Among women Balzac's most noted literary friend was George Sand, whom he called "my brother George." In 1831 Madame Dudevant, having attained some literary fame by the publication of /Indiana/, desired to meet the author of /La Peau de Chagrin/, who was living in the rue Cassini, and asked a mutual friend to introduce her.[*] After she had expressed her admiration for the talent of the young author, he in turn complimented her on her recent work, and as was his custom, changed the conversation to talk of himself and his plans. She found this interview helpful and he promised to counsel her. After this introduction Balzac visited her frequently. He would go puffing up the stairs of the many-storied house on the quai Saint-Michel where she lived. The avowed purpose of these visits was to advise her about her work, but thinking of some story he was writing, he would soon begin to talk of it.
[*] Different statements have been made as to who introduced George Sand to Balzac. In her /Histoire de ma Vie/, George Sand merely says it was a friend (a man). Gabriel Ferry, /Balzac et ses Amies/, makes the same statement. Seche et Bertaut, /Balzac/, state that it was La Touche who presented her to him, but Miss K. P. Wormeley, /A Memoir of Balzac/, and Mme. Wladimir Karenine, /George Sand/, state that it was Jules Sandeau who presented her to him. Confirming this last statement, the Princess Radziwill states that it was Jules Sandeau, and that her aunt, Madame Honore de Balzac, has so told her.
They seem to have had many enjoyable hours with each other. She relates that one evening when she and some friends had been dining with Balzac, after a rather peculiar dinner he put on with childish glee, a beautiful brand-new /robe de chambre/ to show it to them, and purposed to accompany them in this costume to the Luxembourg, with a candlestick in his hand. It was late, the place was deserted, and when George Sand suggested that in returning home he might be assassinated, he replied: "Not at all! If I meet thieves they will think me insane, and will be afraid of me, or they will take me for a prince, and will respect me." It was a beautiful calm night, and he accompanied them thus, carrying his lighted candle in an exquisite carved candlestick, talking of his four Arabian horses, which he never had had, but which he firmly believed he was going to have. He would have conducted them to the other end of Paris, if they had permitted him.
Once George Sand and Balzac had a discussion about the /Contes droletiques/ during which she said he was shocking, and he retorted that she was a prude, and departed, calling to her on the stairway: "/Vous n'etes qu'une bete!/" But they were only better friends after this.
Early in their literary career Balzac held this opinion of her: "She has none of the littleness of soul nor any of the base jealousies which obscure the brightness of so much contemporary talent. Dumas resembles her in this respect. George Sand is a very noble friend, and I would consult her with full confidence in my moments of doubt on the logical course to pursue in such or such a situation; but I think she lacks the instinct of criticism: she allows herself to be too easily persuaded; she does not understand the art of refuting the arguments of her adversary nor of justifying herself." He summarized their differences by telling her that she sought man as he ought to be, but that he took him as he is.
If Madame Hanska was not jealous of George Sand, she was at least interested to know the relations existing between her and Balzac, for we find him explaining: "Do not fear, madame, that Zulma Dudevant will ever see me attached to her chariot. . . . I only speak of this because more celebrity is fastened on that woman than she deserves; which is preparing for her a bitter autumn. . . . /Mon Dieu!/ how is it that with such a splendid forehead you can think little things! I do not understand why, knowing my aversion for George Sand, you make me out her friend." Since Madame Hanska was making a collection of autographs of famous people, Balzac promised to send her George Sand's, and he wished also to secure one of Aurore Dudevant, so that she might have her under both forms.
It is interesting to note that at various times Balzac compared Madame Hanska to George Sand. While he thought his "polar star" far more beautiful, she reminded him of George Sand by her coiffure, attitude and intellect, for she had the same feminine graces, together with the same force of mind.
On his way to Sardinia, Balzac stopped to spend a few days with George Sand at her country home at Nohant. He found his "comrade George" in her dressing-gown, smoking a cigar after dinner in the chimney-corner of an immense solitary chamber. In spite of her dreadful troubles, she did not have a white hair; her swarthy skin had not deteriorated and her beautiful eyes were still dazzling. She had been at Nohant about a year, very sad, and working tremendously. He found her leading about the same life as he; she retired at six in the morning and arose at noon, while he retired at six in the evening and arose at midnight; but he conformed to her habits while spending these three days at her chateau, talking with her from five in the evening till five the next morning; after this, they understood each other better than they had done previously. He had censured her for deserting Jules Sandeau, but afterwards had the deepest compassion for her, as he too had found him to be a most ungrateful friend.
Balzac felt that Madame Dudevant was not lovable, and would always be difficult to love; she was a /garcon/, an artist, she was grand, generous, devoted, chaste; she had the traits of a man,—she was not a woman. He delighted in discussing social questions with a comrade to whom he did not need to show the /galanterie d'epiderme/ necessary in conversation with ordinary women. He thought that she had great virtues which society misconstrued, and that after hours of discussion he had gained a great deal in making her recognize the necessity of marriage. In discussing with him the great questions of marriage and liberty, she said with great pride that they were preparing by their writings a revolution in manners and morals, and that she was none the less struck by the objections to the one than by those to the other.
She knew just what he thought about her; she had neither force of conception, nor the art of pathos, but—without knowing the French language—she had /style/. Like him, she took her glory in raillery, and had a profound contempt for the public, which she called /Jumento/. Defending her past life, he says: "All the follies that she has committed are titles to fame in the eyes of great and noble souls. She was duped by Madame Dorval, Bocage, Lammennais, etc., etc. Through the same sentiment she is now the dupe of Liszt and Madame d'Agoult; she has just realized it for this couple as for la Dorval, for she has one of those minds that are powerful in the study, through intellect, but extremely easy to entrap on the domain of reality."