Did you know that George Sand originally wanted to become a nun?
George Sand
As a child, she was sent to an English convent for her education, and she was a very dedicated student. In fact, the other girls called her “Sainte Aurore” (her real name is Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant). When her grandmother found out that her granddaughter wanted to devote her life to religion, she immediately removed her from the convent and brought her home.
Other fun facts about the author:
George Sand’s father was related to a line of kings and to the Maréchal de Saxe. Her mother was the daughter of a professional bird fancier.
She wrote for Le Figaro under the pseudonym Jules Sand.
She often dressed as a man, learned to shoot and smoked cigars.
The author was unhappily married to Casimir Dudevant and had lovers, including Prosper Mérimée (writer), Alfred de Musset (poet) and Frédéric Chopin (composer).
She wrote every night from midnight until dawn and set a daily quota of 20 pages. She ended up writing more than 90 novels, 35 plays and an autobiography.
George Sand called for a reform of the Civil Code and was for the equality of men and women.
Cécile Sune was born in Lyon, France, and her obsession with books started when she was 14. Her grandparents had lent her Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and she spent part of the summer indoors reading. Needless to say, her tan didn't really improve that year! It was also around that time that Cécile fell in love with the English language. Several years later, in 1999, Cécile moved to Toronto, Canada, with her cat and 5 suitcases. Her love of reading greatly increased when she discovered that English books were much cheaper than French novels. In 2013, she decided to start a blog to share her passion. Cécile now lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and their daughter, and works as a freelance translator (CS Revision).
In fact, she is in the Guinness Book of World Records for this amazing achievement, and she authored a total of 723 books in her career. She mostly penned romantic fiction, but she also wrote health books, cookbooks, plays, and biographies. All her work was dictated. Other fun facts about the author: During World War II, she gathered wedding dresses for service brides. In the 1960s, she campaigned for the rights…
In fact, he loved cigars and found smoking very relaxing. Other fun facts about the author: His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. His father died of pneumonia when he was 12, and Mark Twain became an apprentice printer at the Missouri Courier. Later, he wrote for local newspapers. The author also worked as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi river. He got his pen name, Mark Twain, from steamboat slang for 12…
She began using morphine to ease the after-effects of typhoid fever contracted while working as a nurse during the Civil War. The illness was at the time treated with mercury, which caused pain, weakness and hallucinations to the patients. In addition, Louisa May Alcott sometimes suffered from deep depression. In fact, she might even have been bipolar. Other interesting facts about the author: Her parents supported the abolition of slavery…
