“Faut-il nécessairement que la beauté s’ignore pour ne rien perdre de son éclat ? ” : le goût et la grâce dans Le Piccinino de George Sand

Abstract

In Histoire de ma vie, George Sand claims that the main reason she wrote Le Piccinino (1847) was so that she could present her views on the nobility in three central chapters. While using the discourse of the nobility on itself, in particular when it comes to the relationship between heredity and aristocratic memory, she also subverts this discourse by democratizing the relationship between memory and lineage. The rest of the novel offers many representations of noblewomen and noblemen, who all seem to share a specific trait: good taste and grace of manners, whose degree seems to accurately represent their position in society. This essay will explore these two facets of the nobility and the way in which they conspire to display an aura of natural superiority, while simultaneously being undermined by Sand’s very personal opinion, as she strives to dispel this long-lasting illusion.