George Sand, The Bagpipers (Cassandra Editions, an Imprint of Academy Press Limited, 1977)
George Sand, The Black City (Carroll & Graf, 2004)
In the last decade or so, I've read quite a lot of nineteenth-century French literature in English translations. With the exception of George Sand, all of the authors of these books were men. Yes, my dear, George Sand really was a woman, the nom de plume for Amantine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, born in Paris in 1804 of an aristocratic father and a decidedly proletarian mother. France during the nineteenth century was a pretty wild place, and Mlle. Dupin, who in 1822 became Mme. Dudevant, was a pretty wild woman, even by our contemporary standards. She traveled extensively on the European Continent, had several lovers (including the pianist and composer Chopin), and socialized with numerous other literati and musicians (among them Balzac, Flaubert, and Liszt). Active in leftist politics (variously republican, socialist and communist over the course of her life), she published a magazine titled La Cause du Peuple, occasionally wore men's clothing and smoked cigars. Her diaries and extensive correspondence provide a detailed picture of her life, loves and passionate ideas. Sand also wrote seventy-some novels and novellas, the first (Aimée) published in 1830. Only a handful of these are currently in print in English translations.
The Bagpipers (Les Maitre Sonneurs) was initially published in 1853. It's a 'pastoral' novel; much of the action takes place in rural Berry (not far from Sand's own country home in Nohant) and the principal characters are simple working folk. Sand presents the story as her re-telling of a tale she heard from an old man when she was a child. The narrator, Etienne, is this same old man recalling events that took place when he was young, in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Sand maintains the storytelling form by naming the chapters 'First Evening' through 'Thirty-Second Evening," as though each represented the part of the tale told in one night. She does not, however, have her narrator refer to his present-time surroundings or audience in the text.
Etienne's story is largely about the uncertainties of romantic love. He and another young man, Joseph, are rivals for the affections of a young woman named Brulette. Joseph plays the bagpipes and longs to become a master in their playing. His desire, coupled with the fact that many people in the village treat him badly, leads him to travel far away. This story could have remained a simple love triangle, but two other characters complicate the plot. Huriel is a mule driver and piper from the Bourbonnais region who occasionally passes through Nohant with his fellow drivers and their herd of pack animals. Etienne and Brulette travel with Huriel to his home in search of their missing friend. There they meet Huriel's younger sister Therence. These four learn to understand and appreciate each other as they try to help Joseph achieve his dream.
Although the book's title in French doesn't refer to bagpipes (sonneur means bellringer), the narration leaves no doubt as to the instrument. Here is how our narrator describes Joseph's bagpipe:
It had double bellows, one of which measured five feet from end to end; and the wood of the instrument, which was black cherry, dazzled the eyes with the pewter ornaments…which were inlaid at all the joints. The wind-bag was of handsome leather tied with a knot of calico . . . the whole workmanship was done . . .so . . . that it took only a very little breath to fill the bag and send out a sound like thunder.
In fact, we have in the Green Man collection a CD entitled Coeur de France that gives a good sampling of traditional bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy music from this region.
The Cassandra Edition of The Bagpipers doesn't give credit to a translator. It's a paperbound reprint of an edition published by Little, Brown in 1899 (I confirmed that date and even found a copy of the original available online) using a typeface many modern readers would find a bit challenging. The current publisher has added a chronology of key dates in the author's life, which I found quite useful. Although the book isn't in print right now, affordable copies are pretty easy to find online. I remember first seeing the title a few years ago at our local Borders -- I've never figured out how they acquire some of their stock! I found my copy for $1 in the 'last chance' cart outside our campus bookstore.
The Black City (La Ville Noire) first came out in 1860. Carroll & Graf claim that their edition, translated by Tina A. Kover, is the first English release of this title. It's certainly the only one I can find on the 'net. Whereas The Bagpipers is clearly a pastoral novel, I'd characterize The Black City as an industrial novel -- although I don't find it quite so obvious a candidate for this genre as some of the other industrial novels written by British and French authors during this period, such as Bronte's Shirley, Gaskell's North and South, or Zola's Germinal. At 183 pages, with relatively large type and lots of white space, The Black City is a lot shorter than The Bagpipers. I read it all the way through in one evening, something I hardly ever do!
Written in third person narrative style, The Black City is also about a young man named Etienne, this one a metalsmith called Sept-Epees (seven blades) in recognition of his skill. He lives and works in a place known as the Hellhole, a river district made black by the output of several mills and factories. On the hill above the river is the clean, bright and comfortable Upper Town, to which the more ambitious residents of the Hellhole aspire. An orphan, he lives with his elderly godfather, who teaches him his trade. He is in love with a young woman named Tonine, another orphan, who works in a paper mill. Both Etienne and Tonine are independent, stubborn and ambitious, and so they shy away from getting married. The plot follows Etienne through a number of less-than-successful attempts to better his financial situation in order to make himself a more attractive match for Tonine. The story has a happy, if somewhat contrived, ending.
Although I appreciate Carroll & Graf's publishing an English translation of The Black City, I would have liked to see some value-added in the form of a brief introduction to the life and work of Sand as well as the historical context of this novel -- particularly since the narration itself doesn't really accomplish that! Sand was obviously trying for something allegorical in The Black City, and leaves the reader with no sense of its actual setting or the time period in which the story takes place. To add to the temporal confusion, an old factory owner tells Etienne he recalls a time that the plague took many lives in the town.
As you may have guessed by now, I preferred The Bagpipers to The Black City -- but I don't plan to track down every English translation of Sand the way I nearly have the works of Balzac and Zola. I read fiction from this historical period in large part to get a better understanding of what life was like for people in those times. I value period novels that refer to actual political events and real historical figures. I also prefer novels that describe characters and elements of physical culture like food and clothing and furniture and conveyances in some detail. Balzac and Zola, not to mention English writers of this period, like Dickens and Trollope, also knew how and when to introduce humor into their stories. Sand is too serious for my taste. Given what I learned about her life while reading these novels and writing this review, I would have expected her writing style to be considerably more engaging.
