arts, ideas & societyLibrary of Congress: In Custodia Legis1804 · France
150 Years After Her Death: George Sand and the Napoleonic Code of 1804
George Sand was the pen name of Amantine Dupin, a 19th-century French novelist who wrote about women's independence and equality. She was born in 1804, the year Napoleon's Civil Code took effect, and that code placed married women under their husbands' authority: the husband was the legal head of the household, and the wife owed him obedience. A married woman had no legal domicile of her own, and her husband managed her property. Sand lived and wrote against those limits, in novels such as Indiana and Lélia and in her support for republican ideas during the Revolution of 1848. The code was later reformed: married women gained control of their own income in 1907, and the head-of-household rule was removed in 1970.
The Napoleonic Code unified French civil law, which had varied by region before 1789, into one written code. Its family provisions gave husbands legal control over marriage and property, and reforms in the 20th century gradually removed those provisions.
The Civil Code shaped family and property law across much of Europe and beyond, so its reform shows how women's legal rights were won in stages. Sand's career shows how novels and public debate could push society toward those changes.
George Sand chose her pen name partly because it was harder for women to be taken seriously as writers at the time.
background
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (French: [amɑ̃tin lysil oʁɔʁ dypɛ̃]; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (French: [ʒɔʁʒ(ə) sɑ̃d]), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balzac in Britain in the 1830s and 1840s, Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. She has more than 50 volumes of various works to her credit, including tales, plays and political texts, alongside her 70 novels.
Like her step great-grandmother, Louise Dupin, whom she admired, George Sand advocated for women's rights and passion, criticized the institution of marriage, and fought against the prejudices of a conservative society. She was considered scandalous because of her turbulent love life, her adoption of masculine clothing, and her masculine pseudonym.
From Wikipedia: George Sand (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗ · text CC BY-SA 4.0see
key facts
- Born
- 1 July 1804
- Died
- 8 June 1876
- Known as
- writer, journalist
Facts: Wikidata (CC0)
Illustrative photo · Nadar, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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