Indiana by George Sand

Aug 28, 2017 BrokenTune rated it it was ok

Shelves: reviewed

‘You’ve been unbelievably imprudent!’ said Raymon, carefully closing the door behind him. ‘And my servants know you’re here! They’ve just told me.’
‘I made no secret of my presence,’ she replied coldly, ‘and, as for the word you use, I think it ill-chosen.’
‘I said imprudent; I ought to have said insane.’
‘I would have said courageous. But it doesn’t matter.'

No, no, it does matter, and I would like to get back to using the word insane. This novel was insane. Seriously, there was nothing sane amidst ‘You’ve been unbelievably imprudent!’ said Raymon, carefully closing the door behind him. ‘And my servants know you’re here! They’ve just told me.’
‘I made no secret of my presence,’ she replied coldly, ‘and, as for the word you use, I think it ill-chosen.’
‘I said imprudent; I ought to have said insane.’
‘I would have said courageous. But it doesn’t matter.'

No, no, it does matter, and I would like to get back to using the word insane. This novel was insane. Seriously, there was nothing sane amidst the high drama in this story. There was no sane person among the characters in this story. All of whom deserved to be slapped repeatedly by the way.

At some point when reading this I asked whether Sand wrote this as satire, but apparently she did not. This was, apparently, an earnest attempt at a story and at characters.

I am really torn about this book, because I can't decide whether I liked it: plot, characters, and style, were all over the place. There were inconceivable and weird turns, there were high dramatics, there were tantrums, there was a lot of sentimentality.

And, yet, at no point did I want to set the book aside. At no point did I want to DNF this.

I guess this is because the plot was so incredibly packed with moments that astonished me, that I just had to watch this train wreck of a novel until the end.

And what an end this was!
(view spoiler)

I guess I should have written about how Indiana is Sand making a stand for women's rights, and the emancipation of women as individuals who are equal under law, and the general struggle of individuals of both sexes against the social constrictions of her time, but, oh boy, that would mean that I would have to take Indiana serious as a novel.
And that I just cannot do.

For all the courage, sass, and modernism that Sand stands for, I have to separate the author from this particular book.
This particular book was insane! ...more

flag 34 likes · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2014 Duane rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed-books, 2015-book-challenge, french, rated-books

.This was the first novel of Amantine Aurore Dupin, better known in the literary world as George Sand. It is the story of Indiana, a young French Creole girl who grew up on the Isle of Bourbon, known today as Reunion. She is married to an older French nobleman and living in Paris. The plot revolves around her unhappy marriage, her love for a handsome young neighbor, and her friendship with Ralph, her loyal cousin and protector. The themes of the novel touch on adultery, unfulfilled love, and cla ...more

flag 29 likes · Like · see review

Jun 08, 2016 Gabrielle Dubois rated it it was amazing

Shelves: female-authors, 19th-century

In her two prefaces, that of 1832, when Indiana first released ― George Sand was 28―, and that of 1848, when it was republished, she explains why and how she wrote this novel. She had already a great experience of life, for such a young woman, at the beginning of the 19th century, and above all, she a luminous intelligence.

"I wrote Indiana, I had to write Indiana (…) Is the cause I was defending so small? It is that of half of the human race, it is that of the entire human race; for the woe of w In her two prefaces, that of 1832, when Indiana first released ― George Sand was 28―, and that of 1848, when it was republished, she explains why and how she wrote this novel. She had already a great experience of life, for such a young woman, at the beginning of the 19th century, and above all, she a luminous intelligence.

"I wrote Indiana, I had to write Indiana (…) Is the cause I was defending so small? It is that of half of the human race, it is that of the entire human race; for the woe of women leads to that of men, as that of the slaves leads to that of the masters, and I tried to show it in Indiana. It has been said that it was an individual cause that I pleaded; as if I had been the only unfortunate human being in this peaceful and radiant humanity! Enough cries of pain and sympathy responded to mine so that I now know about the supreme bliss of others.
(...) I wrote Indiana with the unreasoned feeling, it is true, but deep and legitimate, of the injustice and barbarity of the laws that still govern the existence of the woman in marriage, in the family and the society. I did not have to make a treatise on jurisprudence, but to wage war against public opinion; because it is she who delays or prepares social improvements. The war will be long and hard; but I am neither the first, nor the only, nor the last champion of such a beautiful cause, and I will defend it as long as I have a breath of life left."

George Sand was full of strength and sincerity when she described "the ill-established relationship between men and women, by the fact of society." She only did her job as a storyteller by telling the truth about the society of her time that put the woman below all else.

Yet, the character of Indiana, the woman, is very miserable: it will take many years for this young innocent woman, uneducated, unloved, to understand the men around her and to understand herself. She will deliver, throughout the novel, an exhausting struggle against the society that denies her being a woman, but who wants to make her an angel while she is a human being made of flesh, blood and heart.
The husband, who represents the legitimacy, the law, is as blind as she is. Oh, he doesn’t have the best part!
The lover, the tempter, the society gave him the illusion that the world was there only to please him, that luxuriousness were there only to be seized by his white and soft hand, that women were there only to satisfy the pleasure of men like him. Why would he seek to change this society that fills him with his benefits?
As for the good man, he is easily recognizable: he is the one who does not seek to look bright in society, the one who forgets himself for the benefit of others.

