The Masterpieces of George Sand,
Amandine Lucille Aurore Dupin, Baroness
Dudevant, NOW FOR THE FIRST
TIME COMPLETELY TRANSLATED
INTO ENGLISH INDIANA
BY G. BURNHAM IVES
WITH SIX PHOTOGRAVURES AFTER PAINTINGS BY
ORESTE CORTAZZO
IN ONE VOLUME
PRINTED ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS BY
GEORGE BARRIE & SON
PHILADELPHIA
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1832
PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1842
PART FIRST
PART SECOND
PART THIRD
PART FOURTH
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MADAME DELMARE DISCOVERS NOUN'S BODY
MADAME DELMARE DRESSES DE RAMIÈRES WOUNDS
THE BOAR HUNT
SIR RALPH SAVES INDIANA
MADAME DELMARE'S FLIGHT
RALPH AND INDIANA SEEK DEATH TOGETHER
MADAME DELMARE DISCOVERS
NOUN'S BODY
Terror nailed her to the spot; but the streamflowed on, slowly drawing a body from the reedsamong which it had caught, and bringing it towardMadame Delmare.
INTRODUCTION
I wrote Indiana during the autumn of 1831. It was my first novel; Iwrote it without any fixed plan, having no theory of art or philosophyin my mind. I was at the age when one writes with one's instincts, andwhen reflection serves only to confirm our natural tendencies. Somepeople chose to see in the book a deliberate argument against marriage.I was not so ambitious, and I was surprised to the last degree at allthe fine things that the critics found to say concerning my subversivepurposes. Criticism is far too acute; that is what will cause its death.It never passes judgment ingenuously on what has been done ingenuously.It looks for noon at four o'clock, as the old women say, and must causemuch suffering to artists who care more for its decrees than they oughtto do.
Under all régimes and in all times there has been a race of critics,who, in contempt of their own talent, have fancied that it was theirduty to ply the trade of denouncers, of purveyors to the prosecutingattorney's office; extraordinary functions for men of letters to assumewith regard to their confrères! The rigorous measures of governmentagainst the press never satisfy these savage critics. They would havethem directed not only against works but against persons as well, and,if their advice were followed, some of us would be forbidden to writeanything whatsoever.
At the time that I wrote Indiana, the cry of Saint Simonism wasraised on every pretext. Later they shouted all sorts of other things. Evennow certain writers are forbidden to open their mouths, under pain ofseeing the pol