The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the rapid ascendancy of the novel over all other genres. The other marked change was the sudden rise of women novelists. George Sand, like other ‘Georges’ was a woman, the most famous woman novelist of her age. Was her idealism peculiarly feminine?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-novel-idealism-george-sands-francois-le-champi-the-country-waif

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