Sandeau, LÉONARD SYLVAIN JULES

Sandeau, LÉONARD SYLVAIN JULES, French novelist and playwright, was born at Aubusson in Creuse, February 19, 1811, and went at an early age to Paris to study law, but soon gave himself entirely to letters. His short-lived intimacy with George Sand produced one joint-novel, Rose et Blanche (1831), and suggested to the more famous of the pair her literary name. Sandeau's first independent novel was Madame de Sommerville (1834), his first hit Mariana (1839). These were followed by a long series of novels, many of which first appeared in the Revue de Deux Mondes; the best La Maison de Penarvan, Mademoiselle de Kérourac, Mademoiselle de la Seiglière, Le Docteur Herbeau, Cathérine, Madeleine, Jean de Thommery, and among shorter stories, perfect in their kind, La Château de Montsabrey, Le Jour sans Lendemain, and Un Début dans le Magistral. As a dramatist Sandeau collaborated much with Émile Augier, his most celebrated plays being Le Gendre de M. Poirier, La Pierre de Touche, and La Cinture dorée. Sandeau became keeper of the Mazarin Library in 1853, was elected to the Academy in 1858, and appointed librarian at St Cloud in 1859. He died at Paris, 21st April 1883. As a novelist he never attained the popularity of some of his contemporaries, most probably because he steadily refused to make illicit love the staple of his plots. A pleasing style of reflection and an honest interest in the past are characteristic notes; his range of subjects is small and mostly confined to provincial life, but the work is fine, the characters distinct. See Saintsbury's Essays on French Novelists (1891).