Yes, you can read Indiana for its advocacy for women's freedom, to know History through this story, or simply to read a good and beautiful story. But when you have read Indiana so, you will come back to it to impregnate yourself with George Sand’s knowledge of the world, deep understanding of men and women’s soul, and the great intelligence that she puts at your fingertips in a clear, simple, bright and attaching style.
...more

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Jul 17, 2016 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world, read2016, location-france, ebooks, africa2016, location-reunion-island

I only read this book because it is set on Reunion Island off the east coast of Madagascar, wanting to read as many books set as many places in Africa as I cross countries and occupied territories off of my list. Technically Reunion is part of France, but isn't anywhere near it.

I know of George Sand from her relationship with Chopin, but this is the first book I have read by her.
It is the story of a "Creole" woman (the older version of the word, meaning anyone born in the islands, no matter thei I only read this book because it is set on Reunion Island off the east coast of Madagascar, wanting to read as many books set as many places in Africa as I cross countries and occupied territories off of my list. Technically Reunion is part of France, but isn't anywhere near it.

I know of George Sand from her relationship with Chopin, but this is the first book I have read by her.
It is the story of a "Creole" woman (the older version of the word, meaning anyone born in the islands, no matter their ethnicity. She marries a much older man, one who is commanding but she does not love. Most of the novel takes place around the July Revolution (1830) in France, events that lead to the loss of some of his financial stability. This along with her friend's death and her discovered love affair inspires him to move them back to Reunion. So half the novel takes place in gloomy France, and the second half takes place in Reunion.

The landscape of Reunion becomes important in the story (just do a Google image search for Bernica, so beautiful!) Indiana's cousin Sir Ralph helped raise her during her childhood on the island, has accompanied her to France when she gets married, and returns with them to the island. This becomes very important because while it is obvious to the reader, it is not obvious to Indiana that he has been pining for her.

The man she has the love affair with causes all sorts of dramatic problems (to be expected, considering the era), but it was frustrating that even with the death of her friend, she still feels entitled to this relationship.

Most of the dramatic moments in the book take place through angst-ridden letters or long declarative speeches. Not my favorite thing.

Also entwined in this novel is commentary on women and their place in society, how they have no control over their own lives, but Sand fights back a bit. In passages like this, Indiana reasserts the right to her personhood. Most of what I marked are versions of this sentiment:

"‘I know I’m the slave and you’re the lord. The law of the land has made you my master. You can tie up my body, bind my hands, control my actions. You have the right of the stronger, and society confirms you in it. But over my will, Monsieur, you have no power. God alone can bend and subdue it. So look for a law, a dungeon, an instrument of torture that gives you a hold over me! It’s as if you wanted to touch the air and grasp space.’"

And she does prove exactly how much will she has by following the direction of another man in the end. Yeah. Spoiler alert.
...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

May 24, 2018 Celia rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-read, classics, 2018-caz, states, bookshout

Indiana, was the first published solo novel written by Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, whose adopted pen name starting with this book was George Sand.

I had never read a book written by this author, so chose for my first, Indiana, the United State in which I was born.

Indiana is the name of the story's heroine. She is married to a man much older than she in a loveless marriage. Other characters are her maid, Noun (isn't that a neat name?), Ralph Brown, her cousin, and Ramon de Ramiere, a dandy who ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Jul 20, 2012 Shannon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm currently in the final stages of writing a dissertation, so there's a chance I might be projecting my own mental state onto George Sand. But, reading Indiana, I constantly felt like she had something important to say that wasn't fully making its way into the text. The back cover of my copy promises "a powerful plea for change in the inequitable French marriage laws of the time", and it isn't that. It's something much more ambitious and subtle.

The important thing George Sand knows is somethi I'm currently in the final stages of writing a dissertation, so there's a chance I might be projecting my own mental state onto George Sand. But, reading Indiana, I constantly felt like she had something important to say that wasn't fully making its way into the text. The back cover of my copy promises "a powerful plea for change in the inequitable French marriage laws of the time", and it isn't that. It's something much more ambitious and subtle.

The important thing George Sand knows is something about Indiana herself, and the conditions of her life and personality that make her particularly vulnerable to the type of love offered by Raymon de Ramiere. It's also something about the form her love takes -- a constant struggle between the desire to sacrifice and the desire to fight back. I think part of the problem might be in the balance between the two impulses. The moments of rebellion are important and deserve more weight than they get in the novel. I wanted to know more about Indiana's inner life, and about what the struggle is like for her.

Instead, Sand's clearest vision is turned on Raymon, who was my favorite part of the book in spite of the fact that he's unremittingly terrible. As I was reading, I kept thinking that he's like a train wreck, except that turns out to be an insufficient metaphor because a train wreck is usually a one-time event. Raymon just keeps happening to people. His selfishness and stupidity repeatedly combine to put him in the most absurd situations, which would almost be funny if they weren't so tragic for everyone else involved.

Next to Raymon and his capacity for creating disaster, Sir Ralph and Indiana's husband seem almost nonexistent, which makes the novel's ending difficult to accept. Sand's problem, I think, is that there's no realistically good ending for Indiana, and the outlines of her character are too vague to support anything very melodramatic. I'm interested to read her later novels, though, and see if she comes back at the problem from a different angle. ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Sep 22, 2016 Leni Iversen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Spent the first half of this book increasingly disgusted with the plot and the characters. I didn't care what happened to them. I also wondered if it read better in French. The dialogue especially seemed odd to me. (For clarification, I am used to reading 19th century novels, but I am mainly used to reading English ones.)

I kept reading mainly because I needed the book for a challenge, and because I was intrigued by the glimpses into French culture during the Bourbon Restoration. Then when I star ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2011 Edita rated it really liked it

There are moments of exaltation and ecstasy when our thoughts become, in a way, more pure, more subtle, more ethereal. These rare moments raise us up so high, carry us so far out of ourselves, that when we fall back to earth we lose the consciousness and the memory of that intellectual intoxication. Who can understand the anchorite’s mysterious visions? Who can relate the dreams of the poet before his emotion has cooled so that he can write them down for us?

