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moshalala's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
colleengeedrumm's review against another edition
5.0
What is on your back and on your plate is second to what is in your heart.
When children lie on their backs to regard the sky for a long enough period of time, they become the sky.
And when we are full, we shall eat more, until we are made breathless. And then we shall go out and eat the night.
It will not be a novel for casual and nondiscriminating readers who flip pages rapidly and read with the depth of a lamppost. It will not be for people who are uncomfortable being challenged by literature.
This inclination towards nurturing is one of the main reasons that the female is the superior sex. If our humanistic abilities were given the worth they deserved, the world would be a far better place.
Maternity procures ineffable delights; but, either through love or marriage, we must pay such a price for it that I would never advise anybody to incur the cost.
Now I have entered my first old age. (7)
Tears. If you weep, you love.
The moral compass of an individual was the true gauge by which one should measure and live one's life. One was meant only to answer to oneself: that was the way to come to a true and lasting peace.
All who joy would win must share it. Lord Byron 6/19/1839
Love begins as a rhapsody and ends as a dirge.
You fancy that the work of the spirit is only in the brain, but you are very much mistaken, it is also in the legs.
This is the way of nature: to persuade us around one more bend, to beckon us to behold one more vista. Let nature inspire and sustain you, and comfort you in the end. Green! It is the color of hope. Laissez verdure - Keep the greenery. It is the truest sacrament and the only perfect love.
I was I.
When children lie on their backs to regard the sky for a long enough period of time, they become the sky.
And when we are full, we shall eat more, until we are made breathless. And then we shall go out and eat the night.
It will not be a novel for casual and nondiscriminating readers who flip pages rapidly and read with the depth of a lamppost. It will not be for people who are uncomfortable being challenged by literature.
This inclination towards nurturing is one of the main reasons that the female is the superior sex. If our humanistic abilities were given the worth they deserved, the world would be a far better place.
Maternity procures ineffable delights; but, either through love or marriage, we must pay such a price for it that I would never advise anybody to incur the cost.
Now I have entered my first old age. (7)
Tears. If you weep, you love.
The moral compass of an individual was the true gauge by which one should measure and live one's life. One was meant only to answer to oneself: that was the way to come to a true and lasting peace.
All who joy would win must share it. Lord Byron 6/19/1839
Love begins as a rhapsody and ends as a dirge.
You fancy that the work of the spirit is only in the brain, but you are very much mistaken, it is also in the legs.
This is the way of nature: to persuade us around one more bend, to beckon us to behold one more vista. Let nature inspire and sustain you, and comfort you in the end. Green! It is the color of hope. Laissez verdure - Keep the greenery. It is the truest sacrament and the only perfect love.
I was I.
lsparrow's review against another edition
4.0
I knew nothing of George Sand before reading this book but i am hooked. She was this amazing person who lived by her own rules. I also enjoyed the style of the writing in the book.
mschrock8's review against another edition
3.0
I cannot imagine a life with so many relationships, so many lovers and so many locations for housing.
meshuggeknitter's review against another edition
3.0
I came away feeling that I really didn't understand George Sand. She came across as a bit whiney and woe is me because I've been abandoned. I would have also liked to have learned more about her work. Bottom line, this was.a meh read.
judithdcollins's review against another edition
5.0
THE DREAM LOVER by talented, Elizabeth Berg, a beautifully written, fascinating historical fiction of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, best known by her pseudonym George Sand, a 19th-century French novelist and memoirist; rich in character, culture, and history.
Berg writes with enlightening, bold, and inspiring prose, with insights into the unconventional life of one of the most famous female and gifted writers of her time.
George Sand was known for her scandalous, and sometimes shocking behavior; her famous lovers, eccentricities, and her questionable Parisian lifestyle— including publicized romantic affairs with a number of artists, including the composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin and the writer Alfred de Musset, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt, Eugene Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and more.
Born in Paris, France in 1804, known as "Aurore" she was pretty much raised by her grandmother in a liberal setting, at her estate Nohant, in the French province of Berry, later using this setting in her novels.
In 1822, at the age of eighteen, Sand married Casimir Dudevant "François" and they had two children. In early 1831, she left her husband and entered upon a four- or five-year period of rebellion and a few years later was legally separated taking her children with her. During this time, her life was quite scandalous with many affairs.
