Disguise in George Sand's Novels (review)

This study analyses the use of masculine and feminine disguise by female protagonists in five novels from the first half of George Sand's writing career, and argues that disguise is a vehicle through which the metamorphosed heroines construct their identities. Incorporating Sand's theory of continuity and of the ménechme, Chapter 1 provides an outline of the disguise and the double in literature, and explains that disguise in Sand's works reflects continuity and progression in the identity development of the heroines from enslaved individuals to independent women. Chapter 2 examines instances of 'sororal disguise' (p. 61) in Indiana (1832) and Lélia (1833, 1839). Analysing the representations of disguise through the rhetorical technique of chiasmus, this chapter demonstrates the continuity between the heroines and their opposing selves, and emphasizes the significance of disguise as an important transition in the protagonists' progress and their search for identity. Chapter 3 considers the eponymous heroine of Gabriel (1839) as an example of a cross-dressing female androgyne. It is argued that Gabriel's masculine and feminine portrayals are representations of the character's search for identity, and also that Sand employs these disguises to denounce the arbitrariness of gender categorizations and their destructive effects on society. The application of Sand's theory of the absence of sexual difference is somewhat problematic here since it does not acknowledge the ambiguity and fluctuating nature of Sand's attitude. The final chapter analyses cross-dressing in Rose et Blanche (1831) and Consuelo (1842-44), demonstrating that the Sandian female androgyne's main quest is for her artistic identity. It is shown that the experience of androgyny functions as a catalyst for the heroines' development into independent artists. Consuelo is considered both as a rewriting of Rose and as the fullest elaboration of the Sandian female artist. This is the first comprehensive study of disguise in Sand's novels; however, the issues subsequently explored — the construction of female identity, the double, the figure of the androgyne, and the development of the female artist — are well-worn topics in Sandian criticism. The volume departs from previous approaches through the interpretation of disguise as a psychological and spiritual transformation rather than an erotic category, and through the examination of disguise as a means of developing the character's identity rather than as an expression of Sand's personal or authorial androgyny. Nevertheless, it is not entirely clear in what way the culminating finding, namely, that 'the disguise has highlighted the evolution of the Sandian heroine from a Romantic character suffering from le mal du siècle to an assertive protagonist' (p. 229), represents a fundamental reassessment of Sand's work. Although the study intentionally focuses on disguise in Sand's early novels, it might be interesting to pursue the analysis, which employs some original approaches to Sand, by considering the way in which Sand adapts her strategy in the construction of later heroines, such as the titular protagonists of Jeanne (1844) and Nanon (1872), or the significance of disguise in supernatural settings in Mont-Revéche (1853) and Les Dames vertes (1859).