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Sep 18, 2015 Mary Eve rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: on-my-kindle, 2015-book-challenge, historical-fiction, euro-brit-lit, classics, i-m-in-the-mood-for-love

What a horribly tragic tale! Damn you, George Sand!!

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2019 Fariba rated it it was ok

Contrary to popular opinion the most melodramatic romance ever written is not Madame Bovary, but Indiana by George Sand. What did I just read?! My feelings in emoji:
1)🤔
2)😟
3)😩
4)😬
5)😒
6)🤮
7)😒

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Apr 04, 2013 Lizzie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed, library, public-domain-or-creative-commons, in-translation, unpopular-opinions, 2013, 500-gbbw

Wow this was a disappointment.

I disliked this so much, I thought for a while that I was going to one-star it. But, somewhere there is some benefit of the doubt for it. (Plus, I've still only ever one-starred one book, and that seems a stern record to break.)

This book is melodrama city and I did not like it. This is melodrama like origin-of-the-word melodrama: no realism, immobile characters, senseless actions with huge consequences, lots of fainting and suicide. I wasn't expecting it, for one th ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Oct 03, 2014 Dara Salley rated it liked it

I picked up this book at a library book sale because I recognized the author’s name. I know of George Sand because of the 1991 movie “Impromptu” starring Hugh Grant. From that (historically dubious) movie I learned that Sand was a pre-feminist feminist, who in the 1800’s wore pants and had an affair with Chopin. That was enough to pique my interest. It was a good instinct, because “Indiana” is a passionate feminist treaty, wrapped up in a gothic romance. Indiana herself is a typical lovely, pale ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Mar 15, 2019 Aubrey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 500-wm, 4-star, reality-translated, 1-read-on-hand, r-goodreads, reviewed, antidote-think-twice-all, antidote-think-twice-read, reality-check, french

As long as he religiously respects the lives and the money of his fellow citizens, nothing more is asked of him. He may beat his wife, mistreat his servants, ruin his children, and it is no one's business. Society condemns only those acts that do it harm; it is not concerned with private life.

I baffle myself sometimes with what I end up liking. First The Coquette, now this. It's not like this work isn't horrendously dramatic or that the resulting ending is rather squick in a period when the

As long as he religiously respects the lives and the money of his fellow citizens, nothing more is asked of him. He may beat his wife, mistreat his servants, ruin his children, and it is no one's business. Society condemns only those acts that do it harm; it is not concerned with private life.

I baffle myself sometimes with what I end up liking. First The Coquette, now this. It's not like this work isn't horrendously dramatic or that the resulting ending is rather squick in a period when the marriage of first cousins aren't nearly as encouraged and the age of consent is no longer seven, but this work reminds me that, if Hugo hadn't digressed as much as he did in Les Misérables, I honestly wouldn't have liked this as much. Yes, the sudden switches to political discourse don't seem like much of a break in between dramatic declarations of love and self-annihilation, but if author truly takes seriously, the question of how one builds up a society that doesn't just aid but also necessitates human sacrifice, that is my bread and butter, however long ago the story is set. Yes, Dupin says some ridiculous shit with regards to gender essentialism, but I'll take what I can get, and the balance between good and bad tipped over to the good before the conclusion settled in and the characters coalesced. In summary, I'm not surprised this work has a shit rating, but I've seen other works be forgiven for a lot more than it commits here, so I'm glad that I ignored the community reviews enough to sail on through as much as I did, tedious as it may have gotten at times.

At all times and under all regimes, moreover, some critics have so little faith in their own literary talent that they feel they must curry official by denigrating that of other writers—a strange function to fulfill vis-à-vis their fellows! They have never found the government's harsh measures against the press sufficiently savage: they would like to see those measures enforced not only against the works but also against their creators, and if they had their way, some of us would be forbidden to write anything at all.

Dupin's an author whose life is admittedly more fascinating than this particular work of hers, so while some may do a double take at the fact that this particular edition has no less than four introductions, three composed by the author herself for various editions released during her lifetime, I was rather thrilled to get a partial (auto)/bio along with the narrative for the price of a single paperback fiction. Afterwards, the going was rather slow, but I did appreciate Dupin's talent at setting a scene, because as I said previously, I do like a good digression on more aesthetic descriptions if it's done well. This didn't last so long, and while the beginning third or so was replete with racialized nonsense as occurred whenever the mulatto character Noel appeared, the rest of the novel was able to delve into some interesting analysis of what happens when human beings who had the potential to not be nitwits and/or assholes are thrust into a social spectrum that only accepts one and/or the other type in its "honorable" citizenship. If you don't like history or political theory in your fiction, this isn't the novel for you. In my case, once I filled in some of the knowledge blanks that commonly fill in a gaps between the French Revolution, Napoleon, and the barricades of the 1840's, I had a good enough grasp on the negotiations and exasperations and exultations and, ultimately, conflagrations that are common side effects of the communications between those who have bread and those who have not. Indiana's travails were in some ways gendered extensions of this conflict, and as the introduction describes, the three men in her life serve well as alternative governments: all of them suck, but one admittedly offers succor until a better system can be developed. I also have a morbid fascination with authors who are able to display characters at their lowest points without devolving into sensationalist or voyeuristic bullshit, and I have to say, if Dupin never had any experience with reasoning through suicidal urges, I'll eat my hat. Her writing about the self-manipulations characters undergo as a combination of nature, nurture, and societal pressure is, for the most part, deeply incisive and brutally honest, and all the hysterics and giving into stereotypes that happen in parts can't hide that. As such, I'm not surprised Flaubert and others loved her so much. The only shame is that the modern world has good reasons for not affording the same.