Typical for this era, it was not socially acceptable to be intelligent and independent. These and other behaviors were exceptional for a woman of the early and mid-19th century when social codes—especially in the upper classes—were of the utmost importance.
Sand's reputation came into question when she began sporting men's clothing in public, which she justified enabling her to circulate more freely in Paris than most of her female contemporaries, and gave her increased access to venues from which women were often barred, even women of her social standing.
A woman of many talents, and often misunderstood, Sand authored literary criticism and political texts, wrote many essays and published works establishing her socialist position, and often sided with the poor and working class.
Berg eloquently, introduces us to many historical figures and brings life, intrigue, adventure, romance, scandal, and sensuality to the characters, settings, and intimate thoughts, as the vibrant pages come alive, transporting you to another time. I enjoyed the way she outlined the years of her life and geographical locations, in order to capture the moment with an easy flow.
A liaison with the writer Jules Sandeau heralded her literary debut and later in Paris when she was twenty-eight, a time of unhappiness and frustration in her life. Julies and she were finished, however, she had her work and novel, Lelia to sustain her and the friendship with Marie Dorval, her truest confidante. I enjoyed this part with Marie:
THE DREAM LOVER is enticing and engaging; flashing back and forth from George Sand’s earlier, middle and latter parts of her life— told in first person narrative, pulling you into the struggles, heartbreaks, frustrations, passionate letters, and explorations of Sand’s desires, intelligence, creativity, and talents.
George Sand was known well in far reaches of the world, and her social practices, her writings, and her beliefs prompted much commentary, often by other luminaries in the world of arts and letters. She would love Berg’s account and somehow see her smiling.
My first book by Berg, highly impressive writing, detailed research; a stunning novel written with compassion and intimacy and one to savor. A fan of good "books about books" or literary icons. Highly recommend THE DREAM LOVER to all historical and literary fiction fans, and look forward to reading more from Berg!
“The finest female genius of any country or age”. –Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A special thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
BTW, I just finished [b:The Story of Arthur Truluv|32918898|The Story of Arthur Truluv|Elizabeth Berg|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1487140969s/32918898.jpg|53485117] Amazing!!! 5 Stars Coming Nov 21, 2017. Move this one to the TOP of your reading list. (I want an Arthur in my life). For fans of Fredrik Backman.
Berg writes with enlightening, bold, and inspiring prose, with insights into the unconventional life of one of the most famous female and gifted writers of her time.
George Sand was known for her scandalous, and sometimes shocking behavior; her famous lovers, eccentricities, and her questionable Parisian lifestyle— including publicized romantic affairs with a number of artists, including the composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin and the writer Alfred de Musset, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt, Eugene Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and more.
Born in Paris, France in 1804, known as "Aurore" she was pretty much raised by her grandmother in a liberal setting, at her estate Nohant, in the French province of Berry, later using this setting in her novels.
In 1822, at the age of eighteen, Sand married Casimir Dudevant "François" and they had two children. In early 1831, she left her husband and entered upon a four- or five-year period of rebellion and a few years later was legally separated taking her children with her. During this time, her life was quite scandalous with many affairs.
Typical for this era, it was not socially acceptable to be intelligent and independent. These and other behaviors were exceptional for a woman of the early and mid-19th century when social codes—especially in the upper classes—were of the utmost importance.
Sand's reputation came into question when she began sporting men's clothing in public, which she justified enabling her to circulate more freely in Paris than most of her female contemporaries, and gave her increased access to venues from which women were often barred, even women of her social standing.
A woman of many talents, and often misunderstood, Sand authored literary criticism and political texts, wrote many essays and published works establishing her socialist position, and often sided with the poor and working class.
Berg eloquently, introduces us to many historical figures and brings life, intrigue, adventure, romance, scandal, and sensuality to the characters, settings, and intimate thoughts, as the vibrant pages come alive, transporting you to another time. I enjoyed the way she outlined the years of her life and geographical locations, in order to capture the moment with an easy flow.
A liaison with the writer Jules Sandeau heralded her literary debut and later in Paris when she was twenty-eight, a time of unhappiness and frustration in her life. Julies and she were finished, however, she had her work and novel, Lelia to sustain her and the friendship with Marie Dorval, her truest confidante. I enjoyed this part with Marie:
“Ah, George. A woman who denies love. It is you whom you write about. It is you, a powerful woman powerless to get what you need most. You seem to have no idea how to achieve it. And yet you have one of your own characters say of Lelia that she is not a complete human being. You have him say that where love is absent, there can be no woman. This is you speaking of yourself. A painful and fatal flaw in herself, as she could not explain her passion, how it sputtered and stalled."
