With his wife dead and three young children to raise, ploughman Germaine decides that the time has come to marry again. He embarks on a journey to meet a rich widow, Catherine Leonard, in a match that has been approved by his father-in-law; however, he finds her proud and vain and surrounded by other suitors. Germaine prefers the company of Marie, a young shepherdess from his own village, but she is insistent that she wants a younger, more suitable husband...Influential French author George Sand(1804-76) is best known for two groups of novels; a series of romantic tales and a collection of country-life idylls.
Casada a los 16 años con un marqués ya mayor quedó viuda a los 16 años y medio. La primera experiencia con el sexo opuesto que tuvo la marquesa fue totalmente negativa y eso le hizo estar muy condicionada con respecto a los hombres. El problema de la sociedad de la época era que una mujer no podía estar sin un marido que la apoyara o un amante al menos, sin sufrir la humillación sarcasmo y ridículo del entorno social. Para detener este acoso constante la marquesa aceptó un amante que no le gustaba, el un tanto torpe y estúpido vizconde de Larrieux. Desesperanzada, tiempo después, la marquesa conoce el amor apasionado, platónico y romántico.
George Sand was the pseudonym of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin (1804-1876), and was a much admired French novelist and memoirist. She is equally well known for her much-publicized romantic affairs with a number of celebrities including Frédéric Chopin and Alfred de Musset. It was the way Sand turned her own love affairs into novels and stories packed with vehemence of spirit which endeared her to her audience.
In The Marquise, Sand displays her instinctive feeling for the true sense of the "conte" or short story. She neither analyses nor explains the character of the old noblewoman who fell in love with an actor, she merely suggests the strength of passion in the cold, cynical, aged beauty. She leaves the listener's imagination vibrating with its own images thrown up by the hints she gives. A truly exceptional short story.
Dans la lignée des romans inspirés du monde paysan, 'La Mare au diable' est le parcours de Germain et Marie qui, déçus par les choix qu'ils ont faits, retournent dans leur village où ils s'avouent leurs sentiments. C'est un roman champêtre et social par l'intermédiaire duquel George Sand exalte l'amour de son Berry natal et son idéal de réconciliation des classes à travers la peinture du milieu paysan dont elle décrit la noblesse et les valeurs, face à une société capitaliste pervertie.