Do you men have no courage except the physical courage that can confront death? Are you incapable of the moral courage that can accept unhappiness?

The most honest man is the one who is the best thinker and doer; the most powerful man, the one who is the best speaker and writer.

At long last, I can add "George Sand" to "George Eliot" in the list of women writers known by oddly similar remnants of fundamentally puerile societies that insist on creeping in on the corners of today. I don't love her nearly as much as I do Evans, but neither do I think she deserves the abysmal ratings and low amounts of ratings in comparison to her contemporaneous male cohorts. Despite the do-gooder overtones of the ending, this work does not at all handle race well, and the ending male character's soliloquy was more skeevy than touching, but Dupin demonstrates a political awareness that modern authors could learn from, and there should be no fear of digressions if one values holistic narratives over one shot climaxes. As such, if another so-termed 'George Sand' work floats my way, I wouldn't have any real reason to not acquire it. I'm also dead set on acquiring a good biography of Dupin, as it shows more than one nauseatingly familiar historical figure in an astonishingly new light, and gender ambiguity with a feminine touch has always been my jam. All in all, this has been a valuable trek back into the past. I won't deny that this isn't most readers' cup of tea, but it's enough that it happened to be mine.

Tell me how you feel and think, and I will tell you your political opinions.

...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 03, 2018 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women, 19thc-read, france, nineteenth-century

The Goodreads description suggests this is a feminist novel. We have moved so far from the context in which this could be considered such that it is hard to see it. However, there is one strong scene in which Indiana tells her despotic husband that he cannot tell her how or what to think. Such a radical position in 1832!

M. Delmare is not the most despicable of the male characters. That position must be reserved for Raymon de Ramiere.

It was not the first time that Raymon saw a woman take love se

The Goodreads description suggests this is a feminist novel. We have moved so far from the context in which this could be considered such that it is hard to see it. However, there is one strong scene in which Indiana tells her despotic husband that he cannot tell her how or what to think. Such a radical position in 1832!

M. Delmare is not the most despicable of the male characters. That position must be reserved for Raymon de Ramiere.

It was not the first time that Raymon saw a woman take love seriously, although, fortunately for society, such cases are rare; but he knew that promises of love are not binding on a man’s honour, again fortunately for society. Sometimes, too, the woman who had demanded these solemn pledges from him was the first to break them.

I don't think this was intended to be funny (!), but I couldn't help but laugh. There were other passages of his wooing Indiana that were just over the top.

I did enjoy this, but perhaps the best of it, for me, was the introduction where Naomi Schor helped me clearly understand the literary period.

Sand came to writing at the very moment when, under the joint impetus of Stendhal and Balzac, the literary movement that has come to be known as realism was rising to the dominant position it was soon to achieve. Seeking to obtain the literary legitimation that being a realist writer bestows, Sand’s first edition of and first preface to Indiana are replete with protestations of her allegiance to the familiar ideology of realism, namely that it has no ideology: it is pure reproduction, a mirror without a curve, a machine that merely registers material phenomena and events without distorting them. ‘The writer is only a mirror which reflects them [society’s inequalities and fate’s whims], a machine which traces their outline, and he has nothing for which to apologize if the impressions are correct and the reflection is faithful.’

As a fan of both Balzac and Stendahl (and I hope to get to each of them this challenge season), I was very glad to read this section. Indiana, Sand's first novel, comes in at the bottom of my 4-star group, and I might be a tad generous at that.

...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

May 31, 2008 Johnny Waco rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: imperialism, romanticism

On one level, Indiana is about the numerous attempts of Raymon, a debauched aristocrat, to seduce Indiana Delmare, a simple and innocent girl just returned from Reúnion (called Ile Borboun in the novel, its then name), a French colony in the Indian Ocean. On a deeper level, however, Sand clearly is concerned with that preoccupation of so many in the decades after the Enlightenment--does "civilization" necessarily corrupt? Are those raised away from the artificiality of metropolitan culture close ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2016 Pink rated it liked it · review of another edition

I spent most of the book wanting to slap Indiana. Although an infuriating character who didn't conform to my own wishes, I was rooting for her throughout the story. It's not exactly a happy ending though. ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Sep 29, 2016 Stef Rozitis rated it liked it

Shelves: read-women-2016

This book was depressing. I enjoyed, in a masochistic way, some of what seemed like humour in the book when it was talking about how much more selfish the wet blanket Ralph was than the rake Raymon and also how morally upright and genuine Raymon was. I despised him. He had a kind of white, wealthy male narcissistic personality disorder. Indiana's husband was simply a horrible boor, and even the supposedly noble Ralph was misogynistic in his view of her as a fragile object or a non-sentient godde This book was depressing. I enjoyed, in a masochistic way, some of what seemed like humour in the book when it was talking about how much more selfish the wet blanket Ralph was than the rake Raymon and also how morally upright and genuine Raymon was. I despised him. He had a kind of white, wealthy male narcissistic personality disorder. Indiana's husband was simply a horrible boor, and even the supposedly noble Ralph was misogynistic in his view of her as a fragile object or a non-sentient goddess.

