A long-overdue reappraisal of the groundbreaking nineteenth-century writer who reshaped the literary and social norms of her age. By the age of thirty, the young woman who was born Aurore Dupin in 1804 in a Paris garret had become the internationally renowned George Sand. In English, her novels were outselling even Victor Hugo. Her enormous and radical corpus would grow to include seventy novels, travel writing, plays, autobiography, and political writing. But despite this prodigious talent, Sand was simultaneously a figure of scandal. Cigar-smoking, cross-dressing, and promiscuous, she seemed to break all the rules society set for women. Was her iconoclasm simply an act of courage, a declaration of absolute autonomy? Or did her sexual and emotional relationships with the leading figures of her day―from Fryderyk Chopin to Gustave Flaubert, and Alfred de Musset to Eugène Delacroix―form part of her dialogue with the world around her: a dialogue that’s intrinsic to writing itself? To what extent do we invent ourselves? And what can we learn, from Sand’s life and art, about how writers in particular invent themselves, and are reinvented by the society around them? This year marks the 150th anniversary of Sand’s death, and Becoming George is a fitting celebration of her literary genius―as well as the first new biography in nearly twenty-five years. Award-winning poet and biographer Fiona Sampson rehabilitates an artistic and intellectual giant who still speaks to us today. Brilliantly prescient―about ecology, politics, society, gender―George Sand was truly a figure ahead of her time. "Thought-provoking . . . George is a book written with energy, passion and commitment to its fascinating subject. Indeed, it does just what a literary biography should do: it leaves one wanting to read Sand for oneself." ― Lucasta Miller, Literary Review "From [Sampson's] approach emerges a writer who seems as alive as if she had just walked out of the room and could return at any minute. Sand would probably have appreciated Sampson's sympathetic assessment of the challenges faced by female writers. . . . She would have also enjoyed Sampson's quietly witty touches. When Sand died . . . [Victor] Hugo sent a tribute claiming: 'I mourn a dead woman and I salute an immortal one.' Many readers will start this fascinating biography with the assumption that he was merely being polite. By the time they have finished it they will probably agree with him." ― Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, The Times (Book of the Week) "Engaging . . . elegant . . . empathetic." ― Anthony Cummins, The Guardian "Sampson's vivid and innovative biography will hopefully send a new generation of readers to Sand's work to grapple as she did with her combinations of audacious modernity and old fashioned storytelling." ― Lara Feigel, Observer "A highly readable, subtly inventive book that argues for Sand's importance not just as a writer but as a cultural figure . . . It reminds us that Sand is synonymous with the 19th century, France and the extraordinary written culture of that time and place." ― Juliet Jacques, New Humanist "Biographer Fiona Sampson rehabilitates her as the beating heart of 19th-century French literature." ― i Paper "Fiona Sampson beautifully describes the ‘self-invention’ of George Sand, the Romantic period’s most famous woman writer, and in the process paints a vivid portrait of a world in the throes of political and artistic revolution." ― Maurice Samuels, author of Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair "The inventive spirit of Becoming George is a match for George Sand’s focus on performance throughout this life on the feminist frontier. Fiona Sampson teases out facts with a stimulating readiness to think, as when she finds a ‘sexualised maternity’ in Sand’s choice of boy-men. Sampson writes with eloquent empathy, making sense of Sand’s changing image. As Sand said of Rousseau, thought and language are gloriously clear. Immersion in the present with the future in constant view ensures that we live in the moment with George Sand as her life opens up." ― Lyndall Gordon, author of The Hyacinth Girl: T. S. Eliot’s Hidden Muse " Becoming George is a lyrical and absorbing account of how one of the nineteenth century’s most original and fascinating figures willed herself into existence. In a world that didn’t know what to make of a brilliant, prolific, rule-breaking, female writer, George Sand harnessed her creativity and courage to fashion a life lived on her own terms. Fiona Sampson brings the shifting iterations of George Sand to vivid, immediate life in a work brimming with poetry, humor, and insight." ― Victoria Johnson, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist for American Eden Fiona Sampson MBE FRSL is a leading British poet, a writer, and Romanticist. Professor Emerita of Poetry, University of Roehampton and Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College University of Oxford, s