“When I was thirty years old and felt old as time. I had failed in every love relationship I had attempted: with my mother, with God, with marriage, with Aurelien, with lovers, with my children. And with Marie, whose light still shone brightest for me, who still seemed the one with whom I might have been enduringly happy. These days, I enjoyed her company in friendship and no longer aspired to anything beyond it; I would have embarrassed myself in attempting it, and I had no doubt that any attempt at rekindling romantic love would have turned her away from me entirely. She had finished with that the day she’d left Nohant, and I knew perhaps better than anyone that it was always easy for Marie to leave behind what no longer engaged or amused her”.
“Marie was gone. Musset was gone. I wanted Pagello gone. One is not living when one does not use the parts of oneself that are most vital, most especially the need to love and loved. In that respect, I was already dead.”
THE DREAM LOVER is enticing and engaging; flashing back and forth from George Sand’s earlier, middle and latter parts of her life— told in first person narrative, pulling you into the struggles, heartbreaks, frustrations, passionate letters, and explorations of Sand’s desires, intelligence, creativity, and talents.
George Sand was known well in far reaches of the world, and her social practices, her writings, and her beliefs prompted much commentary, often by other luminaries in the world of arts and letters. She would love Berg’s account and somehow see her smiling.
My first book by Berg, highly impressive writing, detailed research; a stunning novel written with compassion and intimacy and one to savor. A fan of good "books about books" or literary icons. Highly recommend THE DREAM LOVER to all historical and literary fiction fans, and look forward to reading more from Berg!
“The finest female genius of any country or age”. –Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A special thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
BTW, I just finished [b:The Story of Arthur Truluv|32918898|The Story of Arthur Truluv|Elizabeth Berg|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1487140969s/32918898.jpg|53485117] Amazing!!! 5 Stars Coming Nov 21, 2017. Move this one to the TOP of your reading list. (I want an Arthur in my life). For fans of Fredrik Backman.
asurges's review against another edition
1.0
I've held off on making comments because I usually enjoy Elizabeth Berg's books and feel *bad* giving a poor review (because, you know, she's, like, trolling GoodReads and once she sees my review she'll cry a single tear). They're fun. They're sweet. They're quick reads.
I don't blame her for wanting to try something different, but with this book, she forgot to show instead of tell. I couldn't even get through it. And it's such a shame because this is a good story; instead, Berg just tells you about the things that happen to this person, and even though it's a first-person narrative, it feels so dissociated that I can't help but think the author was dissociated while writing it. Something of her own warmth and humor would have lent well to this story.
I don't blame her for wanting to try something different, but with this book, she forgot to show instead of tell. I couldn't even get through it. And it's such a shame because this is a good story; instead, Berg just tells you about the things that happen to this person, and even though it's a first-person narrative, it feels so dissociated that I can't help but think the author was dissociated while writing it. Something of her own warmth and humor would have lent well to this story.
margaretmechinus's review against another edition
I have loved every Elizabeth Berg book I have read until now.
kdurham2's review against another edition
2.0
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
Lots of love affairs and a little bit of writing and publishing, but nothing felt right given the time period. Set in the 1830s and 1840s in Paris, a woman who wants to be a writer and is separating from her husband just didn't work for me. I have since looked up Aurore/George Sand and know that the story is based in truth, but throughout my whole reading I just couldn't put my finger on why it didn't work for me and didn't seem at all plausible.
Although George Sand becomes an interesting figure in publishing, I felt like the book didn't focus on that, but instead focused on the many love affairs and moves from home to home. At a certain point, I didn't care about all the sleeping around and wanted more dynamic action from the story.
Lots of love affairs and a little bit of writing and publishing, but nothing felt right given the time period. Set in the 1830s and 1840s in Paris, a woman who wants to be a writer and is separating from her husband just didn't work for me. I have since looked up Aurore/George Sand and know that the story is based in truth, but throughout my whole reading I just couldn't put my finger on why it didn't work for me and didn't seem at all plausible.
Although George Sand becomes an interesting figure in publishing, I felt like the book didn't focus on that, but instead focused on the many love affairs and moves from home to home. At a certain point, I didn't care about all the sleeping around and wanted more dynamic action from the story.