Indiana herself while evoking pity, does not evoke empathy. She has what seems at first like a promising friendship in the shape of Noun, but something happens to that early on. Then the only other female character really is Raymon's mother (and various background beauties and gossips). So there is no development of female relationships making this a dreary book in my eyes, especially because all the men think they are so superior to Indiana. She really is all alone in the world, but stupid and drippy and impossible to like. The book dwells on melancholy speeches about love, unhappiness etc, more than an emo teenagers facebook page and gets really wearing with the endless negative emotion. The politics and philosophy in the book is only enjoyable in how far it can be taken as cynical, but even then the dystopian view of human nature and self-interestedness is frankly unpleasant to entertain. The many allusions to suicide in the book seem very logical in terms of the world-view espoused by the book.

The "ending" which seems written later as maybe a corrective to the bleakness is alright, it adds some light to the book but by then I think the reader is set in not loving the characters and not quite believing in their sainthood.

The book was well written (much better than most) and had some interesting insights on gender (probably due to Sand's ability to inhabit both genders to some degree, but also "her" origin in the female sex) but was so depressing and moved so slowly and long-windedly toward inevitable goals all the time that it really was depressing to read. I think I am happy I read it...maybe...I won't be rushing out to read everything Sand ever wrote though.

And I would feel a lot happier if I could slap that irritating Raymon on behalf of every female ever. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Aug 18, 2008 Cathy rated it really liked it

I had never read George Sand, and when I found Indiana in a used bookstore I thought it was time to remedy that. It turned out to be a lot of fun, although I can see why Sand is not read as much today as the Brontes or Jane Austen.

Indiana opens with a fantastic first chapter, in which several of our main characters are huddled around a fire in a dreary, chilly chateau on a drizzly fall night. I've never read another 19th-century novel that gave me such a vivid sense of how oppressive night must ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 05, 2007 lisa_emily rated it liked it

Recommends it for: romancers

Shelves: fictions

The novels dips briefly into high-drama, gothic romantic lands, a cool-eyed look at delusional romance permeates.

The main character,a young woman, Indiana is married to and older, brutish man who does not understand her temperment. She falls prey to a serial-seducer, who harbers his own romantic follies. Indiana's naivete does not allow her to see through the speculative actions of the romancer. Then everything comes to disaster.

There is some similarities to this portrayal of romance with Flaube ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 15, 2018 katie rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, 19th-c, women, eur-france, debut-novel, challenge-read

Yet another "I can't believe it took me so long to read this author!" I absolutely loved George Sand and will definitely read more of her work.

The writing was well-crafted and engrossing, even though this was a pretty typical example of melodrama, and most of the male characters were the worst. The gender roles and mores were infuriating, but she still made the characters feel real.

And also, reading this one made me feel super glad to be living in the 21st century. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 03, 2020 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-19th-century, e-books, french-literature, gutenberg, proofreading, free-literature, read-2020, suicide

Free download available Project Gutenberg

We (Dagny and I) are proofing this book for Free Literature and Project Gutenberg will publish it. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 30, 2010 Carol rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century-novels

George Sand is one of the slightly more obscure nineteenth century authors. I think she is probably better known for being Chopin's lover than for her novels. I'd like to say that this is a pity, but unfortunately, I found Indiana disappointing. It is the story of Indiana, a young, naive woman who is married to a much older man. She falls in love with a dashing aristocrat, Raymon, but the experience turns out to be extremely painful due to his shallowness and egoism. However, the light at the en ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 04, 2014 Maan Kawas rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A very beautiful but sad novel by George Sand, with conventions from Romanticism and Realism. The novel addresses love and marriage, the complex nature of human relationship, marital duties and fidelity, jealousy, gender differences, and the powerful influence of society.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 20, 2018 Carmen Sohorianu rated it really liked it

Passion for love itself, dramatic scenery, unwanted relationship and accepted destiny are the main points of the book. Indiana loves to be in love, but she’s missing the point of loving herself. It gave me thrills, disgust, pity, adrenaline, curiosity and finally peace. It has it all!

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 24, 2021 Phrodrick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

No less than 4.5 stars. George Sand’s Indiana (Oxford Univ Press, paperback) is a very early work by a very mature 28-year-old woman writer. On the surface it is a nicely done variation on a classic love triangle. A very young woman, her family in financial need marries off a daughter (Indiana) into a loveless marriage with a jealous much older rich man who gets has a romantic bad boy neighbor. So far this could be just another melodrama, queue the black and white flickering camera and the soulf No less than 4.5 stars. George Sand’s Indiana (Oxford Univ Press, paperback) is a very early work by a very mature 28-year-old woman writer. On the surface it is a nicely done variation on a classic love triangle. A very young woman, her family in financial need marries off a daughter (Indiana) into a loveless marriage with a jealous much older rich man who gets has a romantic bad boy neighbor. So far this could be just another melodrama, queue the black and white flickering camera and the soulful violin strings. Indiana comes with a lot of historic context and a depth of character not to be expected. It is family friendly and recommended

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Indiana is a break through romantic novel in the a it is a woman feeling the most complex emotions. More typical of the period, women were not thought to have sufficient brains or soul to be the center of an emotional novel. Indiana is a colonial from the West Indies where the locals are known as Creole. The term will come much later to have distinct racial tones, but within the novel there is more than a little confusion of creole as a racial term and as a term for a mix of island population and white colonials. At the time it was known that Napoleon’s Josephine was a creole and because of that was thought to be among the most beautiful of the western worlds’ women.

Indiana as a novel was understood to be a protest about the helplessness of married women under existing laws. She had been married off to an older man and had no choice except to stay married or risk social economic and possible legal ruin. Ms. Sand chooses to keep this the center of the plot and does not add in the problems of a married women who endures loveless marriage in the name of her children.

