George Sand: True Genius, True Woman
Words by Séverine Vidal
Art by Kim Consigny
Translated by Edward Gauvin
Paperback with flaps, 344 pp, $22.99
A scrupulously researched and tenderly revealing biography of one of the great pioneering figures of 19th-century French literature. Born in 1804 – at a time when women were deprived of their civil rights (along with minors, criminals, and the insane) – Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin grew up to defy those norms, both in her life and her writing. Adopting the pen-name George Sand, and in a career lasting over forty years as a novelist and playwright, she is best remembered today for the affairs and friendships she enjoyed with men: the composer Chopin; the painter Delacroix; the novelist Balzac.
But this moving biographical portrait, written by Séverine Vidal and illustrated by Kim Consigny, restores her to the centre-stage she always commanded in her lifetime. Not just as the daring, scandalously cross-dressing, bisexual, cigarette-smoking divorcée novelist, but as the brilliant chronicler of her changing time – and therefore of ours.
But this moving biographical portrait, written by Séverine Vidal and illustrated by Kim Consigny, restores her to the centre-stage she always commanded in her lifetime. Not just as the daring, scandalously cross-dressing, bisexual, cigarette-smoking divorcée novelist, but as the brilliant chronicler of her changing time – and therefore of ours.
Kim Consigny
Kim Consigny was born in 1991 in the south of France, and qualified as an architect there in 2015, but has increasingly devoted herself since to a full-time celebrated career in illustration, including a long-standing collaboration with Séverine Vidal.
Séverine Vidal
Séverine Vidal was born in 1969. She lives in Gironde in the South of France, and has worked as a full-time writer for over ten years. A prizewinning author of Children’s and Young Adult fiction, her debut online work, A Tale Off the Top of My Head, illustrated by Claire Fauchet (2012), was described as an “outstanding” work of “poetic writing”.
Reviews
"George Sand is an intimate primer on a literary iconoclast... At least today everyone can wear trousers."
— The Slings and Arrows
"What’s most significant here is just how contemporaneous and readable modern audiences will find this true story. The subject and narrative are a treat for fans of racy modern bodice ripper dramas like Bridgerton or Succession – with a healthy helping of Les Misérables seasoning the mix."
— Comics Review
"I like the careful way Sand’s cross-dressing is depicted, a mode she slips into mostly as a means of securing anonymity... Released from her whalebone corsets, a slim cigar between her lips, our heroine is able publicly to tease men for their pieties and pomposities. If this is an impersonation, it is not of a man, but of the woman she wants to be, and will very shortly become."
— The Guardian