Tag Archives: George Sand

vichy waters: borborygmic belches

Taking the waters at Vichy. Where fitness was not the only end in view. The thermal spa at Vichy and its warm springs had a very slow rise to international fame. The patronage of Rabelais and generations of consumptive Britons … Continue reading

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turgenov: sorely disappointed

…Turgenov. The great emancipator. Turgenov helped bring freedom to the serfs by an ingenuously devastating method: he showed the serfs what their lives were like. Turgenov returns from Berlin to take a post in the Russian Ministry of the Interior… … Continue reading

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napoleon: romantic muse and not amused

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. So said Dickens. But it was. As Napoleon began his rather blood-soaked, chaotic  and passionate rule of France he met the force of two women , “femmes fatales” … Continue reading

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montaigne’s soul daughters

Michel de Montaigne invented what can be termed the “personal essay” at the dawn of the seventeenth-century. It was seen quickly by Marie de Gournay that Montaigne’s disdain for logic and linear progression was part of a larger attack on … Continue reading

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heine sight is everything

The personification of a straight line. Those who philosophize everything delicious out of life. Does the ancient land of dreams still exist? Heine did not believe that it would so soon come to pass; there were too many black ravens … Continue reading

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small is beautiful: a free man in paris

It was a time when Paris was a city for the young. Students, painters, intellectuals, journalists, grisettes: all were there along with a young German poet who recorded a period of creative ferment between one revolution and the next. …. … Continue reading

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chopin of dissonance: nocturnes on renunciations of reality

For sixteen prolific years in France prior to splitting with George Sand, Chopin had produced an uninterrupted stream of masterpieces on such a consistently brilliant level of craftsmanship and invention that it is well-nigh impossible to talk of a bell … Continue reading

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Sand and Chopin….. etudes of the muse or the ballade of the…vampire

George Sand is often cast as the villain of the piece, though actually, she did wonders for Frederic Chopin by shielding him from the buffetings of the world. Chopin’s connection with Madame Dudevant, the French novelist, better known as “George … Continue reading

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liberated from foursquare classical rhythms

His life was brilliant and brief, much like his masterpieces on the piano. This segment tracks Frederic Chopin in Paris. He had left Poland to spend eight inhospitable months in Vienna before making his way to Paris at he time … Continue reading

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Chopin and the unpredictable mazurka

Chopin’s Polishness went deeper than the color of his passport. From a musical standpoint, in fact, it was of paramount importance because of the way Polish folk music shaped his whole thinking on questions of rhythm and melody. His formal … Continue reading

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