This was one of those books that one gets not really knowing what one is going in for. And then bang! the book takes you by the throat (and heart) and won't let go until you have devoured the whole story. This was The Dream Lover.
The story of the writer George Sand set in the 1830s and 1840s deals with an unusual lifestyle set amongst the bohemian and artistic world of the writers, musicians, painters and sculptors of Paris. The story told in stages from the time she was a girl, her upbringing, her marriage and then the failure of her marriage. The huge step she took of separating from her husband and yet maintaining a contact with her two children and then her passionate love story itself with lovers ranging from the famous to the unknown are beautifully and very descriptively told in this book.
George battled with two focuses in her life - she was torn between her writing and then the effect of her life on her two children. She tried her best to balance the two, making sure that the children had her love and attention but it never seemed to be enough for her daughter Solange who rebelled and sadly rejected her mother. This sadness was prevalent throughout the book because George felt that her life should not be detrimental to her children but she found the balancing act very hard and near impossible.
This was my first read of this author. It is also a subject I knew nothing about. It has left me wanting to know more about George Sand and I will be trying to get my hands on something written by this woman to find out more.
Thank you to Netgalley courtesy of Random House Publishing Group for sending me this book.
I'll have a review up of this novel later on. I haven't seen many other reactions yet and appreciated reading your thoughts. The setting was completely fascinating, and I wasn't very familiar with Sand's life beforehand either.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds interesting. Great review.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really interesting, do you know when it is published? I'll have to keep a look out for it :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like this one really left an impression. Thanks for the great review.
ReplyDeletei am a bit familiar with her life, but not a lot
ReplyDeleteWow what an amazing life this woman had and the difficulty of trying to balance out her two loves and the pain of it not being totally achieved. Sounds like a fascinating life.
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting. I haven't read this author but have heard good things. I hope you have a good week.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally intrigued, your first paragraph wow. Adding to Wishlist.
ReplyDeleteI have this one in queue and am looking forward to reading it. I have never read anything by this author, but I have wanted to for years. I'm sure I have a couple of her older books in my TBR collection.
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