During this week-end visit, Madame Dudevant related to Balzac the story of Liszt and Madame d'Agoult, which he reproduced in /Beatrix/, since in her position, she could not do so herself. In the same book, George Sand is portrayed as Mademoiselle des Touches, with the complexion, pale olive by day, and white under artificial light, characteristic of Italian beauty. The face, rather long than oval, resembles that of some beautiful Isis. Her hair, black and thick, falls in plaited loops over her neck, like the head-dress with rigid double locks of the statues at Memphis, accentuating very finely the general severity of her features. She has a full, broad forehead, bright with its smooth surface on which the light lingers, and molded like that of a hunting Diana; a powerful, wilful brow, calm and still. The eyebrows, strongly arched, bend over the eyes in which the fire sparkles now and again like that of fixed stars. The cheek-bones, though softly rounded, are more prominent than in most women, and confirm the impression of strength. The nose, narrow and straight, has high-cut nostrils, and the mouth is arched at the corners. Below the nose the lip is faintly shaded by a down that is wholly charming; nature would have blundered if she had not placed there that tender smoky tinge.
Balzac admitted that this was the portrait of Madame Dudevant, saying
that he rarely portrayed his friends, exceptions being G. Planche in
Claude Vignon, and George Sand in Camille Maupin (Mademoiselle des
Touches), both with their consent.
Madame Dudevant was an excessive smoker, and during Balzac's visit to her, she had him smoke a hooka and latakia which he enjoyed so much that he wrote to Madame Hanska, asking her to get him a hooka in Moscow, as he thought she lived near there, and it was there or in Constantinople that the best could be found; he wished her also, if she could find true latakia in Moscow, to send him five or six pounds, as opportunities were rare to get it from Constantinople. Later, on his visit to Sardinia, he wrote her from Ajaccio: "As for the latakia, I have just discovered (laugh at me for a whole year) that Latakia is a village of the island of Cyprus, a stone's throw from here, where a superior tobacco is made, named from the place, and that I can get it here. So mark out that item."[*]
[*] /Lettres a l'Etrangere. This contradicts the statement of S. de Lovenjoul, /Bookman/, that Balzac had a horror of tobacco and is known to have smoked only once, when a cigar given him by Eugene Sue made him very ill. He evidently had this excerpt of a letter in mind: "I have never known what drunkenness was, except from a cigar which Eugene Sue made me smoke against my will, and it was that which enabled me to paint the drunkenness for which you blame me in the /Voyage a Java/." This visit to George Sand was made five years after this letter was written. Or S. de Lovenjoul might have had in mind the statement of Theophile Gautier that Balzac could not endure tobacco in any form; he anathematized the pipe, proscribed the cigar, did not even tolerate the Spanish /papelito/, and only the Asiatic narghile found grace in his sight. He allowed this only as a curious trinket, and on account of its local color.
George Sand and Balzac discussed their work freely and did not hesitate to condemn either plot or character of which they did not approve. Some of Balzac's women shocked her, but she liked /La premiere Demoiselle/ (afterwards L'Ecole des Manages), a play which Madame Surville found superb, but which Madame Hanska discouraged because she did not like the plot. She aided him in a financial manner by signing one of his stories, /Voyage d'un Moineau de Paris/. At that time, Balzac needed money and Stahl (Hetzel) refused to insert in his book, /Scenes de la Vie privee de Animaux/ (2 vols., 1842), this story of Balzac's, who had already furnished several articles for this collection. George Sand signed her name, and in this way, Balzac obtained the money.
Madame Dudevant not only remained a true friend to Balzac in a literary and financial sense, but was glad to defend his character, and was firm in refuting statements derogatory to him. In apologizing to him for an article that had appeared without her knowledge in the /Revue independente/, edited by her, she asked his consent to write a large work about him. He tried to dissuade her, telling her that she would create enemies for herself, but, after persistence on her part, he asked her to write a preface to the /Comedie humaine/. The plan of the work, however, was very much modified, and did not appear until after Balzac's death.
Balzac dined frequently with Madame Dudevant and political as well as social and literary questions were discussed. He enjoyed opposing her views; after his return from his prolonged visit to Madame Hanska in St. Petersburg (1843), George Sand twitted him by asking him to give his /Impressions de Voyage/.
A story told at Issoudun illustrates further the genial association of the two authors: Balzac was dining one day at the Hotel de la Cloche in company with George Sand. She had brought her physician, who was to accompany her to Nohant. The conversation turned on the subject of insane people, and the peculiar manner in which the exterior signs of insanity are manifested. The physician claimed to be an expert in recognizing an insane person at first sight. George Sand asked very seriously: "Do you see any here?" Balzac was eating, as always, ravenously, and his tangled hair followed the movement of his head and arm. "There is one!" said the Doctor; "no doubt about it!" George Sand burst out laughing, Balzac also, and, the introduction made, the confused physician was condemned to pay for the dinner.
Balzac expresses his admiration for her in the dedication of the
/Memoires de deux jeunes mariees/:
"To George Sand.