"Indiana" by George Sand ****

• Book Club selection for February 2015
• French author
• Originally published in 1832
• Debut novel
• Characters:
• Indiana Delmare....protagonist
• M. Delmare...Indiana's husband
• Sir Ralph....dear friend from childhood
• Raymon de Ramiere...Indiana's love, loved the chase
• Introduction by the author:
• "I wrote at the age when one writes instinctively and when reflection serves only to confirm our natural tendencies."
• "I did not expect so much honour, and think I owe these critics the thanks that the hare addressed to the frogs when, on seeing their alarm, he imagined he was entitled to think himself a warlike thunderbolt."
• Preface to the 1832 edition:
• "He knows too well that we live in a time of moral decline, when human reason needs a curtain to soften the overbright light which dazzles it."
• "Perhaps you will do him justice if you agree that he has shown you the misery of the person who wants to free himself from legitimate restraint, the utter distress of the heart that rebels against its destiny's decrees."
• "He will repeat that, feeling too inexperienced to compose a philosophical treatise on how to cope with life, he has limited himself to writing "Indiana", a story of the human heart with its weaknesses its violent feelings, its rights, its wrongs, its good, and its bad."
• "She is woman, the weak creature who is given the task of portraying passions, represses, or if you prefer, suppressed by the law.  She is desire at grips with necessity; she is love dashing her blind head against all the obstacles of civilization."
• "For what a writer should fear most in the world is the alienation from his works of the trust of men of goodwill, the arousal of baneful sympathies in embittered souls, the poisoning of the already acutely painful wounds that the social yoke inflicts on the impatient and rebellious."
• "Perhaps the whole of the storyteller's art consists of interesting in their own stories the guilty whom he wants t reclaim, the wretched whom he wants to cure."...men?
• Preface to the 1842 edition:
• "...still seeking a solution to this insoluble problem:  how to reconcile the happiness and dignity of individuals oppressed by that same society without modifying society itself."
• "It is the cause of half the human race, it is that of the whole human race; for the distress of women entails that of men, as the distress of the slave entails that of the master, and I have tried to demonstrate this in "Indiana".
• But that the mission in itself is divine and sacred, no one can deny, unless he is an atheist as regards progress, unless he is an enemy of truth, a blasphemer of the future, and an unworthy child of France. Liberty of thought, liberty to write and speak, sacred conquest of the human spirit!  What are the petty sufferings and the fleeting cares occasioned by your errors and abuses compared to the infinite blessings you bring to the world?"
• Quotes:
• p.23..."It's not the first time I've noticed how much more power words have than ideas, particularly in France."...?
• p.40..."...self-esteem is, in love, what self-interest is in friendship."...huh?
• p.89..."It was military camp life that had raised brutality to a principle with him."...M. Delmare...and others today
• p.93..."He even made up a character for himself different from his real one so as to attract the Colonel's trust."...Raymon...ironic...just a bit
• p.98..."A Frenchwoman, someone used to society life, would not have lost her head in such a delicate situation."...commentary on the Creole status
• p.98..."Nothing was so humiliating for him as to be reproached for his crime by the woman who had been his innocent accomplice, nothing so bitter as to see Noun mourned by her rival."...Raymon
• p.101..."It was not the first time that Raymon saw a woman take love seriously, although, fortunately for society, such cases are rare; but he knew that promises of love are not binding on a man's honour, again fortunately for society."
• p. 113..."Men, above all when they are in love, want, in their naive self-satisfaction, to protect women's weakness rather than admire their courage."
• p.121..."It is very unwise to introduce politics into families as a pastime."....no kidding
• p.156..."She was cruel out of virtue as he was kind out of weakness; she had too much patience, he did not have enough; she had too much patience, he did not have enough; she had the failings of her virtues but he had the virtues of his failings."
• p.157..."All that territory belongs to the small town inhabitant; you have no right to set foot in it,"..too true
• p.192...."Woman is naturally foolish"...."...men...exercise absolute dominion over the minds of women.  Flattery is the yoke which makes those ardent, frivolous heads bow so low."
• p.213..."Those who don't make too much use of their sensibility sometimes rediscover it safe and unimpaired when it is called for."...Captain Random
• p.238..."...sorrow rivets the chains of our lives instead f breaking them."...Indiana and Ralph
• p.240..."An uprght heart cannot deceive a man who questions it with sincerity."
• Notes:
• Revolution occurred as she came to reality...Raymon's marriage
• Review:  This an interesting novel.  While, if you occasionally enjoy a good melodrama, this is a good selection, I found it inconsistent at times. The protagonist is a classically ethereal beauty who is downtrodden by her husband, who is in love with a scoundrel, and who is beloved by a strong and selfless male friend.  Nothing unusual there.  Stormy, passionate moments define the entire story until the heavens open and provide a peaceful, idyllic ending.  Nothing unusual there either.  I think the strangeness of the story is that the author published this novel under a male pseudonym, and engages in the uncommon habit of addressing the reader, as a man observing female behavior.  I found myself thinking of Shakespeare's "play within a play".  Clearly the author was working through the natural character of women, if there is such a thing.  See what you think by the idyllic end!