Reviews

I really enjoyed this book, some of the dialogue got a bit long and overdramatic but I think that the way I was always surprised by the direction it was taking made up for that. And plus the ending was worthy!

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2.5

I admit that I am no expert on canonical French literature. I know a little about George Sand as a person and am fascinated by them, but I am not so familiar with her work. Her Romantic and realist blend in Indiana is reworked into a graphic novel for the modern reader. Indiana feels like the lovechild of Sorrows of Young Werther and Portrait of a Lady (even though the latter was published later). It follows the 16-year-old Indiana's unhappy marriage to the much older Colonel Delmare. She falls in love with their neighbour Raymon de Ramiere, who is engaged in an affair with Indiana’s maid and best friend, Noun. Indiana and de Ramiere have a sort of on-and-off-again relationship, declaring their love and then rebuffing the other. Meanwhile, Indiana’s cousin Ralph stands on the sidelines being secretly in love with her.

If I had a nickel for every time there was an English cousin named Ralph in love with his cousin, in a canonical novel, I’d have two nickels…which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

As this is a graphic novel adaptation, I will not be commenting on the plot which is taken from George Sand’s work but rather how the story has been adapted.

Firstly, I did enjoy the first few pages which provided some context surrounding George Sand and their work. This came back at the end and I thought it was a nice way of ending the story and analysing some of the themes.

I found the art style grew on me and by the end of the novel, I quite liked it. There are some sentences that seem to have been taken directly from an English translation of the text which were revolutionary for the time, as does some of Indiana’s characterisation, which was cool to see.

I liked Indiana’s progression as a character, from her role as an unhappy woman to her finally standing up for herself. There were many false starts and to and fro-ing, but for her time and situation, she pushed back against the control of her husband, and even her false lover.

However, most of the story is told to us where it could be shown. For example, there is a panel that says “Monsieur de Ramiere was bothered by how bravely Noun sacrificed her reputation for him” but we never actually see Noun sacrifice her reputation until after she dies. This is a book where there is a lot of sitting in drawing rooms talking and it can be difficult to push the story along, but the way the information was communicated was not always effective.

I would have liked the relationship between Indiana and Ramiere to have been explored and stretched out more, as I could not see what it was that Indiana saw in him after they met. Why is he interested, is it mere boredom or love? Ramiere wanted to control something that wasn't his and get personal pleasure, but why her? There was a lot of flip-flopping between love and hate with these two characters and I couldn’t understand why Indiana was so devoted to this guy.

There were hints at the political world going on in the background but I wish I could have seen that more.

I found spots of this confusing and the pacing wasn’t quite right and I couldn’t work out what was supposed to be the climaxes of certain scenes, or whether this was an important discussion among the romantic leads or if this was another scene repeating the unstable dynamic of Ramiere and Indiana.

This book is an interesting look at George Sand’s work for a new age. It was a quick read and I think could be useful in introducing George Sand’s work to a larger audience. It would work well as a teaching tool as well, possibly read alongside the novel itself. I am now intrigued to go back to the original text.

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