George Sand’s fictionalised account of her notorious affair with the poet Alfred de Musset caused a sensation on its publication two years after his death, in 1859. It also prompted a volley of claim and counter-claim: two more novels rapidly appeared in the following months, Lui Et Elle, by Musset’s brother, defending his reputation; and Lui, by Louise Colet, Flaubert’s former mistress and briefly Musset’s. Then the journalists and commentators of the day joined in, with Eux, by Gaston Lavalley, and Eux Et Elles, by Adolphe de Lescure, satirising the whole sordid business. AUTHOR: Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin 1804
1876), best known by her pen name George Sand was a novelist, memoirist, and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime being more renowned than both Victor Hugo and Honore de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. In 1880 her children sold the rights to her literary estate for 125,000 Francs ( equivalent to 36 kg worth of gold, or 1.3 million dollars in 2015). During her lifetime her novels set in the French countryside were her most popular works.