After watching the movie “ Desire for Love “ about Chopin several times, I started searching more about Chopin’s life to solve some mystery parts, even though it may be impossible to find what is the real truth.
This movie ( Desire for Love ) is so thinkable, and while checking about both Chopin and George Sand ‘s bio, I’m also into George Sand and her life story.
I would never have known about her or cared about her if I didn’t get into Chopin’s bio so much. But without knowing about her, we can not know the truth.
Chopin & Liszt are the most interesting heroes for me right now .
I don’t know why, but if genius is the only reason I’m into them, then there are many different kinds of geniuses in many different subjects , so it must not be the only the reason.
It’s very curious , there are several speculations about Chopin’s love, some information tells like as if it’s the fact that for Chopin, George Sand was always his love of his life, while for George Sand he was one of her lovers in her life.
George Sand published a book called “ Lucrezia Floriani “ which seems to be known as her fiction story account about her relationship with Frederic Chopin.
Karol ,who is a Prince , is the character she created to depict her fictional Chopin , and for George Sand , the fictional character is Lucrezia Floriani, a rich Italian actress.
And I found there are many views for it , some people think it’s the truth about their relationship.
Some think it’s a complete fabrication.
And some think George Sand is all about calculation , no love and a cold person.
To try and figure it all out, we purchased this book Lucrezia Floriani and we also bought Chopin’s personal letters book.
Seems like after George Sand published the book, she got many enemies, especially from many of their friends who knew both of them.
There is a quote about George Sand from Franz Liszt, who was a friend of hers and Chopin.
Liszt said the following in his later years :"Madame Sand would catch a butterfly, cage it, and feed it with herbs and flowers.
That was the period of love.
Then she put a pin through it and it struggled, for it was always she who broke off first. Afterwards she vivisected it and prepared it for her collection of heroes for her novels.
In was trading in souls who had given themselves to her that finally made me sicken of her friendship.
" Again, "She has warmth soley in the works of her imagination, and an utterly cold heart."
Probably, this quote was made after Liszt attended Chopin’s funeral , and noticed George Sand was not there, and he knew Sand hadn’t been visiting Chopin or even contacting him in his final year.
He might also have read her book by that time, and realized that Prince Karol was meant to portray Chopin in a bad light, and he might have been really angry about it.
In Franz Liszt’s Bio book by Alan Walker, there is information that Liszt was really upset about Sand after reading George Sand ’s book Lucrezia Floriani, and hearing that the fictional character Prince Karol in the book, was about Chopin.
And this Liszt quote above, gave me chills when I read it.
He was a friend of both of them, and he had introduced George Sand to Chopin.
We can also see that Liszt was a huge fan of Chopin as well, besides being a friend, as he often played Chopin’s music in his concerts.
Here is another quote about George Sand from someone who knew her,
Jules Sandeau, another one of her lovers whose name she used for her nom de plume, commenting on Madame Sand:
"She is a walking graveyard."
It may be true that until she met Chopin, she was using men for her novels and it might have been her calculation to have love affairs with them.
She was getting anything she wanted until she met Chopin, but from the beginning, Chopin was hard to get for her.
Even after they had close relationship, and from her book it seems that they had a passionate affair for awhile, she might not have been sure that Chopin really loved her.
But in actuality , what was in George Sand’s mind about Chopin when he passed away ,only she herself knew it.
Until she met Chopin, her relationships continued no longer than 2 or 3 years, and it could be possible she may have been having love affairs for her novels.
But she and Chopin’s relationship continued for about 10 years. Another point to consider, is that in the last few years, medical health researchers have noted that it’s quite possible that Chopin’s illness was not tuberculosis, as had long been thought. But rather, the more likely cause of his suffering was Cystic Fibrosis.
Because this disease more closely matches all the symptoms that Chopin had.
Also, Cystic Fibrosis is not contagious. Instead it is genetic, and may run in families.
But in Chopin’s time, Cystic Fibrosis was not well known, and so it was not suspected. Tuberculosis was quite common with some of the same symptoms. Besides, at that time no one could know for sure what Chopin’s illness was, some people were scared to catch his illness, but Sand was with him.
If her purpose to be with Chopin was only for her novel , would she have taken such a risk, besides for 10 years ??
I feel that she really loved Chopin.
The reason why they broke up, might be caused by both her children’s issues.
It seems that the main reason for their breakup was that Chopin sided with Sand’s daughter ( Solange ) and her husband, in a family argument.
Strange thing is Chopin was writing about Sand’s book “ Lucrezia Floriani “ to his sister in his letter to her calmly, explaining some of the content. Chopin and Sand were still in communication with letters to each other until around autumn in 1847.
But after Sand knew Chopin and her daughter Solange and her husband had been often keeping in touch with each other, she might have thought Chopin is on their side, and their relationship ended.
This is so weird. What was the problem that Chopin was nice to Solange and her husband ?
I have good impression with Solange’s husband as well.
Sand was jealous to whoever was nice to Solange, her own daughter ?
In 1847, while Chopin and Sand were still in touch with each other , there is also Chopin’s letter to his sister, where he writes “ Pani Delfina Potocka ( for whom I have a real affection ) was to have called on me with her, but went to Nice a few days ago.
“ Through the years, Delfina was always not available ( married for some time , and also apparently she had some fear of getting Chopin’s illness, which everyone thought was tuberculosis ) but it sounds to me Chopin always had a real affection to her.
