Becoming George: the Invention of George Sand.

The 2026 Oxford Literary Festival is in full swing and as usual there are hard choices to make between tempting events that annoyingly clash. I decided to go to this one about George Sand as I have long been fascinated by this celebrated French 19th century authoress.

Chaired by Lucy Atkins, the event brought together two scholars who are researching her anew. Poet and biographer Fiona Sampson discussed her new biography, Becoming George: the Invention of George Sand.  In this she traces how the girl born Aurore Dupin became first Mme Casimir Dudevant and then "George Sand" the professional novelist, author of Indiana, Lelia and La Mare au Diable, works whose success brought her fame, financial independence and considerable scandal. Sampson lamented that Sand is better known in England for her daring lifestyle and her numerous love affairs (with the artist Millet, the poet Alfred de Musset and the composer Chopin) than for her own books.

The other author was writer and academic Professor Lara Feigel, who has included Sand in her book Custody: The Secret History of Mothers, a study of legal battles fought by famous women writers for the custody of their children. It features Caroline Norton, Mary Shelley and Edna O'Brien. She admits that Sand was not in every way a perfect mother, and taking her 12-year-old daughter on a 3,000 kilometre trek across the Pyrenees on horseback was not everyone's idea of a holiday.

Sampson has been shortlisted twice for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Forward Prizes. She is a critic and editor and regular contributor to the Guardian, Irish Times, Sunday Times, Independent and the Times Literary Supplement.

Feigel is professor of modern literature and culture at King’s College London and author of works of non-fiction, including The Bitter Taste of Victory and Free Woman, and of a novel, The Group.

 This attention to George Sand is most welcome and I hope it will stimulate some new translations of her novels into English, as they remain of great interest.