George Sand: Thwarted Newspaper Publisher or Pioneer Literary Journalist?

Abstract

This article argues that Sand's newspaper publishing activities—from their inception in 1841 to their decline at the end of the Second Republic—deserve recognition within the history of the press. Hitherto neglected writings are analysed as a hybrid form of literary journalism according to some definitions of the genre provided by Norman Sims. This permits a focus on Sand's ‘flights of imagination’, articles written under pseudonyms and in the voices of fictional characters, created as a tool for idealistic political education. The now classic Benedict Anderson paradigm of ‘imagined communities’ is used to contextualise Sand's use of the vernacular and helps to position her contribution towards the use of newspapers as a vehicle for the communication of democratic and progressive ideas.

Notes

 [1] For an introduction, see my chapter in Keeble & Walker (2007).

 [2] See also Sims (1984); Campbell (2000).

 [3] Sand's status as a woman must remain a constant factor in any assessment of her journalistic contribution, and her ambiguous position within the history of feminism has already been subject to much scholarly interest. The early feminist writers in France, producing journalism exclusively by and for women, came from the ranks of Saint-Simonian followers, but Sand gave priority to a universal class struggle, rejecting separatist gender campaigning for the vote. She took the view that women's liberation was best achieved by the extension of civil liberties such as divorce and by the gradual achievement of economic independence (Adler 1979; Walton 2000; Michaud 1994).

 [4] In 1848 the provisional government suspended stamp duty and on 6 March most of the September 1835 legislation was abolished. Caution money was retained, but provisionally suspended (Collins 1959, p. 102; Chapman 2005a, p. 37).

 [5] The town in north-east Creuse is associated with Leroux, but Sand based her novel Jeanne around the chateau and the nearby villages. She took refuge at the chateau during the 1870 war.

 [6] Sand always claimed she had brought him up according to Leroux's philosophy.

 [7] Reynaud was on the extreme left in the assembly, and shared a belief in reincarnation with Leroux, who broke off their friendship when Reynaud decided that reincarnated spirits travelled from planet to planet (Zeldin 1973, p. 454).

 [8] The prophet of the revolutionary Italian nationalist movement and leader of ‘Young Italy’ spent most of his life in exile in Marseilles, Berne and London. After the failure of the 1848 Revolution in France, Ledru-Rollin launched a short-lived newspaper (Le Proscrit) jointly with Mazzini, thereby excluding Louis Blanc who was also in exile in London. Sand tried to mediate in the feud between Ledru-Rollin and Blanc.

 [9] I use this journalistic term in its present day meaning as a style of reporting that requires immersion in the subject matter.

[10] Sand's support for ‘communism’ (in the pre-Marxist, utopian sense of egalitarian community) had provoked opposition from others, including some of the Parisian literati, as early as 1841. Lamennais claimed in correspondence that potential contributors to La Revue indépendante withdrew their support because they did not want to be associated with Sand's communism, as expressed in the novel Horace which the journal planned to serialise (Lubin footnote, Sand 1964–92, vol. 5, p. 536).

[11] The rapid appearance then disappearance of small circulation radical newspapers was typical of the period, mirrored simultaneously in Britain by the rise and fall of the ‘radical press’ (Chapman 2005b, p. 8).

[12] It is possible that Sand translated the article in question (Hamon 2001, p. 311).

[13] For a history of the press, see Albert & Terrou (1979); Bellanger et al. (1969); Ferenczi (1993); Voyenne (1985).