Francois le Champi by George Sand

Francois le Champi by George Sand

The Country Waif (Fran oise le Champi) is the second of the three pastoral novels which rank along with George Sand's autobiographical writing as her finest work. Although simple in themselves, these tales have behind them much of the complex experience of her extraordinary life. As Mrs. Zimmerman writes in the introduction, they reflect Sand's youthful romanticism, her later championing of the working classes, and her desire to record in fiction that was both poetic and factual the lives of the people and the region she knew best.

Set in the countryside of the author's native province of Berry, The Country Waif tells the story of Fran ois, an orphan boy placed in a rural foster home, and Madeline, the miller's wife who befriends him. Sand's contemporary, Turgenev, wrote that it was in her best manner, simple, true, affecting. The book has been admired by writers as diverse as Willa Cather (she found it supremely beautiful) and Andr Malraux, who considered it a masterpiece.

As well as examining the setting, language, and narrative mode of the novel, the introduction looks at Sand's life, in part from the feminist perspective, with attention to the sociopolitical background of the post-Napoleonic era, when Aurore Dudevant felt impelled to rebel against her status as a country wife and to become George Sand.

George Sand (1804-1876), born Armandine Aurore Lucille Dupin, was a French novelist who was active during Europe's Romantic era. Raised by her grandmother, Sand spent her childhood studying nature and philosophy. Her early literary projects were collaborations with Jules Sandeau, who co-wrote articles they jointly signed as J. Sand. When making her solo debut, Armandine adopted the pen name George Sand, to appear on her work. Her first novel, Indiana was published in 1832, followed by Valentine and Jacques. During her career, Sand was considered one of the most popular writers of her time.