SAND George (1804-1876).

Lot 206
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Estimation :
800 - 1000 EUR
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Result : 930EUR
SAND George (1804-1876).
L.A.S. "George", [Nohant, November 8, 1843], to Charles DUVERNET; 4 pages in-4. Beautiful and long letter on the affair of Fanchette .../... [Sand took up the cause of little Fanchette, a simple-minded girl, found wandering near La Châtre and entrusted to the hospice; the nuns, having sent her away several times, had her abandoned in the countryside near Aubusson. Sand and her friends, informed of the girl's disappearance, had her sought out, and an investigation was opened; she was later found in Riom. Sans told her story in two articles in La Revue indépendante, which were published in a booklet sold for the benefit of Fanchette]. "CHOPIN tells me that you can send your piano as soon as you like. [Arnault the printer has agreed to print 500 copies of Fanchette, for a very small sum to be divided among people of good will, and which I would take care of if necessary, provided that it was not too ostentatious. I would be accused of literary vanity or political hatred or love of scandal if I seemed to be pushing for a particular publicity in the locality. I don't care about that, but it would perhaps diminish in some minds the good impression that the reading of the fact has produced. Indignation is good for human beings and it is what they lack most at this time. If we could arouse a little of this feeling in the workers and craftsmen of La Châtre, it would make them better, if only for a quarter of an hour, and that is always enough. I would therefore be flattered to move this audience for a moment and I believe that anyone who can spell can understand Blaise Bonnin's trivial style. What can we do with a newspaper! I would provide you with a series of letters of the same kind, where the smallest subjects treated with good faith, with mockery or with anger, would make some impression on the people of the small state, and you know that it is those who occupy me. The stupidest of them are more educable in my opinion than the most famous of us, for the same reason that an uneducated child can learn everything, and that a learned and skilful old man can no longer reform any vice or error in him. This applies only to our generation. It would be to deny the future and God forbid! Everyone will correct themselves, great and small. But if we give today some lessons to the children, I am convinced that they will repay us one day. As for Fanchette, she would like to "open a small subscription for her. That would do her good, and it would increase the scandal, which is not bad either. My idea was to sell a part of the copies of her story at a low price, and for her benefit, we would have distributed the other one free of charge to craftsmen. [...] it is necessary to know in which hands Fanchette will be placed. If it's to the sisters of the hospital, won't she be the victim of their resentment? Shouldn't we and couldn't we take her away? I could well entrust her in my village to some honest and poor woman who would find it worth her while to take good care of her"... Correspondence, t. VI, n° 2736.
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