Water Imagery in George Sand’s Work

This collection of essays highlights the importance of water imagery in the work of the renowned nineteenth-century French female author George Sand. It provides a complex picture of the polyvalent presence of water in Sand’s work that encompasses life and death imagery, ecocriticism, fluid kinship, homosocial ties, and artistic creativity.

Drawing on Gaston Bachelard’s premise that the substance of water carries deep meaning, the articles here explore the element of water and its symbolism in a selection of George Sand’s writings, from her most famous novels (Indiana, Lélia, and Consuelo) to her later works, short stories, plays, and autobiographical writing (Teverino, Jean de la Roche, Les Maîtres sonneurs, La reine Coax, L’Homme de neige, Le Drac, Un hiver à Majorque, Marianne).