Part of what makes the narrative more nuanced is that we get clear insights into the interior life of the main characters. The rich older husband, a military man is not merely afraid for his wife’s loyalties, but in his way, he cares for her health, and while he is given to bad temper, he has enough soul to recognize, if too late that he has overreacted causing pain to people not deserving of his physical wrath.

The bad boy lover is more than a bad boy. His interior life is filled with self-justification and excuses linked to a good hearted but over indulgent mother. He is not evil for the sake of evil, but used to amorous adventures with willing women who are like him, protective of their own reputations and emotions. It is only when his wander eye alights upon the more innocent that he lacks the soul to place anyone in front of his next feel goof infatuation.

Indiana is my first George Sand, it will not be my last.

Indiana is perhaps too much of an innocent. She seems capable of killing herself by the self induced loneliness inside her much regretted marriage. She can invent a hundred reason why she cannot take opportunities to trade some innocence for happiness, but she is also thoughtful and able to stay true to herself even as events seem ready to crush her.
...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 17, 2012 Emily rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-in-2011, general-fiction, classic-literature-challenge

After enjoying Mauprat, it was inevitable that I was going to read another Sand novel. Indiana seemed to be well-known, and available in translation, so that was that choice made! As an interesting sidenote, it was her first novel (excluding a collaboration).

Let’s take a look at the blurb, courtesy of the Academy Chicago Publishers edition (2nd printing, 1984): A beautiful, very young woman married to a much older man meets and falls in love with the fashionable rake who has already seduced her After enjoying Mauprat, it was inevitable that I was going to read another Sand novel. Indiana seemed to be well-known, and available in translation, so that was that choice made! As an interesting sidenote, it was her first novel (excluding a collaboration).

Let’s take a look at the blurb, courtesy of the Academy Chicago Publishers edition (2nd printing, 1984): A beautiful, very young woman married to a much older man meets and falls in love with the fashionable rake who has already seduced her own maid. This is Indiana’s first passion, and it is awakened by the wrong man. Her own ignorance, the sexual double standard, and the restrictive French marriage laws make Indiana’s passange to womanhood perilous indeed. George Sand’s first novel argues fiercely that young girls must be free to follow their own hearts, even to make mistakes, before they can become truly equal and loving partners to their husbands. (emphasis mine)

I’m torn about the emphasised sentence of that blurb. In some ways I agree that this is a theme of the novel. Indiana goes through two bad relationships – one chosen by her, one not – before finding happiness. And I do think, going by the text, that she couldn’t have found said happiness without at least some of the preceding trials and torments. The climax of the book certainly seems to revolve around her attaining a new spiritual level, rising through the past to new ways of thought and life.

On the other hand … highlight the following space to read a spoiler-full “on the other hand”! (view spoiler) End of spoilers.

On a pacing note, the first half of the book contained more action and movement per page, while the second half was less action-y but even more chockful of emotions and the intricacies of the relationships. (I say “even more” because at no point does this book go light on examining feelings.) The earlier chapters flew by – it was very, very readable. But later ones lay heavy with lengthy monologues and even lengthier emotional letters, which required time to read and absorb.

Did I like this book? Well – no. Not exactly. It was an easy read, always dramatic, and parts were interesting! (There were intriguing segments about religion, and also sections regarding the contemporary French political climate which I only half-grasped at – makes me want to read up on the subject.) But I spent a deal of time wanting to shout some sense into the main characters. I loathed Raymon, as I was meant to (what a tosser) – but I also struggled to dredge up any empathy or sympathy for Indiana, who was just wet despite sporadic flashes of spirit and a long streak of stoicism. This book was angst-heavy and that’s … not really my favourite sort of thing. Unless it’s a more active type of angst, where the sufferer gets on with their life. But Indiana rarely bestirred herself to action, and when she did it all inevitably went wrong. Yes, her situation in life was pretty bad and I can see why she’d be miserable. But she had such a tendency to wallow.

Of the other characters, I cannot say much positive either. Delmare at least was straightforward – but he was so vile towards Indiana that I have no warmth for him. He was blatantly unhappy in his marriage to Indiana, but really he should have known better than to marry a girl who was at least thirty or forty years younger than him. Sir Ralph was sort of weird and his relationship with Indiana, as he expressed it, is way out of tune with the world today: usually I’m not too bad at seeing things through my historical-perspective-spectacles, but not this time. Open the spoiler for spoilery remarks on their relationship. (view spoiler)

There were some bizarre sexually-charged references in the text to Indiana’s being a “creole” and therefore having matured into a woman much younger than a regular Frenchwoman. (as far as I can tell, it was an 1830s term meaning a French citizen born in the French colonies, in Indiana’s case on the Ile Bourbon in the Indian Ocean.) There is actually on-page sex between Raymon and Indiana’s servant/best friend Noun (possibly the most sympathetic character in the book actually), but once Raymon is pursuing Indiana the issue of sex is danced around. She’s half on a pedestal, half an earthy object of desire. I suppose that the readership of the 1830s would not have approved of a sexually-active heroine … ?

I’m not sure how to conclude this review – simply because I’m not sure of my reaction to the book. So I’ll simply say: I think many people might enjoy it a lot more than I did... ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 08, 2015 Patricia’s Book Summaries rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read the first few chapters and the end, but jumped around in the middle. From what I did read, the author is supremely talented.

This is a book written by a women under a male pseudonym. There is debate whether the story champions realism or Utopianism.

The Colonel is an older dude who married a pretty 19-year old. Her cousin, Sir Ralph, the person who raised her, loves her, (but was forced to marry his elder brother's fiancé?). He is young and close in age to Indiana. Indiana is in an unhappy I read the first few chapters and the end, but jumped around in the middle. From what I did read, the author is supremely talented.

