q · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giveaway @ Let Them Read Books!

I was eagerly anticipating this novel of groundbreaking French author George Sand's life. I confess I did not know much about her beforehand, other than that she was a famous writer and that she had a relationship with Frederic Chopin, one of my favorite composers. I've been on a roll lately with good fiction about women in history, and so I couldn't wait to dig in.

The story begins as an older and ailing George reflects on her life, and then takes us back to alternating scenes from her childhood and the years when she strikes out for Paris on her own after leaving her husband. Aurore, as she was known in the beginning, is a sympathetic woman, one who survived a "poor little rich girl" upbringing and an unhappy marriage to find the courage to seize opportunity and make her own dreams come true. She is fortunate in that she finds success very early on, and this paves the way for her to command her own destiny and live her life on her own terms, which included dressing as a man for the freedom and simplicity of the clothing, smoking cigars, sitting at the "men's table" with various stars of the literary and art scene in Paris, running her beloved country estate, dictating how her children were to be raised and educated, and seeking affection from a multitude of lovers.

Elizabeth Berg is a new author for me, and I am wary of reading "literary" novels as I often find them dry and lacking in emotional connection. (I suppose I'm one of those unsophisticated readers George and her writer friends lamented upon.) However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover this novel so very readable. I was immediately drawn into the story, and I thought this was sure to be at least a four-star read. But about halfway through, that happy feeling began to fade. There's only so much I can take of a protagonist repeating the same mistakes and never learning from them. Perhaps it would not have been so off-putting if there had been some differentiation, but they all follow the same pattern: She meets someone new, flies high, falls hard, turns into more of a mother than a lover, puts up with mistreatment when things go sour, becomes depressed when the affair ends, contemplates suicide, pulls herself back up into the world of the living, and then does it all over again when someone new comes along. I confess I grew tired of this behavior and started skimming.

The back and forth in time presentation of her life story worked very well for me until the distance separating the two timelines narrowed. At that point, the past and present mirrored each other so much that I sometimes forgot which timeline I was in, and I began confusing her lovers. And I also found the presentation of them to be uneven. She spends so many years seeking a perfect love, wasting years and tears on men unworthy of her, and some of her lovers and affairs are detailed over the course of many pages, yet when she finally meets the man who would give her what she'd always longed for--and for fifteen years, at that--he gets ONE paragraph. I wanted to see her happiness after so many years of misery. I wanted to see her enjoying what she had so long sought. And I found that frustrating after so much of her life--and this book--was devoted to her pursuit of that love.

The main focus of this examination of her life seems to be her love affairs. She is depicted as a woman desperate for true love, and with enough freedom to pursue it. At first I found her lifestyle to be romantic and free-spirited, but as the story neared its conclusion, I found myself wishing other aspects of her life had been given more weight. I would have liked more emphasis on her writing and her political beliefs. George was a supporter of the 1848 revolution, and she even started her own periodical during the time to publish like-minded pieces, but we don't actually get much of an idea of what her beliefs were. And though she published eighty novels over the course of her life, we only see her working on half a dozen of them in this portrayal.

So while I would say that, in the end, I found The Dream Lover to be a rather uneven tale of George Sand's life, and a bit less satisfying than I'd hoped, there is still much to recommend it. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, watching Aurore grow up to become George, finding success as an author and shaping her own future. George was friends with all of the renowned writers and artists of the time period, and reading about their little circle was fascinating. I also very much appreciated the snippets of George's writing interspersed throughout. She was a smart, enlightened, talented woman with a deep capacity for compassion and generosity. In many ways, she was a woman ahead of her time, and one well worth reading about.

[Donna Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, a novelized version of the life of author George Sands, is not Ms. Berg’s usual genre. The story was interesting, but I missed the immersive “I am the character” quality that I love in Ms. Berg’s writing.