Page:George Sand by Bertha Thomas.djvu/11



naming George Sand we name something more exceptional than even a great genius. Her rise to eminence in the literature of her century is, if not without a parallel, yet absolutely without a precedent, in the annals of women of modern times.

The origin of much that is distinctive in the story of her life may be traced in the curious story of her lineage.

George Sand was of mixed national descent, and in her veins ran the blood of heroes and of kings. The noble and the artist, the bourgeoisie and the people, all had their representatives among her immediate ancestors. Her grandmother, the guardian of her girlhood, was the child of Maurice, Marshal Saxe, that favourite figure in history and romance, himself son of the