This is a book written by a women under a male pseudonym. There is debate whether the story champions realism or Utopianism.

The Colonel is an older dude who married a pretty 19-year old. Her cousin, Sir Ralph, the person who raised her, loves her, (but was forced to marry his elder brother's fiancé?). He is young and close in age to Indiana. Indiana is in an unhappy marriage. Raymon is caught trying to have a tryst with Indiana's handmaiden, Noun. However, only Ralph and the colonel know about the true reason Raymon was climbing the wall. Indiana is ignorant. The colonel is an angry and jealous guy. Raymon is a rake and tries to pursue Indiana, (but at the same time continues a relationship with Noun?). Noun becomes pregnant and ruined. She is distressed and turns to Raymon. He doesn't love her, but is flattered by her feelings and has sex with her. But the next morning, he tries to plead Indiana's forgiveness. When Indiana discovers him hiding behind curtains, she publicly kicks him out and renounces his supposed love for her. Noun thought that he loved her and is distressed that he had proclaimed his love for her mistress. She commits suicide and drowns that night. The next morning, Indiana discovers her body in the water and faints. (She faints a lot in this book.) She is devastated by Noun's death. Raymon still tries to make his play for Indiana, although he does feel guilt and sorrow over his having had a hand in a woman's death. She did try to leave her husband and be with him, but when he tries to have sex with her, she rejects him. Then, he walks away, annoyed with her. (There is a theory in this story that she remains a virgin throughout the story until the end, that she never has sex with either Raymon or the colonel.) They communicate with letters. She and her husband go and sail far away. She writes down her miseries every day in a letter to Raymon, but she never intends to send them. Her husband discovers this and is outraged. She reads a letter from Raymon proclaiming his love for her. But he is also wary of having another woman meet her death because of him. (I think he is a rake and playboy, but he still has a conscience. He just likes the chase of seducing women and then bedding them.) She travels on a dangerous journey back to where Raymon lives. But she discovers that he is now married and lives in her old house. She then travels to Paris and meets with Ralph. He professes his love for her as well and tells her that the colonel has died. She feels guilt over her hand in his death. They decide to commit suicide together to end the suffering they both face in this life. They have a peaceful 3-month journey to their homeland, Bernica island. During this time, she falls in love with him. When they get to the island, they confess their love for each other and he tells her exactly how long he has loved her, and he also tells her his life story and secrets. She tells him that if she had known of his love, she would never have married the colonel. He proposes, and she accepts. They kiss. He holds his fiancé and jumps into the waterfall. Later, a traveler to the island researches the rumor of the couple who live beyond society on the island. There is a general mistrust and suspicion of the couple in town, but prior to him saying it, Indiana had no knowledge of this. The traveler can see that they are dearly in love and are very friendly and peaceful. Ralph tells the traveler the full story. Before he leaves, they tell him that they have no care for society, but they tell him that if he wants, he should live his life in society. However, since he is the only friend they have on the island, they say that he is welcome anytime. At the end of the story, Indiana is a gorgeous girl just in her bloom who looks like she is 18 years old. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2009 Helynne rated it really liked it

George Sand (real name: Amandine Lucile-Aurore Dupin, the baroness of Dudevant; 1804-1876) is one of my favorite authors. She was not only an incredibly talented and prolific writer of the Romantic era, but also a courageous individual because she wrote at a time when women were not widely respected as novelists. As a result, she endured a list of epithets on her persona such as man-eater, anti-matrimonialist, and Lesbian. She was none of these things, but she was enough of a non-conformist to l George Sand (real name: Amandine Lucile-Aurore Dupin, the baroness of Dudevant; 1804-1876) is one of my favorite authors. She was not only an incredibly talented and prolific writer of the Romantic era, but also a courageous individual because she wrote at a time when women were not widely respected as novelists. As a result, she endured a list of epithets on her persona such as man-eater, anti-matrimonialist, and Lesbian. She was none of these things, but she was enough of a non-conformist to leave an unhappy marriage and strike out on her own as a novelist. Leaving her husband and two children behind at her estate of Nohant in the French countryside, which she had inherited from her father, Sand took to rubbing shoulders with Paris's literati elite such as Honore de Balzac, Prosper Merimee and Alfred de Musset (she had affairs with the last two). Indiana is the first novel she wrote (1832) by herself without collaboration with anyone. The novel was an instant succès de scandale, although the plots, which involves the up and downs, trails and frustrations of an otherwise gentle love story are fairly tame by today’s standards. Indiana is a 19-year-old Créole girl living on the French colonial island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean (near Madagascar). Indiana is romantically and spiritually intended for her cousin Sir Ralph Brown. Their sympathy and purity is preserved by their innocent characters, which, through their link to the unsullied islands of the Indian Ocean, remain close to nature, and in compete opposition to the corruption of society. Sir Ralph always wanted to marry Indiana when she came of age, but her parents arranged another match for her (an unhappy one) and he eventually married someone else. Subsequently, Indiana becomes enamored of Raymon, a charming, but unscrupulous Parisian. Raymon is the embodiment of several egregious ills of Sand’s society—frivolity, ambition, dishonesty, hypocrisy and the seduction of innocent women—all encouraged in men by the misogynistic Code Napoléon. The plot takes a long time to unravel, and Indiana spends a lot of traumatic adventures between Réunion and Paris before she and Ralph can finally be together. The original ending had Ralph and Indiana agreeing to a dual suicide in a leap off of a Réunion cliff, because they felt this act would be a symbolic marriage that would unite them in heaven. Sand soon after added an epilogue to the novel that explained that the couple somehow survived the death leap, settled together on the island of Bourbon, and dedicated the rest of their lives to good works—including buying the freedom of as many slaves as they were able. The conclusion, then testifies to the Romantic idea that pure and good love, cannot exist within the corrupting bonds of civilization, which refuses to see men and women equals. As a reward for their devotion, continence and other qualities not typical in society, Ralph and Indiana are permitted to live in an idealized and sanctified male-female union, albeit a simple, impoverished one. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 12, 2016 Jennifer rated it really liked it

George Sand makes Jane Austen seem fluff, at least in terms of this novel. I still can't believe the amount of on-the-stage, in-your-face, violence that occur here.

