%%id:228%% %%start:review%% ## Review I was curious about Georges Sand's writing so I bought a very small book called Pauline. I tried to read it once but it didn't catch me enough so I stop reading it two years ago. I had a bit of time between two books that fitted the length of this one (125 pages), so I decided to give it another chance. I don't know why it didn't catch my attention the first I read because it's an awesome book. As it may suggest, Pauline is the name of one of the main character. It's a story about two old friends, Pauline and Laurence, that come from the same village in the profound France countryside but didn't see each other from a very long time. Pauline stayed in her little village with her mother while Laurence came to Paris and became a renown actress. When Laurence needed to travel to Lyon, she had a forced stop to her former city so she took this as an opportunity to go to Pauline's house. Like a lot of french author from the XIXth century, they hide social studies behind stories that depict bland lives and love stories from people living in the countryside. Pauline isn't very different than [Eugénie Grandet - Honoré De Balzac](Eugénie%20Grandet%20-%20Honoré%20De%20Balzac.md) or [Thérèse Raquin - Émile Zola](Thérèse%20Raquin%20-%20Émile%20Zola.md). Thoses three has their tidy and borring life in common. They all spend their time sewing and taking care of their mother in their dreary village. They then fall in love with a man from a bigger city that will change for worst their already lonely life. But what's interesting in those French author, are the richness of the vocabulary and the descriptive phases, allowing the reader to understand all the complexity behind character's feelings and traits, as well as the interaction and dynamics between them. For each of theses novel, the author try to enlight one specific sin. Here, this sin is jealousy. We understand very early that Pauline has a complex feeling toward Laurence, that is share between jealousy and admiration, even though she consider Laurence as her very best friend (with reciprocity). The impossible love part is emphasizing this aspect as Pauline is so jealous of Laurence that she even let a man fool her in order to show herself as desirable as Laurence is. This is where the sin is totally visible and where Georges Sand is showing her abitility to treat the subject through the prism of Pauline's social weaknesses. It's also very interesting to discover how conservative was the XIXth century France and the big mindset difference between the large cities inhabitant and the countryside one. I really liked it and would recommand it to people who like sociology and the French novel classicism from the XIXth century. %%end:review%% --- _The following was auto-generated by [Books and Binders](Books%20and%20Binders.md) and relates to the copy I own_ ## Pauline This book from George Sand was edited by Folio and released 03/2015. I had it for 2.0€ from Fnac. I didn't read the 142 pages yet. ## More on this book : - Buying date : 23/03/2017 - Buying condition : brand_new - Actual condition : good - Book type : physical - Binding : paperback - Language : French - Category : Novel XIXth - ISBN : 9782070342082 - Weight in grams : 92