&w=3840&q=75)
&w=3840&q=75)
&w=3840&q=75)
&w=3840&q=75)
&w=3840&q=75)
&w=3840&q=75)
122
SAND George (1804-1876).
The item was sold for 1 040 €
Fees include commission and taxes.
SAND George (1804-1876).
L.A., [La Châtre 17 May 1836], to her son Maurice DUDEVANT| 4 pages in-4 (folds split, small tear with 2 words missing).
Amazing letter of advice from George Sand to her son Maurice.
[She is responding here to Maurice's letter of May 15, 1836, in which he complained about the mockery of his comrades towards his mother "because you are a woman who writes [...] they call you, I will not be able to tell you the word because it is too naughty, P... I am telling you in spite of myself..."
(Correspondence, vol. III, p. 358)] "My dear child, the college is a prison, and the pawns are tyrants.
But you see that humanity is so corrupt, so gross, that it must be led with the whip and chains. I see that your comrades have already lost the innocence of their age, and that without a severe yoke, they would indulge in shameful vices. All the colleges [...] are infected with this dreadful vice, with these filthy things which your ears are revolted by. [...] Those who, like you, have not lost their purity, are the exception [...] Life is a war, my poor child, and you are entering the field. The good are in eternal struggle against the bad, and the bad are numerous, but they do not have the moral force, and it is that which triumphs. Let a profound contempt for ignoble amusements, for dirty words, be your defense. Remember that I have brought you up with ideas of chastity, and that all my happiness is to cultivate you like a beautiful flower sheltered from caterpillars and cantharids. Remember the boundless confidence I have always had in you. From the moment you could walk and talk, I treated you as a friend. I told you the dangers to which your childhood would be exposed, and you promised me not to succumb to them. She entrusted her sister Solange to him: "You must be her support, her counsel, her defender. Your sister is an angel of innocence, her soul is as pure as her face is beautiful and fresh"... She expects Maurice to abhor crude amusements, compared to "those in our room, our holidays, our walks in the woods, our good talks, our evening doodles, your peaceful sleep when your sister snores or laughs beside you. [...] Everything is calm, pure, and happy. My greatest happiness would be to have you always. But I cannot. Your father wants you to go to college [...] All that you suffer is necessary for you to become a man, to learn to distinguish good from evil, true joy from sorrow"... She sees him as "a brave soldier"... Etc.
Then she replies to the mockery and attacks against her: "Don't worry about it. You know that my writings are the talk of the town, and that they are also the talk of curiosity and idleness, of all people who write a lot. [...]
When these things are said in your presence, you have a very simple answer to make. - She is my mother, do you feel like saying bad things about her in front of me, and do you think I can hear it? - Then turn your back and go away".
She recommends that he keep away from grown-ups, "much more corrupt than the little ones", and who "sometimes insult them. [Keep your pride as a treasure". And if evil thoughts come to her, "raise your soul to heaven, think of the guardian angels, of your sister, of the beautiful flowers of Nohant, of the moss of our woods, of all that is pure and laughing, you will then find vice so ugly that you will spit on it. And she ends: "Farewell, my little angel [...] I press you in my arms with love".
PROVENANCE Former Sacha GUITRY collection (sale 21 November 1974, n° 86).
Correspondence, t. XXV, p. 270 (S 139).
L.A., [La Châtre 17 May 1836], to her son Maurice DUDEVANT| 4 pages in-4 (folds split, small tear with 2 words missing).
Amazing letter of advice from George Sand to her son Maurice.
[She is responding here to Maurice's letter of May 15, 1836, in which he complained about the mockery of his comrades towards his mother "because you are a woman who writes [...] they call you, I will not be able to tell you the word because it is too naughty, P... I am telling you in spite of myself..."
(Correspondence, vol. III, p. 358)] "My dear child, the college is a prison, and the pawns are tyrants.
But you see that humanity is so corrupt, so gross, that it must be led with the whip and chains. I see that your comrades have already lost the innocence of their age, and that without a severe yoke, they would indulge in shameful vices. All the colleges [...] are infected with this dreadful vice, with these filthy things which your ears are revolted by. [...] Those who, like you, have not lost their purity, are the exception [...] Life is a war, my poor child, and you are entering the field. The good are in eternal struggle against the bad, and the bad are numerous, but they do not have the moral force, and it is that which triumphs. Let a profound contempt for ignoble amusements, for dirty words, be your defense. Remember that I have brought you up with ideas of chastity, and that all my happiness is to cultivate you like a beautiful flower sheltered from caterpillars and cantharids. Remember the boundless confidence I have always had in you. From the moment you could walk and talk, I treated you as a friend. I told you the dangers to which your childhood would be exposed, and you promised me not to succumb to them. She entrusted her sister Solange to him: "You must be her support, her counsel, her defender. Your sister is an angel of innocence, her soul is as pure as her face is beautiful and fresh"... She expects Maurice to abhor crude amusements, compared to "those in our room, our holidays, our walks in the woods, our good talks, our evening doodles, your peaceful sleep when your sister snores or laughs beside you. [...] Everything is calm, pure, and happy. My greatest happiness would be to have you always. But I cannot. Your father wants you to go to college [...] All that you suffer is necessary for you to become a man, to learn to distinguish good from evil, true joy from sorrow"... She sees him as "a brave soldier"... Etc.
Then she replies to the mockery and attacks against her: "Don't worry about it. You know that my writings are the talk of the town, and that they are also the talk of curiosity and idleness, of all people who write a lot. [...]
When these things are said in your presence, you have a very simple answer to make. - She is my mother, do you feel like saying bad things about her in front of me, and do you think I can hear it? - Then turn your back and go away".
She recommends that he keep away from grown-ups, "much more corrupt than the little ones", and who "sometimes insult them. [Keep your pride as a treasure". And if evil thoughts come to her, "raise your soul to heaven, think of the guardian angels, of your sister, of the beautiful flowers of Nohant, of the moss of our woods, of all that is pure and laughing, you will then find vice so ugly that you will spit on it. And she ends: "Farewell, my little angel [...] I press you in my arms with love".
PROVENANCE Former Sacha GUITRY collection (sale 21 November 1974, n° 86).
Correspondence, t. XXV, p. 270 (S 139).