Valentine
A Romantic Social Novel of Forbidden Love, Arranged Marriage, and Women's Freedom in the French CountrysideBy George Sand
Length11h 7m
About this audiobook
Published in 1832, Valentine is an early and revealing novel of George Sand's engagement with Romanticism, rural society, and the moral contradictions of inherited privilege. Set in the Berry countryside, it follows the love between Valentine de Raimbault, an aristocratic young woman, and Benedict, a cultivated but socially inferior farmer, whose mutual attraction is obstructed by family expectation, property, and the logic of arranged marriage. Sand combines pastoral description with melodramatic tension and penetrating social observation: the landscape is not merely decorative, but a living social world in which class hierarchies shape desire and destiny. The novel's lyrical idealism, emotional intensity, and critique of conventional marriage place it within the evolving tradition of the nineteenth-century social novel, while its sympathetic treatment of female frustration anticipates Sand's later feminist concerns. George Sand, the pen name of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, wrote from a position of unusual intellectual and personal independence. Her aristocratic ancestry, upbringing in the Berry region, experience of an unhappy marriage, and resistance to prescribed gender roles informed her sustained interest in the conflict between individual feeling and social convention. Valentine reflects her determination to grant emotional and ethical seriousness to women's choices while questioning the legitimacy of class distinctions that reduce marriage to an economic arrangement. Its rural setting also draws upon Sand's intimate knowledge of provincial life and her growing belief that natural simplicity might offer an alternative to corrupt urban and aristocratic values. Valentine deserves recommendation to readers interested in French Romantic fiction, women's writing, and the literary history of class and marriage. It offers both the pleasures of a compelling, atmospherically rendered love story and the intellectual rewards of a novel testing whether private virtue can survive public inequality. Readers of nineteenth-century social criticism will especially value Sand's nuanced portrayal of rural communities, gendered constraint, and the costs of social conformity. Though shaped by the conventions of its period, the book remains striking in its insistence that love, dignity, and self-determination should not be governed by birth.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.6 (414)
Includes Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreLiterary Classics, General Fiction
Length11 hrs 7 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateMar 18, 2022
LanguageEnglish
The Devil's PoolGeorge Sand4h 17m3.7 (6.2K)$0.99 · $0.00
MaupratGeorge Sand13h 13m3.9 (1.7K)$0.99 · $0.00
No Angels - Defiant Women of LiteratureGeorge Sand, Eliza Haywood, Honoré de Balzac, William Makepeace Thackeray, John Cleland, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Euripides, Emily Brontë, Lew Tolstoi, William Kirby, Anthony Trollope, D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Alexandre Dumas, Mary Gladys Meredith Webb, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Gustave Flaubert, Alexandre Dumas fils, Maria Edgeworth, George Gissing, Mrs. Olifant342h 16m$0.99
Die Rebellinnen der Literatur - Klassiker, die man kennen mussGeorge Sand, D. H. Lawrence, Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, Sinclair Lewis, Hedwig Dohm, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Daniel Defoe, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, L. M. Montgomery, Victor Hugo, George Eliot, Stefan Zweig, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Leo Tolstoi, Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth von Arnim, Colette, Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, Emile Zola, Theodor Fontane, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Johanna Schopenhauer, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu834h 29m4.6 (21)$2 · $0.00
Herz-Sammelband: George Sand Liebesromane (Kommentiert)George Sand46h 24m$1 · $0.00
Echos des Feminismus in den literarischen Klassikern (Kommentiert)George Sand, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Sinclair Lewis, Hedwig Dohm, Henrik Ibsen, Anne Brontë, Victor Hugo, Daniel Defoe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charlotte Brontë, Wilhelmine von Hillern, Jane Austen, Adalbert Stifter, Lou Andreas-Salomé216h 40m$1 · $0.00
