Where Marcelle Has the Wrong Boyfriend

The Miller of Angibault by George Sand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like George Sand, and this is a very readable, pleasant novel, though it's probably more like a 3.5 to me.

The main character, Marcelle, is likable, and I'm rooting for her; and the title character, the miller, is pretty cool--though they don't end up together. And that's kinda the problem. Marcelle, a rich noblewoman who lost her husband and is finding their finances in a shambles, is in love with a man, Lemor, who despises money, like a good socialist (apparently) and she still has too much of it. He's so annoying and foolish and unbelievable that I thought sure the author would reveal that to Marcelle, but nope. She still likes him to the end. The notion that he couldn't marry her because she was too well off is just so... well, it's stupid. Just stupid. He's an idiot. The two of them are happier that all their money in the world burns up (oops--that's a spoiler) in a fire than if they'd been able to use it for anything at all.

Who thinks like this? Can you give some to charities and put some in an account for when your child grows up? Help out your neighbors, maybe? Can't you think of anything positive to do with money? Do you think it's the *money's* fault that France's upper class are out of touch?

Despite that annoying aspect to the story, it's mostly pretty entertaining, a decent read, with several other interesting and strange characters. Marcelle is inspecting her remaining property, trying to figure out a new life as a regular, semi-poor person, and because she's so kind she makes lots of good friends who look out for her. I enjoyed that aspect.

I felt 3.5 about the whole novel, but I like the author and want to do her a solid--so it's a 4 from me, dawg.

Modestly recommended.

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Where We Dig the Secrets out of the Snow

The snow man by George Sand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this novel, and I may have some criticisms, but I thought it did all that it should do. 5 stars.

I have only read one other book by George Sand, and I liked it some. I expected about the same, but this was a lot more to my liking. Set in 18th century Sweden, in a remote manor, it's not the Paris I was expecting. The main character is a likable twenty-something man raised in Italy by his adopted parents, and he has a lot of questions about his past. He's made his own way in the world in a variety of ways, but when the story opens is providing for himself with a puppet theater, and he's scheduled to perform at the manor. Like many such novels, he starts to discover clues to secrets and mysteries in the snowed-in nobleman's retreat, and some of the clues seem to point to his own past.

This could have been a Sir Walter Scott novel, which is my usual yardstick. If you had switched covers, you could easily have fooled me. The historical setting; the very powerful sense of place; the family secrets coming to light; the importance of lawyers and documents and courts; the men and women of honor facing powerful enemies; the positive contributions of minor characters, especially servants and the lowest class of workers; and the feeling of destiny hanging over the whole thing. That's Scott all over. Oh, and like many Scott novels, it's got a real Gothic vibe, with a partly ruined manor across the frozen lake from the new manor with secret rooms and maybe ghosts, and I love it.

(BTW: there are many differences between this and Scott's novels, and I could probably summon a paragraph describing them, but let's just pretend I went to all that trouble. Clearly Sand is her own writer, not a mere imitator, with her own style, and I'm enjoying it.)

Though there's plenty of action here, both of the novel-of-manners type (rich people in drawing rooms type of stuff) as well as the physical kind, including bear hunts, sleigh crashes, and fighting, it isn't packed. Like so many 19th century novels, are long stretches of exposition that modern novels tend not to include, and if you're used to that and expect it, it's all good. (I am. I do. It was.) For example, Christian recounting his life's story to the lawyer, M Goefle, takes a lot of pages. (I counted. About 80. Is that a lot?) It's fine in context, but would be weird in a modern bestseller.

There's a lot of great characters. The rotten earl hosting the Christmas party is a very bad guy and his henchmen are quite dangerous. The good guy has a bunch of people on his side from all walks of life, people ready to lend a hand, and he has a great love interest. The kindly lawyer who becomes Christian's biggest support is really cool, kinda old but up for a lark. And the seeress who hints at solutions to all the secrets is fun (and another nod to Scott). Nice cast.

And I liked the ending.

As always, if this is your thing, you'll like it, and if it isn't, you won't. I liked it. I'm eager for more George Sand, and hope she has more like this.

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Where the Lady and the Painter Fall in Love

Antonia by George Sand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my introduction to George Sand, and I enjoyed it very much. I bought a small collection of 1898 Sand novels that started their life in a public library in Nebraska (last checked out in 1975--the card is still in it), and they are somewhat fragile but still hanging in there. I have six more such novels waiting for me, and that feels like riches.

This is the story of the Countess d'Estrelle--Julie--a widowed woman left in debt by her husband, who is facing all kinds of pressure by her friends in high society to live a certain way while being threatened by her creditors. Her father-in-law's second wife is in both categories, and she is a pure villain who will not lift a finger to help her with the debts her stepson left her with. Everyone is so invested in Julie's marrying some rich aristocrat, including her friends, that they bring every kind of pressure to bear against her. M. Antoine, her solicitor's rich old uncle, buys up her debt to use it against her, mostly to make her marry him, though he loves no one and doesn't seem to want anything from her except her humility. He works with her cruel mother-in-law at one point to force her to do what they both want.

This is complicated by a love story. A young painter who lives on the property beside Julie's home, adjacent to her garden, is in love with her. His mother (also a widow, also left in debt by her husband, and also from an aristocratic background) becomes friends with her and visits her in her garden, but the young man--Julien--cannot be friendly with the widow and visit the garden because he is a man and like his father is working class. Still, he sees her in the garden sometimes through the blinds in the room where he paints, and inevitably they meet and really fall in love. It's a very nice love story, in parts.

But wow, the conspiracies against them... The rich old man, the solicitor's uncle, is also Julien's uncle, and he suspects they are in love and he will do anything to keep them apart. In the end, he arranges matters so that Julien and his mother will be supported in the nice home they used to live in and Julie will have her debts paid and be allowed to keep her home (hotel in the novel), as long as they don't meet again and never try to marry. If either breaks the agreement, all lose and end in poverty. Nobody wants to be responsible for ruining the lives of the others, especially hurting Julien's old mother, so they agree to it.

If this were the end, I would kinda hate it, but it's not a horrible sad ending (spoiler--sorry). Ultimately, the rotten old uncle gives in when both Julien's mother and Countess d'Estrelle, independently, kneel for him to ask his pardon for ridiculous imagined slights. Once he has that, he's willing to let everyone have a happy life. Yay!

I haven't researched this, but since it takes place just before the French Revolution, it feels like M. Antoine is deliberately made to represent the wealthy bourgeoisie who resent the old (often debt-ridden) nobility and want to take them down a peg--I'm as good as you!--but I don't know if the author wants it read as allegory. For certain, the ridiculous belief, so deeply held it was encoded into law, that the nobility were not to marry someone from the low classes, that they were innately different, innately superior to them, is mocked here. (I think that's awesome.) Julie and Julien are the best characters in the story, both of them selfless and virtuous, and they deserve each other.

The story is not very long, which I like, but it also has very few characters, which is less fun. Most scenes include only two people, sometimes three; there are no balls or parties in the story, and except one scene with maybe five characters meeting up it feels very lonely. I wonder if it could be staged as a play... Actually, yeah, it would be pretty simple to do that. Maybe it started that way. Hmmmm.

Despite missing the sights and sounds of dinners or big social events (as we might find in Jane Austen, I mean), I enjoyed this a lot, and I'm eager to see what the other novels on my shelf turn out to be like.

Recommended for readers of 19th century novels.

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