556 GEORGE SAND. novelette entitled La Prima Donna, and a complete novel, called Rose et Blanche, which. was published under M. Sandeau's noin de-plume of Jules Sand. It was a book of no importance, and is now omitted from the works of both its authors, but it attracted the notice of a publisher, who requested another volume from the same pen. A new novel written entirely by Madame Dudevant was then lying in her desk, and she at once gave this into his hands. M. Sandeau, unwilling to claim any credit for a work in which he had no share, refused to permit her to use their usual pseudonym. To oblige the publisher, who wished to connect the work with its predecessor, it was decided that only the prefix should be changed, and George, a favorite name among husbandmen, was selected as representative of her native province of Berri. In April, 1832, the book appeared. It was entitled, " Indiana, by George Sand." Its success with the public was so immediate and so great that the author was alarmed. " The success of Indiana has thrown me into dismay," she wrote to an old friend. " Till now, I thought my writing was without consequence and would not merit the slightest attention. Fate has decreed otherwise. The unmerited admiration of which I have become the object must be justified." Many, even of those who praised her most, predicted that she would never equal this first venture ; but Valen- tine, which appeared a few months later, convinced them of their error. Both these books are stories of unhappy marriage. Indiana is a romantic, high-spirited girl, bound for life to a dull, imperious, but not bad-hearted man much older than herself. The other chief characters are a graceful, heartless scoundrel who makes love to her, and a cousin, a sort of guardian angel, who, after long loving her in silence, at last succeeds in rescuing her from her miserable situation. Valentine, like Indiana,