George Sand: Gesammelte Werke (Kommentiert)George Sand116h 41m$1.50 · $0.00
Die Marquise (Kommentiert)George Sand3h 33m4.2 (14)$1 · $0.00
Lavinia - Pauline - Kora (Kommentiert)George Sand7h 49m4.4 (11)$1 · $0.00
Lélia (Annoté)George Sand19h 2m$0.99 · $0.00
George Sand: NovellesGeorge Sand3h 21m3.9 (150)$1 · $0.00
HoraceGeorge Sand12h 56m3.8 (202)$2 · $0.00
La Mare au DiableGeorge Sand3h 54m3.8 (7.9K)$2 · $0.00
Les Maîtres sonneursGeorge Sand15h 21m3.9 (324)$2 · $0.00
TamarisGeorge Sand9h 19m3.1 (39)$1 · $0.00
Autour de la tableGeorge Sand9h 16m$2 · $0.00
Leone LeoniGeorge Sand5h 4m3.7 (182)$2 · $0.00
George Sand: Gesammelte WerkeGeorge Sand116h 47m$1 · $0.00
TeverinoGeorge Sand7h 23m$1 · $0.00
Elle et luiGeorge Sand8h 43m3.5 (938)$1 · $0.00
The Jeeves and Wooster Stories: The Complete Collection (33 Books)P. G. Wodehouse21h 57m4.7 (2.8K)$15 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 9m4.8 (150)$0.99 · $0.00
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
Ivanhoe (Annotated)Walter Scott22h 52m4.8 (88)$2 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m4.6 (159.1K)$15
The Complete Histories / History Plays of William Shakespeare (Annotated)William Shakespeare29h 42m4.6 (2.3K)$0.99 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
Richard Wagamese SelectedRichard Wagamese3h 14m4.6 (594)$15
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Twelfth Night (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography (Annotated)William Shakespeare, Sidney Lee16h 38m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 40m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Pathways to LightPrakash Amte7h 6m4.6 (1.3K)$8
These Vital SignsSayed Tabatabai3h 20m4.7 (215)$18 · $0.00
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft12h 28m4.6 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 54m4.5 (10.6K)$2 · $0.00
Lessons in TruthH. Emilie3h 50m4.6 (1.4K)$4.70 · $0.00
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)Max Margolis, JPS28h 26m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The Poetic EddaJackson Crawford6h 24m4.5 (19.8K)$17
Heart of IronC. M. Alongi15h 24m4.8 (665)$30
Ethic IIAshley Antoinette9h 1m4.7 (8K)$20
RiversnowTess Thompson8h 11m4.7 (1.3K)$20
Supreme ClienteleAshley & JaQuavis8h 58m4.7 (3.4K)$20
Body Refinement in a Beast Tamer’s World, Book 1Seth Ring14h 7m4.7 (1.3K)$27
Desperate MeasuresBrenda Jackson8h 59m4.7 (669)$28 · $0.00
Searching For ThanksgivingS.E. Smith4h 24m4.8 (395)$20
Naughty 4Brenda Hampton7h 30m4.7 (726)$17
The Dance with Me TrilogyShelley Shepard Gray21h 44m4.7 (1.2K)$35
The DopemanJaQuavis Coleman5h 25m4.7 (3.8K)$20
BAEJahquel J.5h 22m4.7 (3.1K)$20
Dark RisingJeffrey Wilson, Brian Andrews13h 47m4.7 (1.3K)$27
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Grand Opening 2Carl Weber9h 16m4.7 (2.4K)$20
Sons of Valor II: Violence of ActionBrian Andrews, Jeffrey Wilson12h 34m4.6 (3.6K)$23
Malevolent MagicMildred Abbott7h 13m4.7 (1.2K)$17
Bikes, Toys, and Hot BoyzGenesis Woods, Shantaé13h 9m4.7 (722)$23
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m4.6 (33.1K)$33 · $0.00
Ghetto BastardK’wan7h 37m4.6 (2.9K)$20
You may also like
ANNA KARENINA (Collector's Edition)Leo Tolstoy79h 54m4.3 (1.1M)$2 · $0.00
CamilleAlexandre Dumas, fils7h 59m4.1 (70K)$17
Tess of the D'urbervillesThomas Hardy17h 4m4.0 (610.2K)$1 · $0.00
Camille (La Dame aux Camilias)Alexandre Dumas8h 31m4.1 (71.7K)$1 · $0.00
Spring Came on ForeverBess Streeter Aldrich9h 28m4.3 (843)$2 · $0.00
Wuthering HeightsEMILY BRONTE12h 40m4.0 (2.5M)$3.50 · $0.00
The Bride of LammermoorWalter Scott14h 3m3.8 (3.3K)$2.30
Madame BovaryGustave Flaubert13h 2m3.9 (437K)$2.30 · $0.00
Wuthering HeightsEmily Brontë7h 41m4.0 (2M)$23
CamilleAlexandre Dumas fils8h 36m4.1 (74.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Coquette, or, The History of Eliza WhartonHannah Webster Foster6h 26m3.8 (3.7K)$2 · $0.00
An Eye for an EyeAnthony Trollope7h 18m3.8 (2.2K)$2.30
The Lady of the CamelliasAlexandre Dumas fils7h 12m4.1 (76.8K)$0.60 · $0.00
Tess of the D’UrbervillesThomas Hardy14h 15m4.0 (347.6K)$23
Half a Lifelong RomanceEileen Chang15h 37m4.2 (3.3K)$23 · $0.00
The Return of the NativeThomas Hardy15h 50m4.0 (55.3K)$1 · $0.00
A Simple Story (Annotated)Elizabeth Inchbald7h 56m3.8 (2.1K)$2 · $0.00
Plain Tales from the HillsRudyard Kipling7h 41m3.9 (3.5K)$2.30
The Bride of LammermoorSir Walter Scott14h 20m3.8 (4.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
JUDE THE OBSCURE (World's Classics Series)Thomas Hardy17h 59m4.0 (93.3K)$2 · $0.00