While the title may suggest we'll get to know Indiana, it's really the men in her life who dominate the tale. We know she was married quite young, to an older man (Monsieur Delmare) whom she doesn't love. We know that she sometimes daydreams about some more powerful romantic force entering her life and saving her from her existence o George Sand makes Jane Austen seem fluff, at least in terms of this novel. I still can't believe the amount of on-the-stage, in-your-face, violence that occur here.

While the title may suggest we'll get to know Indiana, it's really the men in her life who dominate the tale. We know she was married quite young, to an older man (Monsieur Delmare) whom she doesn't love. We know that she sometimes daydreams about some more powerful romantic force entering her life and saving her from her existence of seemingly sitting by the fire and petting a hunting dog named Ophelia and making small talk with some apparently incommunicative dude named Ralph. We learn that her husband is very jealous of her youth and the potential that may lead to her being taken away from him. We see him exercise his lack of control on this issue through his violence towards her and anyone who is suspected of trying to steal her away.

Enter Raymon de Ramiere (forgive the lack of accent graves). Ramiere had started an affair with Indiana's maid Noun. He'd sneak onto the property late at night for booty calls with Noun and in the very opening chapter he is caught in the act and shot by Monsieur Delmare. He is brought back to the Delmare home where he is nursed back to health by Indiana. A suitable enough reason is given to explain his experience on the property and Delmare forgives the trespass to such a degree that Raymon has ready access to do exactly what Delmare had been trying to prevent. Raymon's interest in Indiana exceeds that of his interest in Noun, or at least is focused on a different set of challenges (married vs socially inferior to him). Being a man who can be said to be in love with the chase, not the catch, he quickly alters his attentions accordingly. Noun gets knocked up and commits suicide in a stream. You know, the usual.

It's a delightfully violent novel that fluctuates rapidly between holding Indiana up as some type of cautionary tale example to young women, old men and society and an example of how brutal that society can be. Mostly though, I found it an excellent example of how we (men and women) must always look to the actual actions of a person over the words they speak to judge his real character. And sometimes, those characters that say the least can be the most influential.

(Not really by the way of anything, this novel contains the most beautiful setting descriptions for suicides I've ever read. Not that I've read anything on suicides!)

...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2011 Kristyn Conner rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, books-i-own

I had initially heard of George Sand’s first independent novel upon listening to a Meg & Dia track entitled (what else?) “Indiana,” over five years ago. This song in particular seemed to stand out from the rest of their album; its lyrics weren’t necessarily about love or despair or the slew of other human emotions that songs are typically about, but rather, it appeared to tell a story of which I was unfamiliar. The story depicted a girl named “Indiana,” a “strong and obedient wife” who had begun I had initially heard of George Sand’s first independent novel upon listening to a Meg & Dia track entitled (what else?) “Indiana,” over five years ago. This song in particular seemed to stand out from the rest of their album; its lyrics weren’t necessarily about love or despair or the slew of other human emotions that songs are typically about, but rather, it appeared to tell a story of which I was unfamiliar. The story depicted a girl named “Indiana,” a “strong and obedient wife” who had begun “to die,” due to the fault of some man entitled “Colonel” who likely neglected her. After discovering that the inspiration for the song came from Sand’s work, I decided to use the rest of an Amazon.com gift card in order to purchase a used copy of the novel.

The novel sat on my shelf for years before I finally decided to pick it up earlier this week… and I can’t believe I never had the motivation to read it sooner, because I absolutely loved it. The language flowed smoothly, which made it quite the easy read, and it wasn’t predictable in the way that I had expected it to be. After the sudden and tragic death that occurs in the first eighty or so pages, the plot shifts, and Indiana instantly becomes a back-and-forth story of manipulation and lust (and sometimes love, though it’s rare and mostly exerted by the female characters). There were times when I felt completely sympathetic toward the poor, nineteen-year-old Creole girl who often becomes the victim of Raymon’s seductive games… but there were other instances in which I found her to be foolish, over-dramatic and downright unpleasant. In the end, however, I was satisfied with the way that the novel ended (though I did not necessarily anticipate it), and I shut the book feeling the same way that all great books make me feel: invigorated, reflective and thoroughly appreciative of the experience.

In particular, this novel strongly reminded me of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, which is often a required text for many high school literature classes. If you enjoyed reading about scandalous, 19th- and 20th-century love affairs and you’re an advocate of feminism, then perhaps Sand is right for you. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

topics	posts	views	last activity
500 Great Books B...: Indiana - George Sand (Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin aka Baroness Dudevant)	2	22	Mar 16, 2019 12:29PM
Woman: Easily Deceived?	3	15	Sep 12, 2012 09:17PM

See a Problem?

Preview — Indiana by George Sand

Indiana

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About George Sand

Books by George Sand

News & Interviews

Trivia About Indiana

Quotes from Indiana

See a Problem?

Preview — Indiana by George Sand

Indiana

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About George Sand

Books by George Sand

News & Interviews

Trivia About Indiana

Quotes from Indiana

new topic
Discuss This Book