He dedicated several music to her as well. While there is no information about that he dedicated any music to George Sand.
And So far, what I found is after his break up with George Sand, Frederic Chopin met a lady called Jane Stirling who was his student and also later he met Jenny Lind who was a famous Swedish Opera singer.
Apparently, at some point Chopin was actually engaged with Jenny Lind to be married, because there seems to have been a marriage application certificate.
My personal review for her book “ Lucrezia Floriani “
I actually couldn’t believe what Sand wrote , and if she wrote this as based on her love life with Chopin and his personality, I think what she did was cruel.
And I can really understand why Franz Liszt got so angry to read it.
I wonder why she wanted to write like that, which created many enemies for her, tarnished her image and almost ruined her career, by trying to destroy the image of the famous composer Frederic Chopin ?
Until I read this book, I was starting to be interested in her as a person with some respect for her braveness and her controversial personality.
If she had never written this book, she might have been known as a great woman author who was Chopin’s girlfriend , and who helped his life.
And all this would have left a great impression about her forever.
And although it seems that she was a very intelligent woman in many ways, however, I found that psychologically, she was not smart. Not really perceptive.
This book was written unfairly, and in it, she’s only guessing what Chopin was feeling, which in actuality, no one can really know what another person is feeling.
It’s like a fiction story and by doing this, she could protect her pride.
It sounds to me that Chopin was not loving who she was.
Chopin always had his own fantasy dream world, and in that world, there was his ideal lady in it.
From the very beginning , George Sand was never his ideal lady in his dream world.
There is a famous quote of Chopin from when he first met her “ I met the famous author George Sand, and there is something about her that repulses me.
“ I feel Chopin was a real artist who was super sensitive for anything, to protect his fantasy world.
And that’s one of the reasons the world has his beautiful music. He loved beauty and elegance.
This is why all his music is so beautiful. He didn’t want to imagine anything which would ruin his world.
George Sand wanted to believe that Chopin was cold to her because of jealousy.
Chopin apparently didn’t like to hear about George’s stormy past life.
But I suppose George Sand was not understanding why he got upset whenever she told about her past life, past lovers , and she took it as it’s all from his jealousy.
She didn’t consider that because of his serious illness, he may not have had as many opportunities for past loves and romances as others more healthy than him.
And this may have sometimes made him irritated.
And although in the book, she talks about how she was so dedicated in tending to his illness, yet at the same time, she doesn’t consider how Chopin’s serious illness might have affected him psychologically and emotionally.
She puts herself as a victim , not the person who is seriously ill, and she writes that she did everything she could but he was cold because of jealousy.
I wonder that this kind of “ a heroine of sad story “ was loved by many people in 19th century ?
One of Franz Liszt’s girlfriends , Marie’ d agoult also published similar kind of “ a heroine sad story” at the same time.
George Sand and Marie D’Agoult both had issues with their boyfriends, Chopin and Liszt, from feelings of lack of love from them.
George Sand described Chopin as that he was jealous of everything. Emotionally cold, because of his jealousy.
But I feel George Sand herself was the one who had that part , cold because of jealousy.
It’s more cleared up after reading " Chopin’s personal letters book " .
In 1847, there are some Chopin’s letters to George Sand, which their conversation sounded fine and peaceful, Sand and Chopin were sending sweets to each other.
And suddenly something went wrong with them and the cause was her daughter Solange and her husband.
Since Sand knew Chopin’s communication with Solange and her husband, she started being against Chopin.
Her jealousy towards her daughter seems to be the biggest reason of their breakup. There is a scene in the movie where, since Sand found out that Solange fell in love with Chopin, she hired a new servant girl who was actually a call girl to seduce Chopin , and tried to make Solange forget about Chopin.
This actually didn’t work at all, it just made Solange’s passion for Chopin even more, and she announced to her mother that she wants to marry Chopin.
Sand said to Solange “ Don’t be crazy, Chopin doesn’t love anyone, only his music “. Solange answered “ No, it’s only you he can’t love ! “
This may be the real truth, and along with Sand’s jealousy of Solange, may be the reasons Sand broke up with Chopin. And Sand became like a slave of her son Maurice, who had a mother complex, spoiled , who wanted to hold her , and she was afraid of losing him.
From reading Chopin’s personal letters book, he was fine with breaking up or leaving from Sand any time if she doesn’t love him anymore ,
but Sand always stopped him by saying “ I can’t live without you.
“ Looks to me Sand took her son Maurice‘s side, and Chopin didn’t care which side or not, just he had sympathy for her daughter, Solange, and wanted treat her right.
Then Sand cut the relationship. Nobody knows the real truth but them.
His student, Jane Stirling rented a beautiful apartment ( although it may have been actually paid for by Jenny Lind ) for Chopin, upon his return to Paris.
And this was the place Chopin spent his last days, surrounded by close friends, famous musicians, painters and artists, and by people who he loved , including Jenny Lind who may have had a relationship with him after he broke up with Sand, also Delfina who he also had a real affection for, and who often came and sang for him, besides his dear sister, Ludwicka, and Solange and her husband Clesinger.
And he left a large amount of incredible music for the world. It doesn’t have to be looked at as a whole big tragedy that some seem to make it out to be.
It looks happy ending to me.