Before Marilyn Monroe begin to redefine ageless feminism, history had already noted the great French novelist George Sand. Born Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin in Paris, she was raised primarily in Nohant with her grandmother in an liberal upbringing that would have been considered unbecoming of the woman of the time. The illegitimate offspring of royalty, she was still seen as a commoner in the eyes of bourgeois society.
It was in Sand's early years that she begin to have affairs with various artist, namely the writer Jules Sandeau, which led to her first published shorts in collaboration, in which she signed them "Jules Sand." Sandeau also helped her with her 1831 debut novel "Rose et Blanche," but her first independent novel release a year later gave her her notoriety. Entitled "Indiana" she used the name "George Sand" as a prophylaxis of the time. Women weren't taken seriously as writers but Sand's decision led to her name being the spearhead of her transformation to conform to the time.
Sand returned to Paris, showing up at Salons and soirees dressed in men's clothing, begin smoking and carried herself in a light that men begin to noticed her as a true literary figure and a sexual aphrodisiac.
It was in her torrid affairs, which stirred controversy of the best sorts amongst the who's who of the literary world, that she met the Polish composer and pianist Frederic Chopin (which brought about her novel "A Winter in Majorca") , that made Sand the bellwether of a new age; women following their dreams, living freely, stepping outside of social norms.
Sand met her end at her family home in Nohant, a death that was mourned and honored with the coming eras as the flappers of the 20's, the pin-up girls working on the homefront in the 40's, Marilyn Monroe & the Summer of Love in the 60's, to the present-day where feminism has took its stand. Sand can be credited as one of the first true feminist in history.
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