Le Meunier d'Angibault

by George Sand

George Sand a tout fait dans sa longue existence : travailler d’arrache-pied, voyager, aimer, enfanter. Elle milita aussi avec fougue pour un monde meilleur. Les personnages de ce roman, paru en feuilleton dans un journal socialiste, veulent vivre et aimer sans considération d’argent ni de classe sociale. Cela aurait pu être un roman à thèse, c’est une merveilleuse histoire d’amour. Le meunier épousera la riche fermière et la comtesse, son étudiant pauvre. En toile de fond, le Berry, bien sûr, comme dans toute l’œuvre de George Sand, avec ses paysans enrichis, ses aristocrates débauchés et ses bals champêtres.
Tout au long de sa vie, George Sand a rêvé de fraternité et d’amour. Elle voulut, par son œuvre, incarner ce rêve, le rendre possible… Voilà pourquoi ses romans sont si émouvants et si beaux.

Genres: French Literature, Fiction, France

441 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1845

About the author

Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, best known by her pen name George Sand, was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. She wrote more than 50 volumes of various works to her credit, including tales, plays and political texts, alongside her 70 novels.
Like her great-grandmother, Louise Dupin, whom she admired, George Sand advocated for women's rights and passion, criticized the institution of marriage, and fought against the prejudices of a conservative society. She was considered scandalous because of her turbulent love life, her adoption of masculine clothing, and her masculine pseudonym.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Sand was the pen name of Armantine Lupin and this is the first of her work that I have read. It was written in 1845. It is one of Lupin’s pastoral and socialist novels with a focus on the rural poor. There is a varied cast of characters. Madame de Blanchemont (Marcelle) is married to an aristocrat and has a son called Edouard. Her husband has recently died and she has been left with a country estate, the state of which she is unaware of. Lenor is an educated Parisian working man. He and Marcelle have been in love for a while. It would seem that Marcelle’s husband’s death would free them to marry. However Lenor feels that on principle he cannot marry someone who has inherited wealth, even though it is not known how much. This is the conundrum at the start of the book.
Marcelle travels to her estate and that is where we meet the rest of the cast. The estate is rather run down and debt ridden and needs to be sold. We now meet Monsieur Bricolin a wealthy farmer local to the estate who wants to buy it. Bricolin is the villain of the piece as his focus is entirely on money and increasing his wealth. He lives with his wife, his daughter Rose and his aged parents. There is another daughter who has a serious mental health problem, apparently as a result of her parents not allowing her to marry the man she loved. On her travels Marcelle meets Grand-Louis, the miller of Angibault as per the title, who helps her and allows her to stay with him and his mother before she goes to stay with the Bricolins. Grand-louis is in love with Rose Bricolin, but her parents do not approve. Add a local beggar called Cadouche and a variety of locals and you have the cast. It is well written and the plot rolls along merrily with some twists and turns.
Lupin looks back on the legacy of the Revolution and what it has and hasn’t achieved, it also looks at human greed and the nobility of the human spirit. Most of the socialists at the time were focussing on urban poverty, but Lupin turned her gaze on the rural poor probably because of her own upbringing in the countryside. The outworking has a communitarian edge to it. In terms of gender Lupin does explore the control of men over daughters and wives. It is a good read, a bit too neatly tied up at the end, but nevertheless it’s a good introduction to Lupin.

[thebookofclocs · Rating 3 out of 5]

pas fan de la plume de George Sand mais j’ai dû lire ce livre pour mes cours et je dois dire que même si c’était long, le fond est assez intéressant et les questions traitées m’ont bien plu :)

[Lena Billiet · Rating 4 out of 5]

il m’a fallu toute une vie pour le lire mais cro cro bien mes amours

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting tale by George Sand, weaving her socialist ideals into a fairytale style story set in rural France.

[Trounin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Судьба Франции — постоянно взлетать и падать. Населяющие её люди подвержены быстрым общественным переменам — они всегда желают двигаться вперёд, даже если это направление ведёт в обратную сторону. Нет такого, чтобы отдельно взятое поколение французов не старалось изменить жизнь, им требуется пересматривать заслуги прошлого и строить новое понимание будущего. Беда же их нации сводится к постоянному возвращению к исходной точке: от чего пытались избавиться — к тому в итоге и пришли. Даже если брать для рассмотрения ситуацию середины XIX века, бурного времени до того небывалых технических революций, ничего существенным образом не поменялось — французы остались французами, обречёнными вернуться назад, забыв о новоявленных ценностях в угоду постоянной жажды изменять действительность, снова повторяя поступки прежних поколений.

(c) Trounin

[Steve Gordon]

Fantastico!

[Ce · Rating 4 out of 5]

what difference does it make to have or not money? a good tale that rescues some values that now are taken as just a joke

[Leab · Rating 5 out of 5]

lecture pour l'université:

je ne pensais pas autant aimé mais j'ai été agréablement surprise par cette lecture !! j'ai adoré l'ambiance, les deux couples, je me suis laissée emporter sans rien voir venir et ça m'a beaucoup plus 🫶🏼 très hâte de lire d'autres livres de cette autrice !!

[D. Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining and enchanting tale with strong characters...

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my absolute favorite books I read in any of my french classes at Tufts. Right balance of description and plot with interesting characters and backstories.

[JulieG_Quebec · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[David Flett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming.